Service Of The Sword: 4 (Worlds of Honor) [Mass Market Paperback]

In this most recent collection of stories taking place in the Honor Harrington universe, we have the best thus far. Each of the stories is a solid work that makes the price of the collection worthwhile on its own. Some are serious and some are wickedly funny.

Promised Land - This first story is by Jane Lindskold and would be worthy as a short story on its own merits even if the rest of the HH series had never been written. It tells the story of a young woman kidnapped from Grayson as a child by a Masadan privateer. That privateer takes her for a wife/slave. She has one secret weapon working in her favor. She can read. She joins with some other women to escape the horrors of Masada by stealing her husband's ship. Prince Michael from Manticore plays a supporting role in the story evocative of the biblical Exodus.

With One Stone - The second story is the work of Timothy Zahn. It describes an early incident in Honor Harrington's career, taking place right after the events of ON BASILISK STATION. The central character is actually Rafe Cardones but Honor is present through and through. It seems that someone has come up with the impossible: a way to take down the impeller wedge of a ship from an absurd distance. A disinformation scheme is trying to lay the blame at the feet of the Andermani Empire for the resulting loss of merchant shipping. It turns out, though, that the system has a few fatal flaws and that the real enemy is much more traditional. This too is an excellent story and could stand well on its own.

A Ship Named Francis - This one is an exceedingly short collaboration between John Ringo and Victor Mitchell. It is likely to raise the eyebrows of anyone who has ever been caught working with those who are less than competent. Being crazy helps as well. It is a story of the Grayson Space Navy. When an organization has a person who is a dedicated screwup, the two most common options are to file all the paperwork and go through channels to get rid of that person or to put that person with others of similar ability in a single place where they may more easily be kept under watch. Of course, everyone hates paperwork and since Grayson has so vastly expanded its fleet, they have more than their share of idiots to stash. The get stashed on the Francis along with a poor Mantie who volunteered because it looked like a way to fast promotion. This piece is hilarious and provides a bit of comic relief.

Let's Go to Prague - What happens when two extremely capable cloak and dagger types get bored on a backwater planet with nothing to do? They go one leave. They just go about it a bit differently than most people would. Instead of heading for some nice resort in the home country, they decide to take their vacation on Prague, an enemy held planet. They heard that the beer was really good there. The vacation starts off well enough until one of them runs into an old flame. Shortly after that, they get caught up in the botched defection of a Peep admiral and have to get their own butts and that of the Admiral's back to friendly space. Its an incredibly funny romp. John Ringo shows off his wicked sense of humor by himself in this one.

The Fanatic - Eric Flint penned this one. It is something of a sequel to a short published in the previous collection. In the final days of the People's Republic of Haven, a bright young fanatic is sent out to shake things up for state security. This is the same young true believer who helped to quash the kidnapping of a Manticorian's daughter in the last book. In that story, his eyes were opened to the real abuses of his government. Even so, he has impressed the higher ups and they give him a new job. He does it faithfully because he is a fanatic. He is a fanatic for truth, justice and his oath to the republic. He has to maintain his reputation as a fanatic to do his job and everyone is surprised by what he really considers his job to be.

The Service of the Sword - This final story is from Weber himself. It tells the story of the midshipman cruise of the first Grayson woman to come through the academy. During a period of downsizing and high level contempt for all things from Grayson, she finds herself assigned to a cruiser going out in search of a missing allied cruiser. Her ship is commanded by a member of the aristocracy that has been so hostile to Grayson. She is beset on all sides and fails to realize that she has some unlikely allies.

The Service of the Sword is the fourth collection of short stories from David Weber's Honorverse, the universe in which his series of Honor Harrington novels are set. TSOTS contains stories from Weber, Eric Flint, John Ringo, Jane Linskold, and Timothy Zahn. This volume opens with Linskold's Promised Land, about a young Grayson woman who is kidnapped by a Masadan privateer who keeps her as an enslaved wife. She joins forces with several other women and begins planning their escape from Masada. Zahn follows with With One Stone, which picks up after the end of the first HH novel On Basilisk Station, with Captain Honor Harrington in command of the heavy battle cruiser HMS Fearless. Although Honor is present in this story, the real central character here is Senior Grade Lieutenant Rafael "Rafe" Cardones, Honor's tac officer. Next is A Ship Named Francis by John Ringo and Victor Mitchell, a tongue-in-cheek look at incompetent officers who are total screw-ups. Very nice. Ringo's Let's Go to Prague, about two Manticoran covert ops agents on the Peep world of Prague disguised as Havenite StateSec officers. The two agents get bored and decide to go on leave. Next is Eric Flint's The Fanatic about a Havenite agent during the last days of the PRH. Weber himself closes out this volume with The Service of the Sword about Abigail Hearns, the first Midshipwoman in the Grayson Space Navy on her middie cruise. Abigail is the daughter of a Grayson steadholder. During her teenage years, she observed Honor Harrington's defense of Grayson, and now she is determined to follow in Honor's footsteps. All of the stories in this volume are good, with Let's Go to Prague and With One Stone being my overall favorites. The Service of the Sword is one of the best volumes of the Worlds of Honor series, and I look forward to more stories from Weber's Honorverse.

Detra Finch did a good job summarizing the stories in this anthology, so I'll stick to just telling you that this is a marvelous set of stories set in the Honorverse; we see many of our old friends, such as Rafe Cardones, Abigail Hearnes, Kevin and Virginia Usher (albeit briefly) and Victor Cachat. Each of the writers has lovingly created a small story that complements the overall series in a special way; I think my favorites were the two VERY humorous pieces by John Ringo ("A Ship named Frances" and "Let's go to Prague" - about a ship crewed by misfits and screw-ups and a badly botched vacation attempt by two spies, respectively), although they were all very good stories and I enjoyed them immensely. If you are a fan of Honor Harrison, you'll LOVE these stories. If you haven't discovered the Honorverse yet - WHAT ARE YOU DOING??? Run to the store and pick up every book ever written about it! You won't regret it; terrific military sci-fi/space opera!