Reviews for The Short Victorious War (Honor Harrington Series #3)

The average rating for The Short Victorious War (Honor Harrington Series #3) based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-12-27 00:00:00 Henry Chavez I think I've made up my mind about the Honor Harrington books. They are solid three star books. That doesn't mean that they are bad or that I won't read more of them. Three star books are good. They are fun. They just aren't great - and that is OK. The Honor Harrington books are the book equivalent of big budget Hollywood action flicks. There are gargantuan space battles between the good guys and the bad guys. Think beam weapons, nuclear tipped missiles, and exploding space ships. The Short Victorious War delivers plenty of the stuff. And it is loads of fun. I enjoyed every minute of the action - especially the bluffs and counter-bluffs of the Manticore and Haven navies. Like big budget Hollywood action movies, the Honor Harrington books lack meaningful character development and a true spark of originality. The Short Victorious War reintroduces Harrington's nemesis, Pavel Young, and there is some confrontation between the two because Young is technically her superior. Unfortunately when Young and Harrington came into conflict it felt formulaic. I was expecting Young to crack under pressure. I expected Harrington to have to save the day despite his cowardice. There is also a budding romance between Harrington and Paul Something-or-other, but it felt less than authentic to me. (I won't even go into the part where Mike (Harrington's female XO) had to teach Harrington how to apply make up. Really?!) Even more aggravating is the author's shameless borrowing from history. To some extent this makes sense. The vast distances of space and the slow progression of interstellar combat as Weber envisions it is more akin to the age of sail than it is to the lightning strikes of modern navies (or even WWII navies). I can accept that. What I find really annoying is the shameless adaptation of the 1780-1800 period. "Rob S. Pierre" (a.k.a., Robespierre) as the leader of the People's Quorum against the Hereditary Legislaturalist families (a.k.a., nobility). The revolutionary "Committee of Public Safety." (Golly, the French Revolution had one of those too! Gee, what are the odds?) I fully expect that the next books will have a reign of terror and a resurgent Havenite navy along with a Napoleon-like figure. I expect more out of my authors. Borrow elements from the past to make a compelling and interesting world, but "Rob S. Pierre?" Really? Ugh! I have no doubt that I will read at least a couple more of these books at some point but I know what they are now. They are solid three star books. Fun. Good. But not great.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-08-14 00:00:00 Mark Stantz I have no real complaints about these books other than the fact that they're straight space opera that are entirely mil-SF. In the first book of the series, I was thrilled to get to know all the misfit characters and see how Honor won them over by being just plain awesome and win actual fights at super-long odds, but the same kind of formula doesn't quite work for me a second and third time. She's already an established badass. Even when super-wounded in the previous one, she got up and led everyone to victory. In this one, she turns a whole predatory society that aimed for a short victorious war into a quivering embarrassed mess. Nothing short about it, and far from victorious. I like the idea... in theory. Who doesn't like an underdog story? Uh... wait... the brass are contriving her into underdog positions. She's not an actual underdog now. Still, she pulls a rabbit out of her hat again, so all's fair in love and war. Except, I'm not quite sure I'm a big fan of the writing. I actually like a good amount of exposition, but not always about the same thing. In this case, it's all military and tech and how it all works together, spelled out in great detail and usually the reason why we get our big wins. Fine, fine. But even I have limited patience for that kind of thing if that's almost all there is. You know, aside from getting some on the side or a petty vengeance from a jerk or the political machinations on either side of the war. They just aren't all that great. I look at Bujold and then I look at Weber and I just can't compare the two with any justice. I think I'll always prefer Bujold. It's mostly just the writing, I think. Alas. I might have to stop the series here. Interest level just plummeted.