Frank O'Connor
2012-10-16 19:04:08 UTC
The ARC is available now.
I enjoyed it … it follows the Michelle Henke stream of the Honorverse
pretty much in tandem with the Honor based story line … but the scope
of the Talbot War with the Sollies seems strangely subdued compared to
what's happening around Manticore. Natural I suppose, but strangely
disconnected from the main storyline of the biggest interstellar war in
history that has just taken millons of Sollie lives in the attack on
Manitocore that honor folied in A Rising Thunder.
Basically Mike has problems in the Talbot sector with a number of
outbreaks or revolutions against the Sollies and their clients, that
have been co-opted by Mesa in the name of Manticore. The idea is that
the Mesans will leave the revolutionaries in the lurch after
manoeuvring them into untenable positions, and let Manticore take the
heat and the hit to their reputation in the Talbot sector as the
revolutions are killed one-by-one. Needless to say, the RMNS intervenes
and the Sollies and the Mesa retreat in disarray.
At the end of the book Mike is contemplating opening a new major front
against the Sollies to relieve pressure on the Manticore Home systems.
I think I'd prefer that the two storylines (Honor and Mike) be bought
back together in the next Honorverse offering, because (as in any war)
conflicts like this tend to escalate and ebb on many fronts and
locations as the adversaries jockey for advantage and position … and
otherwise the view of the whole tends to be lost in pointless detail,
and the expounding of personalities that most of the series readers are
utterly familiar with by now anyway.
Just my 2 cents worth ...
I enjoyed it … it follows the Michelle Henke stream of the Honorverse
pretty much in tandem with the Honor based story line … but the scope
of the Talbot War with the Sollies seems strangely subdued compared to
what's happening around Manticore. Natural I suppose, but strangely
disconnected from the main storyline of the biggest interstellar war in
history that has just taken millons of Sollie lives in the attack on
Manitocore that honor folied in A Rising Thunder.
Basically Mike has problems in the Talbot sector with a number of
outbreaks or revolutions against the Sollies and their clients, that
have been co-opted by Mesa in the name of Manticore. The idea is that
the Mesans will leave the revolutionaries in the lurch after
manoeuvring them into untenable positions, and let Manticore take the
heat and the hit to their reputation in the Talbot sector as the
revolutions are killed one-by-one. Needless to say, the RMNS intervenes
and the Sollies and the Mesa retreat in disarray.
At the end of the book Mike is contemplating opening a new major front
against the Sollies to relieve pressure on the Manticore Home systems.
I think I'd prefer that the two storylines (Honor and Mike) be bought
back together in the next Honorverse offering, because (as in any war)
conflicts like this tend to escalate and ebb on many fronts and
locations as the adversaries jockey for advantage and position … and
otherwise the view of the whole tends to be lost in pointless detail,
and the expounding of personalities that most of the series readers are
utterly familiar with by now anyway.
Just my 2 cents worth ...