War of Honor

By: David Weber

Narrated by: Barbara Rosenblat

No one wanted another war.

Thomas Theisman didn't. After risking his life and a fresh round of civil war to overthrow the Committee of Public Safety's reign of terror and restore the Republic of Haven's ancient Constitution, an interstellar war was the last thing he wanted.

Baron High Ridge didn't. The Prime Minister of Manticore was perfectly happy with the war he had. No one was shooting anyone else at the moment, and as long as he could spin out negotiations on the formal treaty of peace, his government could continue to milk all those "hostilities only" tax measures for their own partisan projects.

His Imperial Majesty Gustav didn't. Now that the fighting between the Star Kingdom and the Havenites had ended, the Andermani Emperor had his own plans for Silesia, and he was confident he could achieve them without a war of his own.

Protector Benjamin didn't. His people had made too deep a commitment to the Manticoran Alliance, in blood as well as treasure, for him to want to risk seeing it all thrown away.

And Honor Harrington certainly didn't. The "Salamander" had seen the inside of too many furnaces already, knew too much about how much war cost.

Unfortunately, what they wanted didn't matter....

©2002 David Weber (P)2002 Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Storytelling Done Right

It was a complete joy to listen to this rendition of the story. The reader has a wonderful way of creating unique voices for the many characters and even nationality types represented in the series. I will not be able to read another Honor Harrington book (or re-read, for that matter) without causing the narration to change to the style in this recording.

As for the story, I must agree that I enjoy a little more action in the Navy vs. all of the political. Mainly because many of the political antagonists gave me the willies with their amoral decisions. :)

However, I will certainly listen to this again in the future. Well worth my time and $

Disappointment

I didn't pay close enough attention, so I didn't realize it was abridged. I read the book when it came out. The abridgement leaves out too much (although it does also leave out a lot of Honor's angst, which can get tedious).
/K

Disappointed in narrator, not the best story of the series.

I didn’t initially spot that this was a compressed version. The story was probably good but because I’ve been listening to the compressed version.
The narrator left behind the conviction that she had not listened to earlier stories so her pronunciation of many words was significantly different.

Not what I expected, Heavily abridged audiobook

I did not catch that this was a heavily abridged audiobook. I did not like Barbara Rosenblat's performance. Maddening mispronunciation of French names. Wasted my time since it was an abridged version. There is a non-abridged version of this book.

Disappointed

I had several problems with this book. I would never have bought it if I had noticed that it was abridged. I found the actual voice of the Narrator distracting. Her cadence was too fast. The Narrator's pronouncation of character names was way off from the previous books in this series. If I wasn't addicted to the series I wouldn't have listened to the end.

Abridged Version - Different Narrator!

Not only is the text abridged (cutting significant plot points from the overall narrative), but they used a new narrator. Overall, the story suffers from the omissions. Moreover, they did not use the outstanding talents of Allyson Johnson. Rosenblatt really tries, but her pronunciations are off, and her ability to change voices and replicate accents is poor. There is a full-length version on Audible for the same price. Don't pick up this version - you will really regret it!

Extensively Abridged

This is a great series and David Weber is a very good author with rich detail and great story telling. Unfortunately, this abridged version is so cut up it is not worth the time. At the end, at least they admit it has been "extensively abridged".

Wait for Audible to come out with an unabridged version or get the book. I now have to get the book to fill in the holes I know are there.

Abridged such that "abridged" is a 4-letter word

What would have made War of Honor better?

I would have ejoyed the audio book more if it covered more than the first 70% of the actual book. The story never got to the actual "War of Honor" that the title alludes to, or the summaries that tie up the loose end. I love David Weber's original book (and have multiple copies, hardback, paperback, ebook, and now a mutilated audiobook). I will have to watch out for that dreaded word "abridged" when selecting aubio books in the future. I was looking forward to listening to the tale while driving to work -- I was VERY disappointed in the shorter presentation -- it missed alot of the key personal interaction. I did like the narrator and will look for more of her work and any FULL David Weber offerings in the future.

What was most disappointing about David Weber’s story?

The fact that the last 30% of the book was not coverd in the abridged version. A lot of the story line had even been dropped from the first 70%, when I went back and compared. Definitely a reason to only select WhisperSync audio books in the future.

Which scene was your favorite?

That is the point, my favorite scenes were at the end of the book (and thus missing from the abridged version) where Honor and Emily are talking about the treecats insight into "mind-blind" human society. While David Weber's work is action packed, it is also about intricate people, and you just don't get that same result with the short 5 1/2 hour audio presentation.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

I love David Weber's original book. So I was looking forward to listening to the tale while driving to work -- I was VERY disappointed in the shorter presentation. I did like the narrator and will look for more of her work and any FULL David Weber offerings in the future.

Any additional comments?

I'd REALLY like to see more David Weber titles as audio books, but they need to be the full text, NOT abridged.

Review of War of Honor

This story moves way to slowly. There is too much discussion and too little action. I rarely listen to a book half-way through and this is the first Audible purchase (of over 100) that I dumped at that very point. If you like a lot of conversation between extremely anal retentive love smitten characters, this is the book for you. If you prefer action and crips dialogue, you'll be bored to tears listening to this title.

Et tu Brute

I have read this book two times so far. I can do without the historical references the author inserts. He, is an educator. I can do without the references to previous books.
This is supposed to be an action book. Unfortunately, most of the action is missing except at the end. The personal interaction sections tend to follow the form of; Here is an important interaction. The following characters were present. A few things happened. It was over and everyone went on. Duh! No sparkeling repartee. No real character development. Most of the battles followed similar scripts. One of the battles starts here with everyone the author included. Here is why and how the battle ended. The story goes on. Huge chunks are missing that aren't the authors maunderings, preachings, and teachings (all the tedious parts of the book are M's P's & T's). Explanations that could have been condensed to a paragraph and included, were not. Power savy, invalided admirals wife, calls press conference, and demolishes libelous slander from ruling party. She uses her popularity and thespian skills in a sort of "I came to bury the rumor" speech. Missing!
At $24 this abridged version is a looser.