Honor Among Enemies (Honorverse) (Mass Market Paperback)

Needless to day, the great commerical houses and trading cartels of the Star Kingdom of Manticore are not best pleased with this situation. Unfortunately, the People's Republic of Haven is pressing heavily against the Royal Manticoran Navy, and there are no more ships to spare for escort duty. So Honor Harrington is recalled to active duty, and handed a 'squadron'. Her mission: take a bite out of the pirates affecting the trade routes into the Silesian Confederacy. No problem for a seasoned combat commander, right?

Wrong. Here's the problems: 1) the RMN can't spare regular warships, so it's taken some large freighters and fitted them out with weapons and military-grade sensors. Unfortunately, they don't have military spec acceleration or shielding, and won't stand up to much of a pounding. 2) Personnel shortages means Honor gets stuck with new, inexperienced personnel and the dregs of the fleet. 3) The pirates are getting organized...

One of the nice things about this novel is that we get to see something of a couple of 'lower-deckers' (like me), and how they deal with the threats, both from pirates and from some of the scumbags aboard their own ship.

For the record, this was the first Honor Harrington novel I'd read, and I was sufficiently impressed that I went and bought the other five (at the time) books in one fell swoop. For my money, David Weber is right up there with Heinlein, Sturgeon and Drake.

Of course, Honor finds that convoy escort is far from dull as pirate activity is increasing at an alarming rate - not helped by the fact that the Peeps have sent a few of their own ships to make matters worse. And her own crew doesn't exactly help - due to shortages of personnel and the relative unimportance of the area, Honor has to make do with the dregs of the navy.

The title reveals an important theme in the book - just who is an enemy? While Klaus Hauptman (and Reginald Houseman) are responsible for getting her back into RMN uniform, they definitely aren't doing it for Honor's benefit. The Peeps, who really should be Honor's enemy end up helping her (though their "rescue" of Honor's "Helpless merchant ship" doesn't quite go as they planned). Some of her own crew are plotting against her and go as far as plotting murder of some of her officers. Even the Andermanians, while helpful, are presented as a possible future threat. This book also extends Weber's universe beyond that which directly impinges on the conflict between Manticore and Haven. As well as the parallels with 19th Century Britain and France, we now get the Silesian Confederacy (pre-Unification Germany) and the Andermanian Empire (it's would-be Prussian dominator).

Of course, Honor manages to overcome all her enemies and manages to cover herself in glory (again). She even, for once, manages to end the book with fewer enemies than she begins it with. A really action packed book that leaves you wanting more!