Author Review: David Weber’s Honorverse Books
David Weber is a prolific Science-Fiction writer. He writes most of his novels and short stories as a sole author, but some are written in collaboration with other writers. Other writers have also produced stories with the same background, called the “Honorverse”.
The background to a large number of his stories is the Kingdom of Manticore, a solar system consisting of 3 planets, and the wars between them and the Republic of Haven. The main protagonist is Honor Harrington who starts off as a lowly midshipwoman in the Manticore space navy. She eventually becomes a citizen of two systems and commands high positions in both worlds. As well as the main series starring Honor, some stories pre-date Honor and tell of events leading to the main period.
Other stories concentrate on other characters and tell of events which are happening concurrently with those starring Honor. Because of this, there is some crossover in some of the later stories. Another sub-plot is the discovery of tree-cats, which happen to be both telepathic and empathic. They form a close bond with certain humans and Honor eventually helps develop a means by which they can communicate with humans.
Lurking in the background is “Manpower”, a purveyor of genetic slaves, which both Manticor and Haven are opposed to. In the later stories it becomes evident that “Manpower” is more than just a criminal organisation and has very long range objectives. As an introduction to David Weber and Honor Harrington, I recommend On Basilisk Station. I admit this is the first book I read by David Weber and it coerced me to read more. The Library has a copy of this book but, if you are using a computer, you can read online from the free library at Baen ebooks. They also have a large number of books available for download in a number of formats for a fee. I have attached a reading guide as well as a list indicating which books the SMSA library has on its shelves.
 David Weber’s Honorverse |
| Honorverse reading list |
Tom Thorburn Director, Board of the SMSA, and Life Member
