We move into the third book in the Star Kingdom series: Treecat Wars, by David Weber and Jane Lindskold. Published by Baen, this 376-page gem first hit the street in September 2013. With the brutal fire season over, Stephanie and her friend Anders are heading off to Manticore after being selected to attend Forestry Service ranger school. Stephanie’s story, along with her three friends Anders, Jessica and Karl, is one of two central storylines. The second (and arguably the primary) follows the troubles that fall upon a handful of treecat clans revolving around the displacement of one clan after their lands were destroyed by the fires we read about in the previous book in this set.

Very real and difficult friction emerges between several of these clans as the treecats who were displaced by the fires now struggle to find a new territory that will support them through the upcoming winter. That friction culminates in a literal war between clans. This is remarkable in that prior to this novel the treecats have appeared to us (and to the characters from Stephanie’s time in the Honorverse) as a very homogenous and peaceful people. While they are when compared to humans, this is our first look into the politics of the interaction of treecat clans, specifically when those clans face challenges tied to survival. We even get to see some stark differences in treecat personalities and how those personalities impact clan conduct. In the podcast we even get to discuss the DIME model as we see how it applies to the treecats.

Related, we see some (much less deadly) strife appear among our set of four human friends. While not a surprise, with Stephanie spending several months away from her boyfriend Anders and in training with Karl, her relationship begins to morph as their affection for each other appears to bloom beyond just friendship. Meanwhile, Anders and Jessica are working closely together with the Forest Service to do what they can to address the consequences of the treecat war. That proximity and shared mission results in their friendship also blooming into a much deeper relationship. All this creates the potential for real conflict between these four friends when they’re reunited after ranger training ends on Manticore. There’s even more going on as well, but we’ll leave that for you to enjoy through the book itself.

We rated “Treecat Wars” with a 4, another 4 and a 5 (out of 5), for an overall rating of 4.3 from your hosts.

As always, thank you for listening and big thanks to those of you who also take the time to like and follow us on social media, to comment on our posts or even reach out through a longer note. At the end of this show we truly enjoyed reading many of the comments and questions we’ve recently received. Please keep them coming!

Next time on the Honorverse Today podcast, we’re turning our attention to “Shadow of Freedom” by David Weber. This book is the third novel in the Saganami Island sequence. We hope you grab it, read it, and find a friend to join us on the continuing adventure through the Honorverse!

You can find us, and all our episodes at http://honorverse.net, and email us at honorverse@tpenetwork.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

Now, let’s be about it!

Beginnings is the sixth (and second to last) book in the Worlds of Honor anthology set. It contains five short stories, penned by four talented authors: David Weber, Charles E. Gannon, Timothy Zahn, and Joelle Presby. Each of these stories brings us to interesting and important beginnings for many events that we’ve become familiar with in the Honorverse but have often gone with little or no explanation.

This collection of writings comes in at 377 pages and was first published by Baen in June 2013.

Charles E. Gannon brings the first story to us: By the Book.

In this story we join the crew of Earth Union Customs Patrol ship Venerated Gaia commanded by Lieutenant Lee Strong in 250 PD. Their mission: board and recover a hijacked ship named Fragrant Blossom, a ship they’ve located and seized near the Sol System asteroid belt. Once the ship is captured and under their control, a series of non-standard events results in Lieutenant Strong coming into contact with an administrator working for the Outbound Operations Administration, a somewhat quiet and shadowy man named Perlenmann. Mr. Perlenmann seems to have been effectively benched professionally and is sent to his current post on Jupiter’s moon Callisto, primarily due to what those holding (somewhat authoritarian) political power deemed to be his radical views. It’s from this position of relative obscurity we learn that Mr. Perlenmann is an influential member of an organization plotting to bring the current political elite and their parties to their knees by causing an economic collapse across the Earth Union and Sol system. He recruits Lieutenant Strong to deliver the necessary computer program, causing a catastrophic collapse, which results in the related loss of power of the controlling political parties and the disintegration of the Earth Union. With the passage of time, the collapse is eventually referred to as the Economic Winter of 252 PD. When the economy recovered as a much freer and open economic system, it spawned powerful growth that enabled the remarkable beginning of the movement of humanity out of the Sol system and into the stars.

Your hosts gave this story two ‘thumbs-up” and one “neutral” vote.

Next we discussed Timothy Zahn’s short story A Call to Arms.

We move forward in time now, over a thousand years, to 1543 PD. Following the recovery from the Economic Winter of 252 and the subsequent expansion, we see a Solarian Axelrod Corporation plan unfolding to attack the Manticore System through the use of mercenaries. At the same time, we join a young Lieutenant Travis Long onboard the HMS Phoenix. When he writes up a subordinate for substandard performance, he finds himself the one who’s in trouble and he’s transferred to a different ship, the HMS Casey. It turns out the poor performer is from a politically and militarily powerful family. What appears to be bad news for Lieutenant Long turns into a blessing as the mercenaries arrive in the Manticoran system. Now confronting the enemy, his strength as a tactician shines as he’s key in defeating the threat. The “misstep” while onboard the Phoenix quickly and quietly moves to the background as his new captain nominates him for the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal. He also learns a powerful lesson from Captain Heissman about being aware of and getting used to the existence of internal politics within the RMN.

Of note, this story is the beginning of more time we’ll spend with Lieutenant Travis Long. Our introduction to him here sets up seeing a lot more of him in the “Manticore Ascendant” series of novels, by the dynamic writing duo of David Weber and Timothy Zahn.

This one received “thumbs-ups” from each of your hosts, with a bonus “two thumbs up” from Raul.

Beauty and the Beast is the third...

“A Rising Thunder” basically picks up where “Mission of Honor” left off, with events that begin in April 1922 PD and span about five months. We’re back in the main sequence, and it seems hard to believe that this novel is the second to the last of the core novels! But we’re not close to being done with the Honorverse content, with lots of material from the related series and anthologies still to cover. And don’t forget the newest Honor Harrington novel “Toll of Honor” is out there to be enjoyed now. Technically it’s a stand-alone novel, but that doesn’t mean it’s not an integral part of the Honorverse. When published, “A Rising Thunder” hit the streets at 458 pages in March 2012.

Even though we’ve reviewed and discussed three other books since “Mission of Honor”, when we picked this one up, it was as if we had just finished “Mission” the day prior. It took no effort to fall right back into the events that we left off with in the previous main sequence novel. As a reminder for those who may be new to this journey, we’re reading all the Honorverse writings in their order of publication, knowing that the books and stories that are outside of the main sequence are truly not just side stories. In fact, they constitute a significant building out of the main storyline and should be read as such. If the Honorverse was a river, these other writings represent the places where the river widens. They are not separate but related stories.

As we jump into “A Rising Thunder”, the war between Haven and Manticore is truly over and we see these two former enemies form a significant military alliance in order to face a new and shared threat together. More accurately we should we say threats since the wolf closest to the sled appears to be the Solarian League, but the very real and greater danger is the Mesan Alignment. In this story, Honor and the alliance do what they can to minimize or eliminate their vulnerability to another strike by the Alignment while specifically addressing the Solarians as the League violently maneuvers to take advantage of what they believe to have been a be significant and terminal blow to the military and economic health of Manticore and Haven. Both nations are truly damaged. It takes reading this novel to find out just how significant that damage is, and just how effectively they’re able to counter the Solarian threat. To bring us back to the beginning of this summary and to leave you with a taste of the unknown, don’t forget we’re just one novel away from completing the main sequence. We’ll leave it to you to read along with us to find out just how David Weber might be wrapping this part of the story up.

All three of your hosts rated “A Rising Thunder” with a 5 (out of 5), resulting in an overall rating of another perfect 5.

We continue to appreciate the support everyone who takes the time to join us in this voyage through the Honorverse—new listeners as well as the folks who have been with us early on. Special thanks for those of you who like and/or comment on our posts, and even reach out and send us a note. We truly can’t say how much the feedback means to us.

Next time we’re going to discuss the sixth anthology in the Worlds of Honor collection, entitled “Beginnings”. It contains five short stories authored by David Weber and three others. No doubt this collection is going to be a good read and time well spent.

As always, please grab your copy, invite a friend, and join us again next time!

You can find us, and all our episodes at http://honorverse.net, and email us at honorverse@tpenetwork.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

Now, let’s be about

We are jumping right into the second book in the Star Kingdom series, this one titled Fire Season. This one’s a joint venture between David Weber and the now-familiar Jane Lindskold. Published by Baen, it came out at a comfortable 287 pages in October 2012. In the previous Star Kingdom novel, we met an 11-year-old Stephanie Harrington in part 1, then moved forward in Stephanie’s life, approximately 16 months in Part 2. Here in Fire Season, Stephanie is now 14, turning 15 years old.

While this is another “treecat novel” and the treecats are featured characters, the story really focuses on Stephanie, her schoolmates, her parents, and several other adults central to her life, and a team of scientists who arrive on Sphinx with a more official charter to study the treecats. We learn a lot more about Stephanie and the changes she’s going through as she’s maturing from a child into a young adult. Given she’s growing up on a frontier world, it’s exciting to see just how much she and some of her friends are trusted with and expected to do as they become contributors to the society around them. Or perhaps “societies” would be more accurate since the events of the novel certainly include the treecats. The combination of the impact of fire season along with the visiting scientists leads to an action-packed, dramatic story that adds some beautiful depth to several characters, as well as richness, history and complexity to the Honorverse.

One thing we reinforce in the podcast is that while this series is written for young adults, there are no punches pulled in terms of the story. If you tend to shy away from “YA” novels, do yourself a favor and be sure to read all of them in the Star Kingdom series. As you know from our second interview with David Weber, he doesn’t avoid complex, heavy or dark issues that need to be a part of the broader story just because some of his books are written for our young adult Honorverse family members. These novels were written for the rest of the more “seasoned” adults out there, too. We’re confident you won’t be disappointed.

We rated Fire Season with a 5, a 4.5 and a 5 (out of 5), for an overall rating of 4.83 from your hosts.

As always, thank you for listening and big thanks to those of you who also take the time to like and follow us on social media, to comment on our posts even reach out through a longer note.

Next time on the Honorverse Today podcast, we’re back into the main storyline, jumping into the novel A Rising Thunder. As always, be sure to grab your copy, invite a friend, and join us!

And yes, the blooper reel this time is from a previous show. We'll let you figure out which one!

You can find us, and all our episodes at http://honorverse.net, and email us at honorverse@tpenetwork.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

Now, let’s be about it!

Well, we’re finally breaking into the Star Kingdom series, starting with the novel entitled A Beautiful Friendship. While they’re closely related to each other, don’t confuse this novel with the short story by the same name contained in the first anthology we discussed a while back (More Than Honor). The short story and this novel were both written by David Weber, with this novel first published in October 2011 by Baen.

The first third (or so) of the novel reprises the original 1998 short story. For those who read “More Than Honor”, this is a quick and very good refresh of the events of Stephanie Harrington and Climbs Quickly’s first meeting, and their subsequent “adoption” of each other—the first human-treecat pairing. For those who didn’t read the anthology, including the story here is an act of kindness on David Weber’s part, ensuring all readers have the necessary backstory to understand what happens after the news of the discovery of another sentient species spreads throughout the Star Kingdom of Manticore. We watch Stephanie and Scott MacDallan (the only other human a treecat has adopted at the time) struggle with how to deal with local attitudes, questions, and curiosities. I think it’s safe to say that Stephanie and Scott’s protectiveness not only comes from both being genuinely caring people, but also the influenced of their new relationships with their treecats. This isn’t the caring or bond that a loving pet owner has with an animal. What we see, and along with the characters don’t fully understand, is this relationship between the human people and the treecat people is unique and deep. As a result, they struggle to manage just how much they share about what they know about treecats with the significant influx of scientists visiting Sphynx. Others come too, some with bad intent—and so the story unfolds. As with the original short story, we get to see both sides of the human-treecat relationship as both societies / cultures struggle with how to move the relationship forward. This dynamic would be interesting in general since we’re talking about two sentient species, but it’s made more complicated by the fact that two pairings have occurred. Like the other story arcs captured within various series, the Star Kingdom storyline informs us about human-treecat relationship and how it sits as a unique and central part of the Honorverse.

We rated A Beautiful Friendship with a 5, a 4 and a 5 (out of 5), for an overall rating of a 4.7.

As always, thank you for listening and big thanks to those of you who also take the time to like and follow us on social media, to comment on our posts, or to even reach out through a longer note.

Next time on the Honorverse Today podcast, we’re moving straight into the second book in the Star Kingdom series: Fire Season. As always, be sure to grab your copy, invite a friend, and join us again next time!

You can find us, and all our episodes at http://honorverse.net, and email us at honorverse@tpenetwork.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

Now, let’s be about it!

“In Fire Forged” is the fifth anthology in the Honorverse, containing three short stories and another technical writing. We see the return of two favorite co-authors: Jane Lindskold bringing us the short story “Ruthless” and Timothy Zahn who hits us hard with his short story “An Act of War”. David Weber brings us the third short story entitled “Let’s Dance”, which is really a novella disguised as a short story. Then he brings us home with the technical essay “An Introduction to Modern Starship Armor Design”, brought to us through the character Hegel DiLutorio, a retired officer in the Royal Manticoran Navy.

This 311-page collection was first published by Baen in February 2011.

The first story is Ruthless by Jane Lindskold.

Jane brings us back to the story of Judith, a Masadan refugee rescued by Michael Winton when he was a midshipman. We promised you’d see more of Judith in the future, and here the promise is delivered. Time has passed, Michael is now a young commissioned officer in the RMN, he and Judith are married and have a young daughter named Ruth. There’s a plot afoot by George and Alice Ramsbottom, staunch Manticoran isolationists who object to the alliance Manticore formed with Grayson. In an attempt to disrupt this new alliance, they kidnap Ruth with the intent to return her to her Masadan father. They hope that Grayson will question their decision to enter an alliance with Manticore based on an assumption that if Manticore can’t even protect one child, they’re not a Star Kingdom worth allying with for broader and more significant defense issues. As a bonus, if Michael will act rashly, this may also embarrass the Star Kingdom’s reputation broadly. The events in this story take place in 1889 PD, two to three years after the events captured in Jane Lindskold’s short story “Promised Land”.

Your hosts all gave this one a “thumbs-up”.

Next we discussed Timothy Zahn’s short story An Act of War.

This story takes place around the time as Honor escapes from Hades (approximately 1914 PD). We saw those events in the novel “Ashes of Victory”. When Honor’s escape becomes known, this story gives us a glimpse into an arms dealer named Charles who at the same time was trying to sell cloaking technology to Haven. Events unfold when Oscar St. Just is convinced to install this equipment on a ship and for that ship to be used in an unorthodox manner to hopefully fuel a war between Manticore and the Andermani Empire. This would be a good thing from the Havenite perspective. Risky deeds are attempted and things get pretty tense, pretty fast!

This one received three “thumbs-up” from your hosts as well!

The third story is Let’s Dance, written by David Weber.

As mentioned, this is more of a novella than a short story. It takes us back to Commander Honor Harrington’s first hyper-capable command as she captains the destroyer HMS Hawking (sometime prior to 1900 PD). We see events related to the Manticoran efforts to normalize relationships with Silesia, which have been somewhat tense. She’s conducting anti-piracy operations in Silesian territory, intervenes and captures a vessel conducting piracy and in a good-faith gesture, turns the ship and crew over to the local Silesian system governor.

A short time later she learns two unsavory things. First, the ship and crew she handed to the Silesians has mysteriously disappeared. Honor has no doubt they were released rather than prosecuted. Second, she learns about a significant Mesan (Manpower, Inc.) slave-trading station through an interesting and unproven source. That source quickly builds credibility by revealing a knowledge of Honor’s Beowulfian family and a shared hatred of the slave trade. He quietly discloses he's also a member of the Audubon Ballroom,

Although the timing wasn’t openly discussed, you all knew we had a second interview with David Weber in the works. Well, our calendars finally aligned, and we are excited to drop the second interview with the creator of the Honorverse into the feed.

We covered somewhere between 15 and 20 questions, including quite a few listener questions. Even so, it shouldn’t surprise any of you that we still have a list of questions we couldn’t get to this time. If you’ve sent us questions that weren’t addressed in either interview, don’t give up hope. We didn’t get all of our questions, either. We’ll continue to gather them up with the hope and anticipation that Mr. Weber might give us time for another opportunity to sit and chat with him as we get further along in the Honorverse storyline.

Three important notes:

First, there are some “spoilers” contained in the interview if you have not read through Mission of Honor, and some teasers of things to come (David loves dropping little teasers!). With two of your three hosts making their first pass through the Honorverse, we feel confident that there’s nothing here that’ll ruin the experience for any of you who are in the same boat. However, if you’re particularly sensitive to hearing any spoilers, you’ve been gently warned.

Second, we had the chance to hear more about David himself, specifically how his perspectives as a historian influenced (and continue to influence) his writing. We trust that each of you will find this interesting, and perhaps a little surprising in the best of ways. David shared some of his thoughts with us, at times in depth, tied to long-standing questions and curiosities we’ve had about the Honorverse. Specifically, we discussed how these novels and short stories seem to have very real relevance to today’s world. Sometimes this was not surprising, while at other times it was quite unintended. You’ll also hear some interesting and related political viewpoints.

Get ready to be surprised. Parallels some of us may have drawn to the relationship between the politics and political parties in the Honorverse, and how they track with modern (and domestic, for our U.S. listeners) political parties, may or may not survive contact with David’s thoughts and explanations. Right when you suspect you have him figured out, he shares another perspective that may shatter your assumptions. Some of this culminates with a renewed discussion about his relationship with his co-author Eric Flint, who we have mentioned several times on earlier episodes, including in David’s first interview with us.

Third, you’re going to get to hear a little bit about the new novel Toll of Honor. We interviewed David just before publication, so don’t be surprised if you hear a discussion that suggests we’re talking about a book that hasn’t been published yet. By now it will be out and available for all of us to enjoy. For those who haven’t picked up a copy and read it, don’t worry, there aren’t any real Toll of Honor spoilers in the interview.

Mr. Weber, we owe you Honorverse-sized thanks once again for the truly generous amount of time you gave us, your fans, to sit and chat about the Honorverse!

On the next episode we’ll discuss the anthology In Fire Forged, as previously promised. We’re confident getting to hear from David himself was more than a reasonable excuse to delay our discussion of the next book.

As always, genuine thanks to each of you for listening, and especially folks who have found the time to send us comments. If you haven’t already done so, consider spreading the word to others who you know are Honor Harrington fans, or to those who might enjoy the Honorverse!

You can find us, and all our episodes at

Mission of Honor brings us back to the main series/sequence, as we look at the twelfth novel in that line of the Honorverse story. The events in this ~600-page gem occur between late 1921 through the middle of 1922 PD. Having developed the breadth and depth of some significant events in the overall storyline, David moves away from the technique he’s used across several previous books to layer and unfold important - and different - perspectives of key events.

Events continue to spiral in a manner quickly approaching out of control and absolutely not to the benefit of the Star Empire of Manticore. The Solarian League has essentially declared war on Manticore through a direct attack on RMN assets. Then they spun the events to convince themselves that they were the victims rather than the perpetrators. Now they confront Admiral Henke’s fleet and demand Henke surrender herself into their custody.

However, all hope isn’t lost. Henke’s 10th Fleet soundly defeats the challenging Solarian force. Meanwhile Honor is on a diplomatic mission — a Mission of Honor — to establish terms of peace with Haven. During this series of diplomatic meetings, Operation Oyster Bay executes, with the attacker’s identity remaining unknown. The attack causes the near total loss of orbital industrial facilities in the Manticoran home system. As a result, debris falls onto the planets below causing extensive damage and loss of life.

Back on Haven, Honor is meeting directly with President Pritchart and key cabinet members. While talks begin in a cool but correct manner, Honor and Pritchart’s relationship warms and respect grows between them as time passes. Between the two of them, they put several new pieces of the puzzle together which builds Manticore and Haven’s understanding of the Mesan Alignment’s secretive actions and intentions. Unfortunately, diplomatic talks are suspended due to Oyster Bay and Honor is recalled to Manticore. Even so, the diplomatic negotiations aren’t over, as we see by the end of the book.

This entire novel was non-stop excitement!

We rated “Mission of Honor” with a 5, a 5 and another 5 (out of 5), for an overall rating of another perfect 5 from your hosts.

We always say it (because it’s true!) we truly appreciate the support of everyone who takes the time to wander through the Honorverse with us. Special thanks for those of you who like and/or comment on our posts, and even reach out and send us a note.

Next up: a surprise prize! While we told you in the episode we’re discussing the anthology In Fire Forged next, circumstances let us sit down once again with David Weber for a second interview. Get ready to learn a lot more about this amazing world we’re moving through, featuring quite a few questions provided by you, our friends and listeners taking this journey with us.

Don’t worry though, we’ll pick up and discuss the fifth anthology in the Worlds of Honor set entitled In Fire Forged after the interview. If you enjoyed Mission of Honor, catch your breath and get ready for a lot more action! As always, please grab your copy, invite a friend, and join us again next time!

You can find us, and all our episodes at http://honorverse.net, and email us at honorverse@tpenetwork.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

Now, let’s be about it!