Field of Dishonor (Honor Harrington) [Audiobook] [MP3 CD]

"Field of Dishonour" is the fourth book in a wonderful space opera series set some three thousand years in the future and featuring David Weber's best fictional heroine, "Honor Harrington." In this book the action moves from space battles to a court martial and then to a series of duels.

These books are best read in sequence and I strongly recommend that you start with "On Basilisk Station" which is the first one.

The Honor Harrington stories are replete with parallels to the time of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. In particular, the Royal Manticoran Navy in which the heroine serves is clearly based on the Royal Navy at the time of Nelson.

The technology of space travel and naval warfare in the Honor Harrington stories has been written so as to impose tactical and strategic constraints on space navy officers similar to those which the technology of fighting sail imposed on wet navy officers two hundred years ago. Similarly the galactic situation in the novels contains many similarities to the strategic and political situation in European history in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

This seems to be quite deliberate: many thinly veiled (and amusing) hints in the books indicate that they are to some extent a tribute to C.S. Forester, while the main heroine of the books, Honor Harrington, appears to owe more than just her initials to C.S. Forester's character "Horatio Hornblower."

In the previous book, "The Short Victorious War", Honor's home nation of Manticore, and allied planets like Grayson, were attacked by the People's Republic of Haven or "Peeps" - an agressive superpower which has been gradually conquering the small nations on its borders in bitesize chunks.

Following a coup in the People's Republic after their first round of attacks were not successful, Haven is now run by a "Committee of Public Safety" headed by one Rob S. Pierre, but the new Peep government is just as committed to the war as the old one was.

Weber clearly means the reader to understand that Haven represents Revolutionary France, and that Manticore and her allies face a war to the death against Haven, which may go on for a long time.

At the start of book four Lord Pavel Young, who tried to rape Honor Harrington when they were both cadets at the naval academy, left her unsupported "On Basilisk Station" in book one, and left her ships unguarded by running away in battle in book three, is finally facing the court martial which he richly deserves. Meanwhile Captain Honor Harrington has brought her ship, the battlecruiser HMS Nike, home for repairs, and is enjoying an all-too brief period of happiness with her lover, Captain Paul Tankersley.

Young and his powerful family are willing to pull every political trick in the book to try to get him off and discredit Honor, who they regards as being to blame for his disgrace. They will stop at nothing, including killing, to gain revenge. They realise too late that their attacks on Honor and on people she loves have been the worst possible thing they could have done: they've made her angry.

Many people read Weber for the space battles. They may want to give this book a miss - it's the only Honorverse book which doesn't have a single space battle. Instead there is a great deal of political manouvering, and various successful and unsuccessful attempts to kill people through duels and assassinations. However, it plays an important part in character and plot development in the series, and some of the scenes are very exciting. In particular, Honor's relationship with the people of Grayson develops in new and unexpected directions.

At the time of writing there are thirteen full length novels and five short story collections in the "Honorverse" as the fictional galaxy in which these stories are set is sometimes known. The main series which tells the story of Honor Harrington herself currently runs to twelve novels; in order these are

On Basilisk Station
The Honor of the Queen
The Short Victorious War
Field of Dishonour
Flag in Exile
Honor among Enemies
In Enemy Hands
Echoes of Honor
Ashes of Victory
War of Honor
At All Costs
Mission of Honor

The five collections of short stories set in the same universe, not all of which feature Honor Harrington herself, are

More Than Honor
Worlds of Honor
Worlds of Honor III: Changer of Worlds
Worlds of Honor IV: The Service of the Sword
Worlds Of Honor V: In Fire Forged

There are four spin-off novels in two groups of two. "Crown of Slaves" (co-written with Eric Flint) and the sequel "Torch of Freedom" are stories of espionage and intrigue featuring a number of characters first introduced in earlier Honor Harrington novels or "Honorverse" short story collections.

"The Shadow of Saganami" is a kind of "next generation" novel featuring a number of younger officers in the navies of Manticore and her ally Grayson, set in an area called the Talbott Quadrant, and the sequel "Storm from the Shadows" describes the further events in that part of the galaxy.

For amusement, if you want to try to look for the parallels to nations and individuals from the French revolutionary period and the Hornblower books in the first thirteen or so Honorverse novels, one possible translation would be:

People's Republic of Haven = France
Star Kingdom of Manticore = Great Britain
Gryphon = Scotland
Grayson = Portugal

Prime Minister Alan Summervale = Pitt the Younger
Hamish Alexander, Earl White Haven = Admiral Edward Pellew
Honor Harrington = Horatio Hornblower
Alistair McKeon = William Bush

Crown loyalists and Centrists = Tory supporters of Pitt
Conservative Association = isolationist/hardline High Tories
New Kiev Liberals = Whig Oligarchists
Progressives and traditional liberals = Whig radicals

Legislaturist rulers of Haven = Bourbon monarchy and nobles in France
Rob S. Pierre = Robespierre
Committee of Public Safety = Committee of Public Safety
Reign of Terror in Haven = Reign of Terror in France

Anderman Empire = Kingdom of Prussia
Silesia = Poland
Solarian republic = United States of America

Colonel of Marines = Colonel of Marines (A nominal office awarded as a mark of royal favour to Horatio Hornblower in "Flying Colours" and to Honor Harrington at the start of "Field of Dishonour.")

Wall of Battle = Line of Battle
Ship of the Wall = Ship of the Line
Battleship = "4th rate" sailing warship (in each case too small to form part of the main force in a fleet action, but powerful enough to defeat anything else smaller than a ship of the line/wall.)
Battlecruiser = frigate (5th rate)
Cruisers and destroyers = 6th rate and smaller warships

Following straight on from the previous book in the series (A Short Victorious War), the story follows Lord Pavel Young's trial for cowardice and its consequences. When the Court Martial reaches a political verdict that spares him from execution while dishonourably discharging him from the service, he determines to get revenge on the woman who (in his view) was responsible for his dishonour.

This is the weakest of the 5 Honor books I've read so far, for several reasons:

1 There's no naval action, it all takes place planetside. 2 The Havenites aren't in it. 3 The book doesn't stand on it's own - more than any of the others it's a sequel to the previous book. 4 Given the title, it's pretty obvious what's going to happen at the end (at least once Lord Pavel's trial is over).

That said, it did at least keep me reading it until I'd finished it, even though that meant losing sleep, but I do that a lot. Entertaining, but not up to the standard of the others in the series.

David Weber's books just keep getting better and better! Here's the fourth book of the series, and Honor Harrington must fight on a different battlefield.

Honor returns from Hancock Station (The Short Victorious War), transporting Captain Lord Pavel Young, who stands accused of cowardice in the face of the enemy. If found guilty, the sentence is death. However, through surprising twists and turns, someone else dies first.

Honor takes a sabbatical for a while, as her command, HMS Nike, is in the slips for major overhaul and refitting following the pounding she received at the hands of the Peeps. She returns to Grayson to take up her duties as Steadholder. When her former executive officer stops by, she receives news that causes her to hot-foot it back to Manticore. What happens next is the tale of her courageous fight for justice in the face of political intrigue and compromise, and how that same compromise winds up treating her even more unfairly than any enemy action.

Read it. Honor's legend keeps growing, and it is well justified. What keeps me reading, more than anything else, is that she continues to be a very real and sometimes vulnerable person, despite a record of achievement that is reaching mythic proportions. Did I say read it? No, absorb it, dwell in it. In an earlier review I said that, speaking as a sailor myself, Honor is the kind of CO I want to work for. I'll go farther - Honor's the kind of CO I'd kill for and die for. 'Nuff said.