Beginnings: Worlds of Honor #6, David Weber et al

Beginnings: Worlds of Honor #6
David Weber, Charles E. Gannon, Joelle Presby, Timothy Zahn
ISBN: 9781451639032
Read January 18, 2014

SciFi: Space Opera "Honorverse" short stories.

Charles E. Gannon: By the Book
From the perspective of the Honorverse, this is ancient history, set in Earth's own solar system.  Lieutenant Lee Strong is a Dirtsider, born and bred on Earth under the watchful (and increasingly stringent) control of the Greens and the Neo Luddites.  He's in command of a ship up here, but his crew (and the population)?  All Upsider, born on Luna, Mars, on a space station, an asteroid habitat, or even further afield.  Lee is loyal and honest.  He knows that the government has some problems, but he is sure that he can continue to serve Earth's interests out here in space.  Lee is so very wrong.

Timothy Zahn: A Call to Arms
We've moved forward in time and space to Manticore, under King Edward, at the beginnings of his attempt to revitalize the RMN.  Our hero this time around is Lieutenant Travis Long, and he starts out beautifully by attempting to "counsel" a legacy nobleman on doing his job properly.  Not being noble or politically connected himself, Travis is therefore thrown under the proverbial bus.  Or is he?  An enemy is sneaking up on Manticore and Travis' new posting puts him in an excellent position to learn more about tactics, grace under pressure, and the vital importance of a long shot.

David Weber: Beauty and the Beast
Favorite story of the lot.  We've jumped forward in time again, and Honor's parents (Alfred Harrington and Allison Chou) meet at the medical university on Beowulf, chaos ensues (courtesy of Manpower), and the attentive reader learns a whole lot about Honor's genetic makeup and develops a metric shit ton of respect for both parents, as well as for shadowy Uncle Jacques.

David Weber: Best Laid Plans
Honor is a preteen on Spinx now, and off in the bush to get a secret present for her mother's birthday.  In the neighborhood, Laughs Brightly and his little brother Sharp Nose are scouting the area in preparation for winter.  This story suffers from a bit too much narrative similarity with A Beautiful Friendship, which is a shame.  Honor and Stephanie are very similar, but Nimitz and Lionheart are very different, and I would have liked to see more of the story from the 'cat's viewpoints.  That said, any story with treecats gets my vote.

Joelle Presby: Obligated Service
For some reason, I found Presby's prose a bit hard to follow.  The shifts in time and space were sudden and unexpected, and there were frequent moments where I wasn't entirely sure what the protagonist was getting at.  However, once I settled in, I enjoyed this story of one of the first Grayson women to graduate from Saganami Island and return home to their patriarchal military.  Claire was a perfect mix of defeated, stubborn, and paranoid, and I rooted for her the whole time.

Overall, not the best collection of Honorverse shorts, but I liked that this group had a theme, and a long narrative flow through the ages to the present state of the written universe.  I don't know if it would be too cutesy to have more themed stories, but if done well, I for one would like to see them.

Here's also where I link out to let readers know that Weber et al are growing the Honorverse into different media, in the ultimate interest of developing Honor movie(s).  So if you know any mobile-gamers or graphic novel readers, make sure they know something awesome's coming their way.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=113575

http://www.evergreenfilms.com/worlds/tales-of-honor

Treecat Wars, David Weber & Jane Lindskold

Treecat Wars, David Weber & Jane Lindskold

ISBN: 9781451639339

Read November 4, 2013

YA SF: Star Kingdom Novel #3, Treecats!  Stephanie Harrington!

I was in fine form for this one, as I had just gotten back from the very first Honorcon, in Greenville SC the previous day (it was great fun, lots of really awesome staff, volunteers, vendors, publishers, and authors, as well as a vibrant and happy audience).

Treecat Wars picks us right up after Fire Season left off, with Stephanie and Anders' beginning romance interrupted by the political and academic fallout of Anders' dad's stubborn and illegal activity.  All is not lost, as Anders is simply sent to Manticore - ONLY an hour's delay by com.  The two lovebirds work out their long-distance relationship, even when he gets to come back to Spinx, just as she's getting sent to Manticore herself for a plum assignment.

So Stephanie and Karl (and Lionheart) are off studying and trying to be ambassadors for Treecat Rights, Anders and Jessica are on Spinx, trying to run herd on a new crew of anthropologists, and to figure out what could be causing the treecat deaths and injuries they're finding on the edges of the burned-out forest.  

I seriously love these books.  They're a bit formulaic, and they are YA, but the themes (long distance relationships, falling out of love, being with someone who you know loves you more than you love them) are treated respectfully and thoughtfully.  The only real downside is one that's shared by the larger Honorverse - the good guys are really really good, and the bad guys are really really bad.  Rarely is there a conflicted character, and even if a good character is on the "wrong" side, it's still clear that they're a good guy.

Finally, I'd like to give a shout-out to the covers for these books - Daniel Dos Santos has done a great job with this one, as he has done for the previous two.  Really fantastic work with expressions (facial and body) and with overall color tones.  

I'm hoping that this isn't the last of these books.  I would very much love to keep following Stephanie and Lionheart (and all the others - especially Jessica and Dirt Grubber!) on their adventures.