A Rising Thunder

Honor Harrington, Book 13

By: David Weber

Narrated by: Allyson Johnson

Peril and strife strike on a double front for Honor Harrington and company. After a brutal attack on the Manticoran home system, Honor Harrington and the Star Kingdom she serves battle back against a new, technologically powerful, and utterly nefarious enemy. And as if that weren’t task enough, Honor must also face down a centuries-old nemesis in the crumbling, but still mighty, Solarian League.

The war between the People’s Republic of Haven and the Star Kingdom is finally won and peace established, but grave danger looms - for there is a plan well on its way to completion designed to enslave the entire human species. Behind that plan lies the shadowy organization known as the Mesan Alignment.

Task number one for Honor is to defend against another devastating Mesan strike - a strike that may well spell the doom of the Star Kingdom in one fell blow. It is time to shut down and secure the wormhole network that is the source of the Star Kingdom’s wealth and power - but also its greatest vulnerability. Yet this is an act that the Earth-based Solarian League inevitably will take as a declaration of war.

The thunder of battle rolls as the Solarian League directs its massive power against the Star Kingdom. And once again, Honor Harrington is thrust into a desperate battle that she must win if she is to survive to take the fight to the real enemy of galactic freedom: the insidious puppetmasters of war who lurk behind the Mesan Alignment!

©2012 Words of Weber, Inc. (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Honor Harrington Universe Book 22

"THE NEW CHAPTER"

"June 1922 Post Diaspora: Protector Benjamin Mayhew IX makes first interstellar state visit to Manticore to sign Manticore-Haven Peace treaty on behalf of Grayson".

The war is over, and from the ashes of this war the "NEW ALLIANCE" is born.
The alliance of two enemies who now understand that they became enemies not by their own Will. Now they finally understand that for more than Twenty years they were puppets of the third party, party who wanted to destroy them both all along. And now one more Puppet of the same master is used to Finish them. But perhaps this NEW ALLIANCE has some friends it doesn't even know about.

"EW" gets a new meaning.
Previously "EW" Electronic Warfare but now it's time for Economical Warfare!!!

PS
It's been taking a bit longer than expected to complete this book , originally it supposed to be around 1200 pages long, but publisher decided to cut it in two, and publish them separately. This book is around 440 pages long and the next one is 610.


NEXT BOOK IS "SHADOWS OF FREEDOM"
Expected publication march 5th 2013

Almost like a Pre'cis of current events.

The story fit the title. A rising thunder is designed to build up all the causation for the push in the second half of this installment due later this year. The story is actually made up of several short stories interlinked by the main common theme. I liked the quick pace of multiple events happening in succession all over the the galaxy and being interlinked with the "rising" plot. I am salivating for the missile crescendo that will spell the end of Manpower....
As For JOHNSON's narration. Ok one Good compliment and one little criticism. The critical first: Johnson had a tendency to confuse scenes a bit in this one. For example: At the end of a certain Board meeting in old Chicago (towards the end of the book) she cuts away to a conversation between a powerful Male and Female character without a breath, it was a little disorienting. On the bright side, People have been hating on Johnson for her changing of the pronunciation of Manticorian. She used to say Man-Tic -or-n. BUT she has grown as a narrator and now pronounces it Manticorian, which is the correct phoneme structure. The old way was 4 distinct Morphemes while the proper (new say she says it) is only 3. Proper pronunciation is defined "Communicating a words intent using the least morphemic units" SO major kudos to Johnson for this.
THIS IS NOT for the first time Weber reader, it would be like trying to read Lord of the rings and getting irritated because you choose to start in the last half of the third book.
Overall I enjoyed it for its purpose; to build up for the coming storm and it was needed synopsis for the major events enveloping every major and most of the minor star nations in the series.

Hours of meetings, minutes of space battles

Hours of meetings, minutes of one sided space battles, and the wedding of the millennium.

This book is kind of a bridge between the former war with Haven and the new War with the SLS and the secret bad guys.

Every player gets multiple meetings to speculate about what is coming next. There are two or three of the shortest battles in history.

There is a long wedding that is the GREATEST WEDDING OF ALL TIME!!!

I like the series a lot, but this book is about twice as long it needed to be to effect the transition to the New Galaxy Order.

a bit dragged out

story is a bit dragged out in this one. there's just one battle that you know is coming anyway, and everything else is people explaining things to eachother over and over again.

Tsunami story line crests over the characters

The cresting wave of the story looms like a tsunami. The broad weave of all the story lines coming together in a classic beautiful whole. Well worth the read and the listen.

Enjoyed it a lot.

Where is book 14? I'm ready to continue the story. I've listened to this book three times already.

Rising Thunder

More than a bit choppy but all in all a good listen. Definitely worth the time

Slow

This book is well written but the author spends too much time on intrigue and so the story moves very slow.

Cause and Effect Novel

What did you love best about A Rising Thunder?

I'm glad David Weber finally tied all the spinoff series back into the main Honor Harrington series.

What did you like best about this story?

I'm glad Honor and the treecats had important parts in the series again.

Which character – as performed by Allyson Johnson – was your favorite?

Elizabeth, Empress of Manticore

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No, unfortunately it felt like Weber rushed through or abruptly ended many of the events or scenes that could of had a major impact on the readers. If I remember correctly its happened in previous novels of his too. The best example in this novel was the battle in the Manticore system when the Solarian League attempted to force the Manticoren Empire into surrendering. As soon as the battle started, the scene ended and went into the effect the one sided battle had on everyone.

Any additional comments?

Most of this novel is cause and effect. There would be an event (usually a short scene) and then there would be the effect which would be reflected by multiple viewpoints from various characters all over the galaxy. Frankly, I was disappointed once again due to fact there was only one actual space battle but plenty of dialog from many characters all concerning the same subject matter. Despite being on the brink of war, the fact that the tech is one sided and the battles will be just opportunistic ambushes might just led the series away from the military sci-fi genre for good. However, it may not matter since the series is probably almost finished anyway.

Outstanding Story

Keep writing David. This a wonderful story filled with rich and detailed worlds and interesting characters. If you are a fan of suspence, war, love, hope, trechury, subtrifuge and more this series is a must read. When I read the first book I just had to read the rest.