Honor Among Enemies
(Honor Harrington #6)

David Weber

Riverdale: Baen, 1996. ISBN: 0-671-87783-6. Pp. 538

Review © 2006 Branislav L. Slantchev

The space saga about the intrepid larger-than-life captain of the Royal Manticoran Navy Honor Harrington continues with this, the sixth in the series, novel. Several years has passed since she was beached at half-pay by the Navy under political pressure from the Opposition, time she spent on her adoptive planet of Grayson where she had to face murderous plots against her and the changes she brought to that society as well as fight another attempted invasion by the People's Republic of Haven. Now the time has come for Manticore to start rehabilitating her. She cannot be restored to the rank she deserves but at least they are trying to put her back on active duty. Even though she is an admiral in the young Grayson Navy, Honor will obviously jump at the chance to put back on the black uniform of the RMN. But what is her new mission?

The war with Haven is now years old and even though the Peeps have managed to pull themselves together and stiffen their defense enough to blunt Manticore's invasion drive, they are still seriously hampered by the paranoia of their ruling Committee of Public Safety which practices "collective responsibility," an euphemism for holding an officer's entire family responsible for his failure whether or not they were honest mistakes or traitorous acts. With their commanders getting periodically purged for even minor transgressions, the Peeps just cannot amass enough military experience to match Manticore's advantage. And when their technological inferiority is added to the mix, it should come as no surprise that they are fighting in retreat.

However, one thing they do understand well is that war requires money. Lots of it. And Manticore's income is predicated on their ability to sustain interstellar commerce. One particularly important source of profit for its trading cartels is the Silesian Confederacy, a semi-anarchic loose organization of planets with a very weak central government and plenty of secessionist movements. Ever since Manticore was forced to withdraw their military patrols to use them in the war, pirates have been raiding the merchant ships inflicting severe losses that have now mounted to the point that the cartels, especially the premier Hauptman Cartel, are contemplating withdrawal with the corresponding loss of tax revenue for the monarchy. The RMN must do something to alleviate the pressure and the one thing they can do is send Honor with some new Q-ships (merchantmen converted for military use). But what she thinks will be a tough fight against raiders is going to be much more: for the Peeps have also realized that pirates are helping their cause, and so will making them more effective by doing some of their work. Not to mention that some pirates are a lot more vicious than usual.

This novel touches an important theme that I hope will get more play in the following ones. Unlike the usual black-and-white setup where you always know who the good and the bad guys are, Weber at least has made an effort not to dehumanize the Havenites. Well, at least some of them. In particular, this book goes to great lengths to show that its military men and women are also honorable people who have a strong sense of duty and who are prepared to take great personal risks, even going against their dangerous government's orders, to do what they believe a decent human should. Case in point is, of course, Commander Caslet who uncovers evidence that some pirates have murdered the entire crew of a merchant vessel and have tortured and raped it before they did. It does not matter that the victims are Manties or that Caslet himself is supposed to be raiding commerce: the inhuman viciousness of the attack leaves no doubt that his duty as an officer of any navy to protect civilians must take precedence.

Whether this is realistic or not is another matter. Our own history is not very encouraging in that respect. Even if it is true that the military usually does not engage in wholesale slaughter of unarmed civilians (even that has very notable exceptions), it is very hard to see just how the Peeps and the Manties have been able to maintain a civilized view of each other for so long into the war. Especially with the Peeps' state-controlled propaganda machine, I would have expected them to crank up the reports of alleged atrocities by their enemies in a perfect execution of the time-honored tactic of dehumanizing your opponent. Even with the freedom of the press on Manticore I would expect much of that to happen if our own experiences during the world wars is any indicator. It is also true that fraternization is possible but it's usually at the lowest level and it's usually the officers who work hard to stop it and prevent it. And while officers tend to fare better in captivity, it really depends on the enemies, just compare the fates of Soviet and American or British officers captured by the Germans. While Weber makes an admirable effort in trying to show us that the Peeps are basically as noble as their opponents, the way he chooses to do it undermines some of the credibility. He should have shown them doing noble things but not to Manticorans. Of course that would leave Honor out, so I can see why he did what he did.

Despite several breath-taking space engagements, the bulk of the book is about Honor whipping her newbie crew into shape. In what reads like a nice episode of Star Trek: TNG, we spend a lot of time with some "lowly" inexperienced crew members who have to cope with ever-mounting responsibilities and work their way through some nasty interpersonal conflicts with a handful of troublemakers. In another refreshing display of realism, Weber does not flinch from the notion that violence is sometimes the only solution to certain problems. When the much-abused Wanderman trains with the Marines to stand up to his tormentor, we already know how his next confrontation with the guy will end. And yet that does not diminish the shock of it all when Wanderman does not stop at beating him up to pulp but goes beyond and crushes his kneecap just for the sake of revenge for the attempted murder of his friend. It is explosive and I am sure some readers would have preferred that Wanderman ran to the Captain to spill his guts hoping she'd take care of it (which she doubtless would have), but I find this resolution more realistic and more satisfying.

Despite long passages dedicated to her musings and her near self-sacrifice in the last battle (to save a Mantie passenger ship with Hauptman himself on board!), Honor really takes a back seat here, and I must say that was a pity. No matter how implausibly competent she is, I always prefer following her adventures. It's not just because she always seems to find herself in the fire but because the odds are usually so stacked up against her that it's a rush just to see how she will find a way out. As it is, much of the novel is non-action, which may truthfully reflect the fact the naval life consists of long stretches of boredom punctuated by violent bursts of action. But however truthful that reflection is, I do not know that it makes for very engaging story-telling. Weber's novels have been getting lengthier and lengthier (this one is twice as long as the first) and the adventures mostly stay at the same frequency, which makes them a lot sparser. Like the cosmos, the novel is mostly empty space with the rare beacon of something to sink your teeth in. It is still worth reading, mind you, it's just that it's not that absorbing (I had to take it in at least three separate blocs of time).

Now that I have stopped whining about this novel, I will scurry to Barnes & Noble to purchase the next tome, which seems just as long as this one.

February 23, 2006