A Rising Thunder (Honor Harrington Book 13)

A Rising Thunder by David Weber (Honor Harrington novel#13)This novel is a major turning point in the series and I would only recommend this to someone who has read all of the other 12 before this. There is a lot that is absorbed in the other novels that is taken into play in this one and it can be a bit confusing or even drag the reader down if they are not up to speed. I tried reading this before I'd remembered that there were two novels in-between which I'd not yet gotten hold of. I found it bogged me down a bit trying to get into the novel for a number of reasons.It takes quite a while before you see Honor. There are a lot of changes in players in those two preceding novels. There are several subplots that are concentrated into those two missing novels. There is a lot of world building that has happened throughout and this is one of the few of the more recent books where David Weber has spent less time rehashing old world building. Some of this is good, but I found I needed to at least go back and read the two novels I had missed and that's how I ended up reading the whole series over.A Rising Thunder reminds me more of a Tom Clancy or even a Robert Ludlum thriller more than it does your typical Science Fiction. This is something that has been building in the series as it has been growing. We move from a heavy military SF to a military political thriller SF to Something that becomes almost a blend of Soft and Hard SF which includes all sorts of political social psychological economical and military elements blended with the Science.Is it really possible that Haven and Manticore can bury the hatchet and face this new bio-tech threat while wagging a new war against the Solarian League. More important though is; can they recover quick enough to unveil the greater Mesan threat. How much more strain can Manticore take before they lose the edge of being the possible cosmic glue that will bring all of the star kingdoms together?A Rising Thunder is focused on the world building of the Solar League. We see a pattern developing here and we'll have to wait and see how many more novels it takes to confirm the pattern. Manticore manages to have a war against a another kingdom and they seem to decide victory and defeat almost by which side is the most incompetent. While we also see the balance being adjusted for military leaders who are competent facing each other in battle because of the political incompetence. There's always a fudge factor of a few bad men in the military. And this is what we begin to see in the Solar League in this novel.As a sub plot we have the building power of Mesa and the growing threat they are to everyone. The question is how will David Weber move all the elements around by the time the Mesa begin to make their move and what kind of terrible battle with that bring.A Rising Thunder is a bridge novel between the Haven conflict and the Solar League cold war and is in many ways a bit tame compared to the last two novels, yet it is packed with enough Suspense Thrills and Intrigues to keep the reader interested. It's possible that anyone who likes the more political and diplomatic end of conflict might be able to read this without much lead-in but to really appreciate it I think the reader has to know all the players and understand the past conflicts and present political climate to fully appreciate the whole.David Weber is definitely setting the bar for this type of Military/Political Procedural Science Fiction. I recommend this for all SFF fans, but again with the recommendation of reading the previous twelve books.After battling through the 12 I somehow subjectively found this novel somewhat superior in its relative simplicity. J.L. Dobias

this is an aggravating book because so much happens off camera and we get told about it afterward. The focus of the story jumps about wildly and it’s bits and pieces of whatever’s going on in this location with these characters here, followed by snippets dealing with those characters in that place—repeated to the point where it no longer feels like a book, but rather like a collection of scenes loosely organized and covering much too large a scope for the reader to keep track of.It wasn’t satisfying, it had far too much maundering on about this or that factoid, and it simply wasn’t an actual book. No wonder Weber keeps rewriting books covering this short time period from so many characters’ viewpoints—none are complete, none are very interesting (as we’ve heard too much of the story before), and every book adds another group of minor characters to an already too long series character list, while advancing the plot only a small amount.Then, too, it’s frustrating, annoying and feels like a ripoff to call some of these novels, “Honor Harrington books,” when she only makes cameo appearances. She shows up more here than in the last two stories, but the central characters for much of the story are Mike Henke and the Five Mandarins who run the Solarian League. In fact an excruciating amount of time is spent on various groups having meetings, especially the Mandarins’ meetings when they’re figuring out how to respond to Manticore. My guess is those meetings take up 35-40% of the book. That’s not the only repetitive aspect of the story either. Weber’s bad guys are cardboard, and if they stopped smiling thinly, looking at other people coldly, saying things nastily or with an edge (along with a long list of other overused descriptors—including Weber’s inability to stop describing his characters in exactly the same terms every damn time. He especially does this with Honor Harrington’s and President Pritchard’s physical appearance, along with Lester Tourville’s and Thomas Theisman’s appearance, gestures and habits.Then too, how many times do we needs to have the treecats’ conversational signs described in painfully exact detail? In one of these books, Weber spent a whole paragraph describing Nimitz’s precise gestures and exactly which hand and which fingers he used to form each sign. . . and then Weber recycled that paragraph several times both in the same book and in a number of later ones. It doesn’t matter how the treecats make signs—all that matters is what they’re saying! It’s as if Weber was describing exactly how each person’s mouth, lips, teeth and tongue was shaped to form each syllable of the words they spoke. Complete Overkill.These books have a word count that’s ludicrously inflated because Mr. Weber is obsessed with too many of the nuts and bolts involved in the universe he’s created. He feels compelled to tell us far too much about exactly how x works, the history of y and the origin of z. He also spends far too much time talking about his characters’ looks. He’s described both Eloise Pritchart’s platinum hair and topaz eyes and Honor Harrington’s height and bearing too many times to count, he also tells the reader how many cms tall each character is, along with the colors of their skin, hair and eyes—and then repeats several of those descriptions multiple times per book, using the same words every time. That’s boring and unnecessary.Some of the information Weber offers does need to be included just to make his universe and characters more real. It adds depth to the story when we learn how each world has shaped the people who settled there, and the first time a character is introduced, it helps to know what she or he looks like. Once is enough, however.Don’t repeat those descriptions multiple times, or go on for several pages about a new weapon or ammunition. in exactly the same terms every damn time don’t force your reader to spend more time being told about the Mandarins’ meetings, what each person said, and what they all finally decided to do, than you spend showing us what happens as a result of those meetings. Show, don’t tell. Tell quickly gets boring.Anyway, this is a long review, but it’s because the books in this part of the series have major issues and really need a firm editor to make them work as well as the earlier books did. Each of these stories need a clearer focus, a smaller cast of characters and less overlap with other books, so one book no longer contains spoilers for the next book. Weber can be a good writer, but he seems to have gotten lazy and the editor’s touch is sorely missed. I really hope Weber rediscovers his ability to write sharply plotted stories filled with adrenaline, since that David Weber is sorely missed.

This is the 17th of a group of novels set about two thousand years from now in the future which David Weber initially created for his character Honor Harrington. Of these "A Rising Thunder" is the thirteenth novel in which Honor Harrington herself is the most important character. Currently (Summer 2012) there are seventeen full-length novels set in the same universe at the same approximate time, and this does not include a prequel series set only fifteen hundred years in the future and featuring Honor's ancestor Stephanie Harrington.The preceding book in the series, " Mission of Honor: Honor Harrington, Book 12 " concluded with a handshake between Queen Elizabeth of Manticore and President Pritchard of Haven which marked the final end to the series of wars between these two star nations which dominated the first eleven Honor Harrington books.I refer to "A Rising Thunder" as a bridge novel, however, because it more or less completes the transition or bridge from a "Ms Hornblower in Space" storyline about a conflict between Manticore (clearly inspired by Britain at the time of Nelson) and Haven (an enemy power which has elements inspired by nazi Germany and soviet Russia but is mainly equivalent to Revolutionary/Napoleonic France), to a different story arc in which the sinister Mesan Alignment is trying to manipulate pretty well the whole galaxy into a gigantic series of wars, including one between Manticore and the vast "Solarian Republic."During the past few books the situation between Manticore and the Solarian Republic, which is the biggest star nation in the galaxy, has been getting worse and worse. The reader knows, but at first most of the characters don't, that they are being manipulated by the sinister "Mesan Alignment." However it was clear before the start of this book, both to the reader and to many characters in the series, that the entire galactic order is in danger of collapsing into war and chaos."A Rising Thunder" largely follows on from "Mission of Honor" except that David Weber adds a little more detail about the trip back home from Mesa of two super-spies who discovered in the book " The Torch Of Freedom " an outline of what the Mesans are really up to. This forces the author to recapitulate a couple of scenes from "Mission of Honor" including the final one when Elizabeth shakes Eloise Pritchard's hand.Six of the "Honorverse" books covering a slightly earlier phase in the story are organised into three linked but distinct sub-series which portrayed unfolding events with the focus on three different perspectives of the galactic situation, but Weber moved away from that approach with "Mission of Honor" and both that book and this one cover the whole picture.If you have not read any of the Honorverse books and are interested in doing so, do not start with "A rising thunder" as these stories work far better if read in sequence. Start with the first book, which is " On Basilisk Station (Honor Harrington) ."As hinted above, the first eleven "Honor Harrington books, despite the futuristic setting, exhibited strong parallels with Nelson's navy. Assumed technology in the stories to this point imposed constraints on space navy officers similar to those which the technology of fighting sail imposed on wet navy officers two hundred years ago. Similarly, the galactic situation in the novels up to the eleventh book. "At All Costs" had marked similarities to the strategic and political situation in Europe at the time of the French revolutionary wars. However, particularly after the gigantic battle at the end of that book which roughly corresponds to Trafalgar, the story has started to go in a wholly different direction.This divergence applies to both the political diplomatic storyline and to naval technology. For the first few books you could see close parallels for the characters, nations and ship classes with those in C.S. Forester's "Hornblower" series or the real history of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. E.g. Manticore was Britain, Haven was France, Honor Harrington was a mix of Horatio Nelson and Horatio Hornblower, Rob S. Pierre was Robespierre, the Committee of Public Safety was the Committee of Public Safety, "ships of the wall" were ships of the line with superdreadnaughts as first rates, etc, etc. One book,  Echoes of Honour (Honorverse)  was even an almost exact parallel to the Hornblower book  Flying Colours .However, as the story diverges from that of the Napoleonic wars, so the parallels with 20th century naval warfare or with space battle games like "Starfire" (of which Weber was one of the creators) have become stronger than those with the age of fighting sail. First he brought in Q-Ships, then spaceships which correspond to aircraft and carriers, and a ship type introduced in "Mission of Honor" could be seen as equivalent to submarines.Before the tensions between Manticore and the Solarian Republic led to actual hostilities, those tensions could be seen as equivalent within Nelson-era parallels as imposing similar strategic considerations on the Manticoran navy that the threat of war with the USA (which, of course, eventually happened as the war of 1812) had on the British Royal Navy prior to 1812. But the Solarian Republic in this story is so much more relatively huge, populous and wealthy relative to Manticore than the infant United States was in 1812 relative to the British Empire, that the Nelson era parallels are no longer helpful.If you are trying to work out in what order to read the "Honorverse" books, here is a description of the sequence of the first 17 novels. The main sequence of 12 novels prior to this one follows the career of Honor Harrington herself, and consists of1) On Basilisk Station2) The Honor of the Queen3) The Short Victorious War4) Field of Dishonour5) Flag in Exile6) Honor among Enemies7) In Enemy Hands8) Echoes of Honor9) Ashes of Victory10) War of Honor11) At All Costs12) Mission of HonourI would have considered "A Rising Thunder" to follow in that list because it is the next novel in which Honor Harrington herself is a major character, but David Weber himself apparently does not. The author's website lists only the 12 novels above as the "Honor Harrington" books and then describes all subsequent novels in the same universe including "A rising thunder" as "Honorverse" books. I presume this is because, although she is still a major character, Honor herself does not dominate this book to the extent she does most of the twelve listed above.The "Torch" or anti-slavery sequence (with Eric Flint as co-author) focusses on the battle for freedom of people who have been held in slavery by "Manpower," which at first is seen as a huge and corrupt company corresponding to the slave trader interests in Britain and America some two hundred years ago. The books with this focus are(i) Crown of Slaves (set at about the same time as "War of Honor"), and(ii) Torch of Freedom (set at about the same time as "At All Costs").The "Shadow" or Talbot Quadrant sequence consists of three books which focus on that area of the Galaxy, and particularly on the rapidly worsening crisis between Honor Harrington's home star nation of Manticore and the Solarian republic. The books to date in this sub-series are(a) The Shadow of Saganami (overlaps the 1st half of "At All Costs"), and(b) Storm from the Shadows (overlaps "At All Costs" but starts and finishes later.)(c) Shadow of Freedom (set at about the same time as this book, "A Rising Thunder")According to David Weber's website, he is collaborating with Eric Flint to write another Honorverse book which will have a title influenced by Shakespeare's Macbeth: he was originally going to title it "Cauldron of Ghosts" but is now thinking of "Cauldron Boil, Cauldron Bubble.""Mission of Honor" pulled the threads together again, beginning shortly after the end of "Storm from the Shadows" and taking forward the characters and stories from that book, "At All Costs" and "Torch of Freedom." As explained above, this book then carries the story on after "Mission of Honor."The most recent book in the Honorverse series as at March 2013, set at about the same time as "A Rising Thunder" (not counting the prequel series) is called " Shadow of Freedom (Honor Harrington) ." Before reading this I had assumed from the fact that Baen Books had put Honor Harrington's image on the front cover that it would be the next book about her, but it isn't. As the title infers, this is the third book in the "Shadow" sequence, the main character is Honor's friend Admiral Michelle Henke, and Honor does not appear at all in the book. So it was rather naughty of Baen Books to pur her picture on the cover. Never mind.I ought for completeness to add that besides the volumes listed above there are several collections in the "Worlds of Honor" series of short stories by Weber and co-authors set in the same universe, and featuring a range of characters, some from the main series of books, others new.Having mentioned the prequel series I should also explain that one of these short stories was extended to form the first of a new Honorverse series for young adults, with the eponymous novel " A Beautiful Friendship " released in October 2011. It features Stephanie Harrington, a member of an earlier generation of Honor Harrington's family, who lived about 500 years before Honor and was the first human to be "adopted" by a "Treecat," a member of the planet Sphinx's native intelligent species. The Treecats are telepaths among themselves and can read human emotions, and some of them form a lifelong telepathic bond with humans: for example Honor Harrington has been adopted by a treecat called Nimitz.At the time of updating this review the second book in the prequel series has been published and is called " Fire Season (Star Kingdom) ," and this will be followed by "The Treecat wars.""A Rising Thunder" is slightly shorter than some of the recent books in this series, and a better book for it. Weber has also been working on his tendancy to give far too much detail about the vast size and power of the fleets which his characters are commanding or in which they serve.The "Mesan Alignment" behind Manpower, who have been moving other characters in the story around like chess pieces for the past few books, began to act more openly with devastating consequences in the last one. But this time they are frantically trying to cover their tracks.The best way I can think of to give a potentially interested reader a hint to help you decide whether you want to read about these guys, without spoiling the story, is to say that their leader Albrecht Detweiler is what you might get by combining * Dr Soong from Star Trek Enterprise but without the scruples, * the rulers of Lois McMaster Bujold's  Cetaganda  but without the humour, and * the arch-villian from the James Bond stories, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, without the cat. Honor and some of her friends are the ones with cats - or rather treecats - in this series.I can recommend this book. My biggest concern about David Weber is that he has so many projects on the go: he says on his own website that"I have more stories I want to tell than I have time in which to tell them."He quite rightly adds that this is a better problem than the reverse. At the moment he is working on or considering books in no fewer than eight different series. These are1) the Honorverse (with sub-series set in various quadrants and different centuries),2) the Multiverse series which begins with "Hell's Gate" although this one is stalled for the moment while he works on other things,3) the Bahzell Bahnahkson/War God series in which book four "War Maid's choice" has just come out and there will be at least one more,4) The Safehold/Nimue Alban series which begins with  Off Armageddon Reef ); the most recent in this series was "Midst Toil and Tribulation" and the next one will be "Like a mighty army" due September 2013.5) The Prince Roger/Empire of Man series in which a prequel about the founding of the empire is being considered6) The Dahak trilogy which he would like to expand to five books by adding a prequel to the currently first book "Mutineer's Moon" and a sequel to the third one, "Heirs of Empire."7) Dave Weber would also like to write a couple of additional books in the "In Fury Born" universe, and8) His editor has asked him to consider extending the book "Out of the Dark" to a series.Wow! That should keep him busy for a few decades! Mission of Honor: Honor Harrington, Book 12The Torch Of FreedomOn Basilisk Station (Honor Harrington)Echoes of Honour (Honorverse)Flying ColoursShadow of Freedom (Honor Harrington)A Beautiful FriendshipFire Season (Star Kingdom)CetagandaOff Armageddon Reef

This book is, perhaps, the last of the books that David Weber says will retell the story from a different perspective. He explains this in an authors note in 'Storm from the Shadows'. Although there isn't much repetition, parts of the first few chapters happened before the end of 'Mission of Honor'.I was tempted to make the rating four stars, but changed my mind and set it to five; my reasons being that it is difficult to do what david has set out to attempt and in my opinion he does a very good job.He's trying to tie everything together, and set in place enough back-story/background to allow later occurancies to be both believable and more understandable; at least that is what I feel.I enjoyed reading the book; it didn't quite satisfy my craving for a Honor Harrington novel, like the rest have done. Indeed, the two books featuring Michelle Henke as the lead were more enjoyable from a pure space-opera perspective, and very good in their own right.I am however looking forward to seeing how all the threads introduced in the book both develope individually and come together.I also wondered if David could continue to make the actions of the 'mandarins' from old terra believeable; without giving anything away, he managed it very well as far as I am concerned. The justification for the alliance between Haven and the Star Kingdom/Empire was also well handled; another potential stumbling block I thought.So whilst you might not enjoy it as much as others, I think after consideration you'll be glad you read it.

I think that this is another 'political' - like "Field of Dishonor" - to bridge between more-active stories.I suspect that Weber is also still mentally 'changing gear'. He commented in an earlier book that he was now trying to achieve his ultimate aim within Honor Harrington's lifespan, instead of leaving the finale to her children; this is to be done by taking up an idea that came from an 'Honorverse' collaborator. As started in "Mission of Honor" he now groups chapters by month (like the 'Safehold' novels); this means that the various threads of the story each advance a little bit at a time in parallel. The mental disconnect this can cause to the reader is best dealt with by reading the whole book (all 450-odd pages) at one sitting. I will admit that I did skip one apparent action sequence during my first reading, because the month-dating showed that it was just a simulation exercise. Once you have the whole picture, you can afford to go back and re-read the bits you want, in whatever order you want, to cement the story in your mind.It surprised me, when I looked back, that the writing of this series now spans 19 years. It still seems to have some way to go, and this book is as essential and gripping as any, but sufficiently complex to daunt some readers.

Latest novel in the 'Honor Harrington' series of military science fiction novels. The thirteenth to feature the title character. And there have been those in which she didn't feature, so this makes it the seventeenth book in all.Thus it's not really a good jumping on point. New readers should go to  On Basilisk Station (Honorverse) .Regular ones can read on.The last book, 'Mission of Honor', saw the ongoing story about the sinister Mesans trying to force war between Manticore and the Solarian league continue, with the start of an alliance between former long time enemies Manticore and Haven.In the meantime, as this volume starts, the situation between Manticore and the Solarian league continues to steadily escalate. And the latter may not be able to afford to back down.As former enemies start to become friends, the march to war continues...Despite being billed as an Honor Harrington novel, she only pops up every so often. And is absent for just over the first hundred pages. Those involve chapters which show the continuing escalation to conflict. Often with new characters. All of whom tend to talk in a very similar style.And once again, as with other recent books in the series, talking is something they do a lot of. Discussing their situations in great detail.Despite a quick bit of space action early on this bringing in new characters and the way of talking means it doesn't quite grab from the off. And it's rather ironic that an early chapter begins with a character complaining about things being boring. Because the early chapters are. They simply do not grab. It's very easy to skim the prose when reading them.Things do perk up when Honor finally appears. But her chapters, despite some interesting developments with the tree cats, do get a bit bogged down in cosy domesticity.However...Hang on in there. Because we then build to a major set piece, the end of which you will not see coming. Although there is some clever writing in it which does make you reappraise something that takes place earlier. Then after that, even though it's all conversation and no action, and it's still prose that it's easy to skim, it does start to get more involving. With a real feel of making you want to know what will happen next.Not a lot of what does actually involves Honor. It's nearly all Solarian politics. But it develops in an interesting way. And although as mentioned all the characters do tend to talk the same, one rather astute Solarian investigator does make an impression in two short appearances.There is a promise of action come the next volume by the end of this one. Which the series could do with. This one is nearly all set up. But it is at times quite interesting set up. So it may try the patience of long term series fans on occasion, but it should make you want to find what happens next.Thus not the best of the series by any measure, but a volume that needs to be read. On Basilisk Station (Honorverse)

Another one with slow start, and some more slow passages, but then pace picks up. At end you want to go on to the next book. Finding the next book caused me confusion - Rising Thunder is book 13 in the series. I couldn't find book 14 (in this series). Judging by the printing dates, the author went on and wrote some other books linked with Honor Harrington series (I've not read them yet) and then came back to this series a few years later. I think book 19 is the next in this series (Uncompromising Honor) and the story line does continue from book 13. I've yet to finish book 19... Update: Book 19 is the follow on book for the story line from this one.