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95-488: The Honorverse is a military science fiction book series , its two subseries , two prequel series, and anthologies created by David Weber and published by Baen Books . They are centered on the space navy career of the principal protagonist Honor Harrington . The books have made The New York Times Best Seller list . The series began with On Basilisk Station in 1992. The series follows Honor Harrington, military heroine and later, influential politician, during

190-578: A Strategic Defense Initiative in which satellites would be set up to shoot at nuclear missiles. The two authors were Larry Niven , the author of the Ringworld series, and Jerry Pournelle . Along with like-minded colleagues, they formed a committee to lobby the United States on space issues and influence Reagan's space policies. Pournelle advocated a "robust, technocratic military state". In addition to Pournelle's science fiction writing, he wrote

285-457: A coup de main against Basilisk. By whipping some of the Medusan nomads into a killing frenzy that will sweep across the planet in a haze of blood, they can claim legal pretext to swoop in and take control of the system before Manticore can respond, as a preamble to invading Manticore itself The ground force of Medusans is easily dealt with by Fearless ' s complement of Marines . However,

380-414: A "grav lance" commissioned by Admiral Sonja Hemphill . While Harrington uses it to perform spectacularly in the first round of a series of war games, her ship is summarily crushed in all following ones, and for the same simple reason: the grav lance is devastatingly effective at close range, but Fearless has neither the armour nor the other weaponry needed to close with an enemy ship. In order to cover up

475-457: A "more disciplined and more realistic notion of the kind of armies which might fight interplanetary and interstellar wars, and the kinds of weapons they might use". In many stories, the usage or advancement of a specific technology plays a role in advancing the plot, such as deploying a new weapon or spaceship. Some works draw heavy parallels to human history and how a scientific breakthrough or new military doctrine can significantly change how war

570-556: A "paper for the Air Force on stability's role in national security". President Reagan read the space advice that Niven, Pournelle, and their colleagues prepared, which influenced Reagan's 1983 Strategic Defense Initiative . "Niven and Pournelle saw an opportunity to shape the great void in their political image, and Reagan viewed space as yet another tool to defend America against the communist superpower...". Science fiction authors such as Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov criticized

665-435: A CD with copies of most of Weber's published books at the time, labeled for free redistribution. The Honor Harrington series has been produced several times in audiobook format, at first in cassette (90 min) format by Library of Congress , narrated by Madelyn Buzzard (books 1–10), later by Audible Frontiers beginning in 2009, narrated by Allyson Johnson. The Honorverse is a tightly plotted, highly organized invention that

760-712: A band, and because their better protections enables them to enter higher hyperbands with higher local particle counts, but higher speed multipliers. The interaction of gravity effects also manifest in much rarer, generally widely scattered wormholes , through which hyperdrive equipped ships can travel virtually instantaneously between the wormhole's end points. In some systems, several of these wormholes are found to be co-located forming an irresistible trading nexus, perhaps because their ends have some mathematical affinity: they occur with entrances relatively close together in very small spatial volumes. The greatest known aggregation of these co-located "Junctions" or Terminus Loci occurs in

855-609: A captain, and are armed with semi-automatic rifles . Eventually, as science fiction became an established and separate genre, military science fiction established itself as a subgenre. One such work is H. Beam Piper 's Uller Uprising (1952) (based on the events of the Sepoy Mutiny ). Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers (1959) is another work of military science fiction, along with Gordon Dickson 's Dorsai (1960), and these are thought to be mostly responsible for popularizing this subgenre's popularity among young readers of

950-555: A fan of the Honorverse who wouldn't want this book". In 2006, an Honor Harrington movie was announced by Echo Valley Entertainment. However, later information suggested that it would actually be a television series, to be written and produced by Peter Sands. When David Weber was asked which actress he envisioned as Honor Harrington, he replied, "I don't think there's anyone out there who has the proper combination of height, physicality, and demonstrated acting ability to be 'perfect' for

1045-434: A feared 'super weapon'. In the anthologies, Eric Flint and Weber wrote stories that birthed the first sub-series, resulting in the novels Crown of Slaves and Torch of Freedom . The sub-series introduced some far-more dangerous adversaries, the interstellar corporations of Mesa: Manpower Unlimited, Jessyk Combine, and others. This group was then revealed to be part of the even more dangerous and hidden secret adversaries of

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1140-462: A feature film. Evergreen Studios shut down in 2015, which led to the cancelation of most of their projects, including the mobile game, which is no longer available. Also, in 2014, a five-issue comic book miniseries Tales of Honor: On Basilisk Station from Top Cow Productions begun on March 5, 2014, concluding later that year. In 2015, Top Cow also released Tales of Honor: Bred to Kill . Military science fiction A detailed description of

1235-480: A form of faster-than-light travel in order to facilitate the enormous scale of interstellar war . The long spans of time (e.g., decades or centuries) required for human soldiers to travel interstellar distances, even at relativistic speeds, and the consequences for the characters, is a dilemma examined by authors such as Joe Haldeman and Alastair Reynolds . Other writers such as Larry Niven have created plausible interplanetary conflict based on human colonization of

1330-527: A future mercenary tank regiment . Drake's series which "helped initiate a fashion for sf about mercenaries", including The Warrior's Apprentice (1986) by Lois McMaster Bujold . A twist was introduced in Harry Turtledove 's Worldwar series depicting an alternate history in which WWII is disrupted by extraterrestrials invading Earth in 1942, forcing humans to stop fighting each other and unite against this common enemy. Turtledove depicts

1425-453: A galactic empire is sometimes a "core world," such as a planet relatively near a galaxy's centrally-located supermassive black hole, which has advanced considerably in science and technology compared to current human civilization. Characterizations of these empires can vary wildly from malevolent forces that attack sympathetic victims, to apathetic or amoral bureaucracies, to more reasonable entities focused on social progress. A writer may posit

1520-458: A law enforcement setting. Some examples include Richard Morgan 's Takashi Kovacs book such as Altered Carbon (2002) and Elizabeth Bear 's Jenny Casey books, such as Hammered (2004). Precursors for military science fiction can be found in "future war" stories dating back at least to George Chesney 's story " The Battle of Dorking " (1871). Written just after the Prussian victory in

1615-828: A local speed limited by particle densities that, at high relative speeds, become cosmic radiation . Better physical shielding or a better particle shield generator enables faster speeds within the band, on which base speed, multiplied by that band's multiplier, results in shorter journey times. Merchant ships have immense size and thin walls with virtually no physical shielding, as well as cheaper, relatively weak particle shield generators and hyper generators. Commercial carriers, like sailing ships and freight trains of Old Earth, trade off journey time by increased size and volume carried, so as to keep shipping costs economical. Military vessels, having no profit motive and already physically shielded, also carry better particle shield generators and can attain much faster interstellar voyage times both within

1710-527: A massive sense of inferiority around with him. Honor never did." Weber also feels that in the later books in the series, she has more in common with Admiral Horatio Nelson than Hornblower. Weber revealed in the foreword to Storm from the Shadows that it had originally been his intent to kill her off in the Battle of Manticore , thus further echoing Nelson's death (in his greatest battle, Trafalgar ) and have

1805-530: A military science fiction story can speculate about war in the future, in space, or involving space travel, or the effects of such a war on humans; at the other, a story with a fictional military plot may have relatively superficial science fictional elements. The term "military space opera" may occasionally denote this latter style, as used for example by critic Sylvia Kelso when describing Lois McMaster Bujold 's Vorkosigan Saga . Examples that feature aspects of both military science fiction and space opera include

1900-400: A more-efficient speed multiplier but requiring more powerful (therefore bulkier and more expensive) engines to reach; the higher bands significantly shortening transit times on a given gravity wave for a given base speed, which is limited by particle densities and radiation shielding as Newtonian speeds increase. Analogous to prevailing trade winds creating certain favoured sea routes on Earth,

1995-469: A sneak attack on Manticore in 1922 PD during the twelfth mainline novel, Mission of Honor . The Mesans have a 600-year-old secret program to reinstitute purposeful genetic engineering of humans and break up the Solarian League, while taking down all opponents opposing such genetic engineering. This makes the staunchly anti-genetic-slavery star nations of Haven, Manticore, and various associates of

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2090-465: A space colony requiring defense against attack out on the frontier. Gene Roddenberry described Star Trek: The Original Series as a Space Western (or more poetically, as " Wagon Train to the stars"). The TV series Firefly and its cinematic follow-up Serenity literalized the Western aspects of the space Western subgenre as popularized by Star Trek : it features frontier towns, horses, and

2185-561: A spy-and-counterspy spin-off sub-series the two contractually agreed to co-write, just as they have contracts to write in Flint's 1632 universe . This "rethink" and redesign caused Weber to move the series' internal chronology up by about 20 years and begat the Crown of Slaves novel, first in the "Crown of Slaves" sub-series based on a number of the short stories of the first four collections. In this scenario, proxies for Manticore and Haven oppose

2280-452: A subject were collected and marketed as such. The series of anthologies with the group title There Will be War edited by Pournelle and John F. Carr (nine volumes from 1983 through 1990) helped keep the category active, and encouraged new writers to add to it. David Drake wrote stories about future mercenaries, including the Hammer's Slammers series (1979), which follows the career of

2375-547: A time of extreme interstellar change and tension. Most of the more than 20 novels and anthology collections cover events between 4000 and 4022 AD with "PD" (Post- Diaspora ) dating beginning with a dispersal to the stars from our sun ("Sol") in 2103 AD. The main series novels are set primarily in a timeline beginning 40 years after Harrington's birth on October 1, 3962 AD (1859 PD), and some short stories flesh out her earlier career. Additional novels and shorter fiction take place up to 350 years earlier, and still-earlier canon history

2470-515: A universe of escalating tensions and military incidents until war breaks out in the third novel and lasts until the formal peace in A Rising Thunder , the thirteenth mainline novel. Each star nation suffers horrendous losses at the end of the eleventh novel, At All Costs , during the Battle of Manticore, when Haven makes an all-out bid to conquer the Star Kingdom before general deployment of

2565-481: A variety of rescue missions and initiated a thousand-year effort to clean up the Earth gene pool. For a time, the cultural centre moved off the Earth as it took about 500 years for the planetary economy to recover its pre-eminence within its shell of highly populated, highly developed planets. Located in the center of the spherical Solarian League, Earth's Old Chicago eventually re-emerged as the nominal League Capital. By

2660-488: A violent end by developments stemming from the Havenite/Manticoran Wars, which give both Haven and Manticore a substantial technological advantage over the Solarian League by the time of the most recently published books of the series. David Weber didn't set out to create a female protagonist; "it was the way the character came to me," Weber explains. "I didn't set out to do it because I thought that it

2755-461: A visual style evocative of classic John Ford Westerns. Worlds that have been terraformed may be depicted as presenting similar challenges as that of a frontier settlement in a classic Western. Six-shooters and horses may be replaced by ray guns and rockets. A "thematic subdivision" of MSF are works where "ex-military protagonists [are] drawing on their battle experience for tough and violent operations in (more or less) civilian life", typically in

2850-562: Is centered on the small Manticoran Navy of that time. This series precedes the main Honor Harrington series. A Call to Insurrection won the 2022 Dragon Awards in the Best Military Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel category. This series only has one published novel as of 2024, but based on publisher Simon and Schuster's marketing, is likely to contain standalone stories featuring minor characters from

2945-503: Is fairly static, and weapons that would be familiar to present-day soldiers are used, but other aspects of society have changed. Technology may not be emphasized in such stories as much as other aspects of the characters' military lives, cultures, or societies. For example, women may be accepted as equal partners for combat roles, or preferred over men. When the "extravagan[t]" depictions of war in space operas faded along with pulp fiction more generally, military science fiction developed with

Honorverse - Misplaced Pages Continue

3040-562: Is filled in between narratives and in appendices attached to the main novels and anthologies. The political makeup and history of the series frequently echoes actual history, particularly that of Europe in the last half of the second millennium. The series is consciously modeled on the Horatio Hornblower series by C. S. Forester , and its main character, like Horatio Hornblower, on a mix of Thomas Cochrane and Admiral Lord Nelson . Weber originally planned for Harrington to die in

3135-427: Is fought, the outcome of a battle, and the fortunes of the combatants. Many works explore how human progress, discovery, and suffering affect military doctrine or battle, and how the protagonists and antagonists reflect on and adapt to such changes. Many authors have either used a galaxy-spanning fictional empire as a background for the story, or have explored the growth and/or decline of such an empire. The capital of

3230-485: Is gearing up for a likely war with Haven. However, some political factions do not believe that the war is inevitable and therefore hinder the Government's plans, including the necessary reinforcement of Basilisk. The Government, whose majority is slim, has little choice than to acquiesce and leave Basilisk almost undefended—until Honor Harrington is assigned there. The People's Republic of Haven finds that its economy

3325-407: Is geographically distinct, but synchronized in his timeline: events in one quadrant will affect life and events in the related narratives centred on other main characters. Short fiction in the series serves as deep backstory or, like the short stories centred directly on Honor Harrington, exposes episodes of her earlier career in much the same way C. S. Forester revealed the not-yet-in-command life of

3420-558: Is increasingly strained due to its welfare state and massive military budget, thus forcing their leaders to end their standoff with Manticore by any means necessary. Possession of Basilisk and its wormhole terminus would give Haven a strategic advantage over the Star Kingdom. Sidney Harris , the Hereditary President of the People's Republic of Haven, discusses the economic and military situation with his cabinet. Secretary of

3515-555: Is made to take over the Basilisk system and Admiral Parnell is tasked with drawing up plans to that effect. Commander Honor Harrington , freshly graduated from the Royal Manticoran Navy's Advanced Tactical Course, assumes command of the light cruiser HMS Fearless , as it completes an extensive weapons refit, discovering, to her chagrin, that its normal complement of weapons has been stripped, replaced primarily by

3610-489: Is not necessarily set in outer space or on multiple worlds, as in space opera and the space Western . Both military science fiction and the space Western may consider an interstellar war and oppression by a galactic empire as the story's backdrop. They may focus on a lone gunslinger , soldier, or veteran in a futuristic space frontier setting . Western elements and conventions in military science fiction may be explicit, such as cowboys in outer space, or more subtle, as in

3705-631: Is required and, per the DuQuesne Plan the source of this income should be new conquests. Moving southwards towards Erewhon is rejected as too dangerous as the Solarian League could see it as a threat. Moving westwards towards the Silesian Confederacy is seen as the better option, but the Basilisk system is in the way, and the Basilisk system contains a terminus of the Manticore Wormhole Junction. The decision

3800-561: Is science fiction which is written about a military situation with a fundamental understanding of how military lifestyles and characters differ from civilian lifestyles and characters. It is science fiction which attempts to realistically portray the military within a science-fiction context. It is not 'bug shoots'. It is about human beings, and members of other species, caught up in warfare and carnage. It isn't an excuse for simplistic solutions to problems. In 1980 and 1981, two science fiction authors inspired President Ronald Reagan 's vision for

3895-409: Is six feet two inches tall." Weber's concern is that the director would push Christian to re-create Ivanova's character while playing Honor and "Ivanova's command style is totally different from Honor's." An Honor Harrington wargame, Saganami Island Tactical Simulator ( SITS ), was released at Gen Con in 2005 by Ad Astra Games . An Honor Harrington video game called Honorverse: The Online Game

Honorverse - Misplaced Pages Continue

3990-480: Is sufficiently vexed by the damage inflicted by the small light cruiser that he turns Sirius about to ensure that she is destroyed. In doing so, he inadvertently brings Sirius within range of Fearless ' grav lance, and Sirius is destroyed. Manticore reinforces the system in time to greet the “visiting” Haven task force, who leave after a suitable interval to inform Haven of failure. After extensive repairs just to get her mauled ship underway, Honor returns to

4085-646: The Battlestar Galactica franchise and Robert A. Heinlein 's 1959 novel Starship Troopers . A key distinction of military science fiction from space opera is that space operas focus more on adventurous stories and melodrama, while military science fiction focuses more on warfare and technical aspects. The principal characters in a space opera are also not military personnel, but civilians or paramilitary . Stories in both subgenres often concern an interstellar war in which humans fight themselves and/or nonhuman entities. Military science fiction, however,

4180-554: The Franco-Prussian War , it describes an invasion of Britain by a German-speaking country in which the Royal Navy is destroyed by a futuristic wonder-weapon ("fatal engines"). Other works of military science fiction followed, including H.G. Wells 's " The Land Ironclads ". It described tank-like "land ironclads ," 80-to-100-foot-long (24 to 30 m) armoured fighting vehicles that carry riflemen, engineers, and

4275-506: The Shadow of Saganami ' s star cast and some of the characters of the CoS derive directly from the mainline novels. Both contain purposely invented new protagonist characters as well. Weber deliberately has synchronized events in the mainline series with the tellings of local knowledge and vice versa in both sub-series. In other words, the broad front on which he is now telling the overall story

4370-653: The asteroid belt and outer planets by means of technologies utilizing the laws of physics as currently understood. Several subsets of military science fiction share characteristics of the space opera subgenre, concentrating on large-scale space battles with futuristic weapons in an interstellar war . Many stories can be considered to be in one or both the military science fiction and space opera subgenres, such as The Sten Chronicles by Allan Cole and Chris Bunch , Ender's Game series by Orson Scott Card , Honorverse by David Weber , Deathstalker by Simon R. Green , and Armor by John Steakley. At one extreme,

4465-465: The fifth book . This was later changed to parallel Nelson by having her die at the peak of her career in the climactic Battle of Manticore in 1921 PD (4024 AD), then continue the series with her children as the main protagonists. However, collaborating author Eric Flint intervened, asking for the invention of a mutual enemy for both the Star Kingdom of Manticore and the Republic of Haven to oppose in

4560-450: The human genome for survival positive adaptations to marginal environments, such as heavy gravity, thin atmosphere, thick atmospheres, or toxic environments (e.g. Grayson). Some corporate entities also began breeding for super soldiers and superior intellects, good looks, sexual prowess, etc., or mixes of such traits, practices that led to a horrific "Final War" on Old Earth. Long-established and advanced daughter colonies like Beowulf mounted

4655-509: The Academy several years earlier, and who has set up a ploy to ruin Honor's career. Taking his heavy cruiser Warlock off to Manticore for a "desperately needed" refit, Young leaves Honor and Fearless as the sole RMN unit responsible for the Basilisk system's security, a duty almost impossible to perform with a single ship. With hard work and clever use of resources, Honor soon has revitalised

4750-521: The Basilisk system. Though Basilisk Station and the planet of Medusa have become a dumping ground for military officers from Honor's home star system of Manticore who are currently in disfavor, she is determined to discharge her duty regardless of the circumstances. The story follows Honor and her crew as they deal with the responsibilities of their assignment. When their duty leads them to discover events that would lead to an invasion of Medusa, they have no choice but to act. The Star Kingdom of Manticore

4845-655: The Economy Walter Frankel presents the latest grim economic projections, blaming the naval budget. Admiral Amos Parnell retorts that the fleet is required to hold on to recently acquired star systems, and blames the bleak economic situation on the increases in the Basic Living Stipend instead. Frankel responds that the BLS increases are the only thing keeping the mob in check. Neither man is willing to budge, and both concede that additional income

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4940-542: The Gregorian calendar currently in use, the Honorverse novels are dated beginning with year 2103 A.D.—the epoch date of the Diaspora's beginning. The FTL hyperspace propulsion system in the stories is around 600 years old at the time period in which the novels are placed. This technology uses the ability to "sail" along a vast network of "gravity waves" on different successively higher hyperbands, each higher band giving

5035-516: The Manticore binary star system , whose wormholes connect the wormhole junction to six (later seven) other star systems, giving the Manticore system an astrographic position to be coveted, and an immense revenue stream from transit tolls, manufacturing and trade, and a large carrying trade. In the stories, no means of faster-than-light interstellar communications exists. Messages between star systems must be physically carried by starships. Even using

5130-594: The RMN’s presence in Basilisk, capturing several prizes on charges of smuggling , and turning around the abysmal opinion of the fleet held by system personnel. During this, Honor learns of a long-standing drug ring catering to the Medusan aborigines , a three-legged sentient species at a Bronze Age technology level. The drug, mekoha , has a place in Medusan religion for its hallucinogenic properties, but can also be used to incite them to furious violence. Fearless's investigations reveal that humans have been synthesizing it on

5225-476: The Sol system, first in slower-than-light starships, then by increasingly efficient and effective hyperspace drive-propulsion systems. Early daughter colonies also spawned colonies, forming regional networks of related populations. With travel limited to slower-than-light speeds, any marginally habitable nearby planet was of interest, and Earth's scientists went through a period in which they regularly genetically modified

5320-439: The Solarian League. Protagonist Honor Harrington is a citizen of the Star Kingdom of Manticore which is, during the first 20 or so works of the series, the key rival and the main stellar protagonist against the star-conquering (People's) Republic of Haven; these two nations are consciously based on Imperial Britain and Napoleonic France, although Haven also seems to be influenced by the former Soviet Union. The first books deal with

5415-676: The Star Empire of Manticore and the Republic of Haven, as it has been manipulated into error after error by the operatives of the Mesan Alignment. Among a handful of anthologies, the thirteen Honor-centered novels, and two subordinate sub-series starring some different characters, the universe first explored in On Basilisk Station has a diasporal historical background for the backstory storyline , in which mankind, over almost two millennia, migrated to systems beyond

5510-443: The Star Kingdom of Manticore, Haven, Beowulf, and all of those polities' historic allies. Disruptive technological advances have been few in the Honorverse for most of the 500 years leading up to the series; as the series opens, that technological stagnation has led to a similar stagnation in both military strategy and tactics . During the course of the book series, both forms of stagnation (technological and military) are brought to

5605-638: The Star Kingdom to a hero’s welcome. Promoted twice to Captain of the List, Honor is disappointed when the light cruiser is retired from service, but instead, she is given command of a newly constructed Star Knight -class heavy cruiser , re-christened as the new Fearless . In addition to Honor Harrington, the story includes the first appearances of Alistair McKeon , Hamish Alexander , Lord Pavel Young , Andreas Venizelos , Rafael Cardones , Estelle Matsuko , Paul Tankersley , Mercedes Brigham , Prescott Tremaine , Klaus Hauptman , and Allen Summervale . The book

5700-537: The Strategic Defense Initiative. After the 9/11 terrorism attacks, a group of sci-fi authors called Sigma, including Pournelle and Niven, advised the "Department of Homeland Security on technological strategies for defeating terrorist threats." In 2021, Worldcrunch reported that the French military has hired fiction writers to develop futuristic warfare scenarios, including situations that

5795-709: The Talbott Cluster to become the Star Empire. (Also referred to as the Saganami Island series.) This series is concurrent with the main Honor Harrington series. This series features Stephanie Harrington, Honor Harrington's distant ancestor, and the first human to be adopted by a treecat. This series precedes the main Honor Harrington series. This series, which begins eleven years after the first book in The Star Kingdom series, features Travis Uriah Long, an enlisted Navy man and later an officer, and

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5890-569: The Vietnam War's influence can be seen indirectly in novels such as Joe Haldeman 's The Forever War (published in Analog over 1972–1975) and Lucius Shepard 's Life During Wartime (1987). The Vietnam War resulted in veterans with combat experience deciding to write science fiction, including Joe Haldeman and David Drake . Throughout the 1970s, works such as Haldeman's The Forever War and Drake's Hammer's Slammers helped increase

5985-438: The author can extrapolate what might have occurred. Traditional military values of courage under fire, sense of duty, honor, sacrifice, loyalty, and camaraderie are often emphasized. The action is typically described from the point of view of a soldier in a science fictional setting of or near battle . Typically, the technology is more advanced than that of the present and described in detail. In some stories, however, technology

6080-566: The conflict, belligerents (which may involve extraterrestrials), tactics and weapons used for it, and the role of a military service and the individual members of that military organization form the basis for a typical work of military science fiction. The stories often use features of actual past or current Earth conflicts, with countries being replaced by planets or galaxies with similar characteristics, battleships replaced by space battleships, small arms and artillery replaced by lasers, soldiers replaced by space marines, and certain events changed so

6175-524: The embarrassing failure of her experiment, Admiral Hemphill (a cousin of Sir Edward Janáček, First Lord of the Admiralty ), has Fearless reassigned to picket duty on Basilisk Station, a remote outpost of Manticore. At Medusa, Harrington finds Basilisk's picket fleet commanded by Captain Lord Pavel Young , a spoiled noble whose lacklustre career is due in part to his attempt to rape Honor at

6270-592: The emerging Mesa problem be dealt with by the next generation, specifically her children. When writing At All Costs , he decided instead to keep her alive, and move the Mesan-related events up, to be her problem. Many of Weber's books are available at the Baen Free Library ; chapters of some texts are otherwise available online. The first-edition hardcover releases of War of Honor , At All Costs , Torch of Freedom , and Mission of Honor contained

6365-503: The fastest ships available as couriers, this communications "lag" between worlds has many consequences, greatly increasing the responsibility placed upon starship captains and senior military commanders far from home, complicating the coordination of military campaigns, and allowing a single accident or attack to render a planet incommunicado. The stories include numerous dependent and independent polities and several major star nations including two giant aggregations of many planets, Haven and

6460-487: The first book. However, since he knew from the beginning that these books would become a series, he deliberately set Honor up as a character who changes and grows. One example Weber offers is that in The Short Victorious War , Honor off-handedly refers to her genetically enhanced metabolism, which isn't fully explored until In Enemy Hands : "It was one of those little things that I knew about or that I

6555-520: The first time. In order to capitalize on Honor's accomplishments and discredit the conservatives in the government who are pushing for the Kingdom's withdrawal from Basilisk, a group of officers and politicians conspire to delay the completion of Warlock ' s refit and keep Young away from his post for as long as possible. Harrington and her crew get to the bottom of the sprawling plot: Haven, intent on conquering Medusa for their own, have arranged for

6650-678: The gap is not too wide for the humans to bridge. For example, the invaders have more advanced tanks, but the German Wehrmacht's tank crews facing them – a major theme in the series – are more skilled and far more experienced. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction lists three notable women authors of MSF: Lois McMaster Bujold ; Elizabeth Moon (particularly her Familias Regnant stories such as Hunting Party (1993)), and Karen Traviss . Several authors have presented stories with political messages of varying types as major or minor themes of their works. David Drake has often written of

6745-489: The horrors and futility of war. He has said, in the afterwords of several of his Hammer's Slammers books (1979 and later), that one of his reasons for writing is to educate those people who have not experienced war, but who might have to make the decision to start or endorse a war (as policymakers or as voters) about what war is really like, and what the powers and limits of the military as an instrument of policy are. David Weber has said: For me, military science fiction

6840-422: The main Honor Harrington series. The story of agents Anton Zilwicki (Manticore) and Victor Cachat (Haven) and their strange alliance to uncover the dark power that manipulated their two nations into war, and put an end to the true enemy's plans. This series is concurrent with the main Honor Harrington series. The story of Admiral Michelle Henke and several graduates of Saganami Island when the Star Kingdom annexes

6935-480: The mainstem novels. In 2013, Baen published House of Steel: The Honorverse Companion (May 7, 2013). The book is divided into two sections: a new novella written by Weber titled I Will Build My House of Steel and The Honorverse Companion , a collection of information about the Honorverse setting compiled by a fan group. The novella follows Roger Winton, a naval lieutenant who later becomes king. A reviewer for Analog Science Fiction and Fact wrote "I can't imagine

7030-431: The massive and monolithic Solarian League, which foreshadowing in the most recent novels suggests is about to undergo severe disruption. The thirteenth mainline novel, A Rising Thunder , ties together events in both sub-series and synchronizes the timeline of each sub-series with Honor Harrington's mainline novels. This book confirms the Solarian League is officially now the new Mesan cat's paw, effectively at war with both

7125-410: The military become "more resourceful." The German military is also using science fiction to help its military but in its approach, they do not hire science fiction writers to develop scenarios. Instead, they "use existing science fiction" to help the army "predict the "world's next potential conflict." The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) hired two science fiction writers to pen short stories about "what

7220-481: The military cannot directly study for "ethical reasons, such as Autonomous Lethality Weapon Systems (ALWS), or augmented humans." The French military says the authors are asked to imagine warfare situations that "destabilize us, scare us, blame, or even beat us", in order to provide the army with a "fresh set of practice scenarios". Military planners use the science fiction authors' scenarios to "prepare for previously unthought of situations", "boos[t] creativity" and help

7315-511: The other half of the plan is the Sirius , a Havenite Q-ship disguised as a freighter with the task of signalling the Havenite fleet. Harrington cripples the one other Havenite ship in orbit (a diplomatic courier) and sends Fearless in pursuit of Sirius , notifying Manticore of the impending invasion. What follows is a grueling battle in which Fearless is crippled, but Sirius ' captain

7410-431: The planet Beowulf primary targets of the Mesan Alignment. The "Crown of Slaves" sub-series books and last two mainline Honorverse novels detail the rising extent of this threat. As the two sub-series progress, albeit with somewhat-separate casts of characters, each is expected by Weber to carry the detailed storyline events particular to their astrographical region forward and tie together into an ongoing plotline concerning

7505-468: The planet for distribution to the nomadic members of the species. A raid on this drug lab also reveals the presence of further contamination: breech-loading flintlock rifles designed specifically for Medusan use, and crude enough for the Medusans to manufacture themselves. Whilst embroiled in this plot and trying to uncover who might be behind it, Honor Harrington becomes a figure of political note for

7600-518: The popularity of the genre. Short stories also were popular, collected in books such as Combat SF , edited by Gordon R. Dickson . This anthology includes one of the first Hammer's Slammers stories, as well as one of the BOLO stories by Keith Laumer and one of the Berserker stories by Fred Saberhagen . This anthology seems to have been the first time these stories specifically dealing with war as

7695-497: The relatively static fixed gravity waves form favoured travel paths. A lack of gravity waves in some regions means that they must be plodded across by relatively slower means. These favorite routes and desert crossing points are susceptible to illegitimate exploitation by pirates and commerce-raiding warships, both interested in preying on the rich pickings of the interstellar merchant cargo ships that carry upwards of 2–7 million metric tonnes of cargo. Within each hyperband, ships have

7790-410: The role, so my mind is fairly open on this topic." Actress Claudia Christian , who plays Susan Ivanova on Babylon 5 , has been suggested as a potential candidate; Weber says "She's much shorter than Honor, but so are most women, and I think she could handle the physicality... I think it's more important to have someone who can portray Honor's character and command style than it is to have someone who

7885-472: The same hidden enemy, the genetic slavers and powers behind the government and corporations of the planet of Mesa. Mesa is later revealed in Mission of Honor to be part of a secret cabal of about a dozen highly capable planets that are busily building a secret navy using advanced technologies at a secret planet and known to itself as the Mesan Alignment. The Mesan Alignment's navy has new technology and conducts

7980-462: The shadowy Mesan Alignment. The Alignment included corrupted leaders of Solarian Core worlds promoting the destruction of the old order. Mesan puppet masters are revealed to be pulling the strings of corrupt Solarian League bureaucrats and admirals in both the sub-series and the main series. Enormously ambitious, the Alignment plans the overthrow of the Solarian League, and the complete destruction of

8075-533: The strategy employed by co-author Eric Flint in his 1632 series , the series has, starting with War of Honor , begun incorporating a broader viewpoint from more than one central character, many of whom, like in the 1632 series, appeared in other series works as supporting characters. Stories in the Worlds of Honor collections directly lead to events and character stars of the Crown of Slaves (CoS) sub-series, whereas

8170-401: The tactics and strategy of this new course of the war in detail, showing how American, British, Soviet, and German soldiers and Jewish guerrillas (some of them historical figures) deal with this extraordinary new situation, as well as providing a not unsympathetic detailed point of view of individual invader warriors. In the war situation posited by Turtledove, the invaders have superior arms, but

8265-751: The time. The Vietnam War led to the "polarization of the sf community", which can be seen in the June 1968 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction , in which one page of pro-war sf authors listed their names and on another page, anti-war sf authors put their names. The Vietnam War has been noted by the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction as having impacted anthologies such as In the Field of Fire (1987) and novels such as The Healer's War (1988) by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough and Dream Baby (1989) by Bruce McAllister . The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction states that

8360-513: The treecat society decided to migrate to the stars. Other short stories expose points of view and life problems from places around the larger universe. Some offer insights to life behind enemy lines in the view of its citizens and their experience, or that of a protagonist in the Verge, or in the Solarian League. Stories and essays by David Weber, along with other writers invited by him to participate. The stories may either precede or be concurrent with

8455-541: The use of Fictional Intelligence ( FicInt ), which they define as "useful fictions". FicInt, a concept developed by Cole in 2015, combines "fiction writing with intelligence to imagine future scenarios in ways grounded in reality." On Basilisk Station On Basilisk Station is a science fiction novel by American writer David Weber , first published in 1993. It is the first book in his Honor Harrington series, and follows Commander Honor Harrington and Her Majesty’s light cruiser Fearless during their assignment to

8550-485: The wars of tomorrow will look like." The MOD hired Peter Warren Singer and August Cole to write eight short stories about threats from "emerging technologies" including " artificial intelligence (AI), data modeling, drone swarms, quantum computing and human enhancement" in a battlefield context. The MOD hired sci-fi writers because they have a "unique ability to imagine the unimaginable." As well, both authors know about "security subjects and modern warfare." They advocate

8645-419: The young Horatio Hornblower. Some of the more important of these tales reveal a greater knowledge of Sphinx's native species, letting the reader in on knowledge not known even to the Honorverse occupants. Among these tales are the revealed history of how treecats and humans first bonded, how the treecats protected and bonded with the royal family, and other treecat tales of greater or lesser importance, such as how

8740-527: Was announced in August 2008; a beta was scheduled to be released in the Spring of 2010. In 2014 Evergreen Studios announced plans to make a multi-platform adaptation of the Honor Harrington character, under the title Tales of Honor . A mobile game called Tales of Honor: The Secret Fleet was released that year for Android and iOS platforms. Tentative plans at that point also included a television series and

8835-417: Was designed with a specific overarching storyline. Its storyline has shifted from the original plan to include new enemies, and did not result in the battle death of heroine Honor Harrington, as was planned originally for book five, and then later for book eleven. The series' canon is maintained solely by its creator, who acts as editor of the works in the universe by other collaborating authors. Like some of

8930-453: Was especially politically sensitive on my part or because I thought it was likely to strike a chord with female readership or be a financial success. It was just the way that the character first presented herself." Weber doesn't find writing a female character particularly challenging, because, he says, "I'm writing about a human being who happens to be female." When he first started writing, he had developed her entire back story before he started

9025-486: Was holding in reserve," Weber says. The first name of his character—Honor—had come to Weber long before the last name did. Weber knew that if the Honor novels worked, she was inevitably going to be compared to C. S. Forester 's Horatio Hornblower , so he saw to it that she had the same initials. He said, "There are certainly, clearly, similarities between the two. There are also huge differences. And Honor has never been as neurotic as Hornblower was. Hornblower always carried

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