The Honor of the Queen
(Honor Harrington #2)

David Weber

Riverdale: Baen Books, 1993. ISBN: 0-7434-3572-9. Pp. 422

Review © 2006 Branislav L. Slantchev

After the glorious performance on Basilisk Station, Honor Harrington was given command of HMS Fearless, an advanced Star Knight class heavy cruiser to replace her battered light cruiser of the same name. Her name is well known throughout the region although it has assumed so notoriety because of People's Republic of Haven's sham trial in absentia that has had her convicted for her destruction of an allegedly innocent merchant vessel. Honor is now selected to be the command of a squadron of three ships to escort a diplomatic mission to the strategically important planet of Grayson.

Grayson has been settled five centuries earlier than Manticore by religious zealots who had left Earth to escape its dependence of technology. This happened at the dawn of star flight and they have traveled in cryogenic suspension for a long time until they arrived at Grayson. It is a stunningly beautiful planet but it is extremely hostile to human life on account of being too massive and an environment dominated by poisonous heavy elements. Ironically, the settlers have had to rely on technology just to survive, and over the centuries of isolation they have developed peculiar institutions to deal with the deadliness of their new homeland.

The high mortality of the early colonists and the lopsided male-female ratio that left too few men combined with their traditionalist religious beliefs to create a society where women are placed in an inferior position, both legally and socially. Polygamy is a matter of law and customs deny women any role outside their homes. Men are supposed to be their protectors and it all sounds like a milder version of Islam. However, some time ago a group of fundamentalists have split from the moderates to form a counter-society based on a much stricter interpretation of the founding fathers' religious vision. A brief civil war followed and this group found itself on the losing end. Instead of wiping them out, the rest of society elected to send it into exile to the planet of Masada, where these fundamentalists not only survived but established a viable theocratic society of their own, complete with veiled women like a Taliban regime.

Masada being much more hospitable than Grayson, the fundamentalists increased in numbers and quickly overtook Grayson in population. But they are much more backward technologically, which has not stopped them from attempting to conquer Grayson's "apostates." So far, they have failed despite the use of nuclear weapons during the last war. And now, Haven has established diplomatic relations with the Masadans which has Manticore worried sick because these two planets are smack in the middle between the Kingdom and its rapacious neighbor. To counter this threat, Manticore is trying to enter into a treaty with Grayson, which will allow her to found an advance base in the region. The Graysons, still smarting from their backwardness resulting from being bypassed for centuries by progress, are only too happy to benefit economically and militarily from this alliance.

But two things stand in the way of this alliance. First, not everyone on Grayson is glad to see the powerful newcomers, especially because the squadron commander is female. Second, the Masadans are planning a covert operation with the assistance of Haven's two advanced starships, and even the Havenite captain has no idea about the true purpose of their mission. After a frosty reception at the hands of the male chauvinist society on Grayson, Honor takes two of her ships to escort merchant freighters to another sector, and in her absence the Masadans make their first move in another bid to take over Grayson.

In some ways, The Honor of the Queen is better than its predecessor because with an established baseline about the Honorverse, Weber can afford to plunge into action without getting distracted by a lot of technical detail. He relies quite a bit on readers being familiar with the first book when it comes to characterization of some of the protagonists (e.g., Honor herself, but also her treecat Nimitz, Rafael Cardones, Alistair McKeon, and Scotty Tremaine). This is not to say that this book cannot be read on its own, but one will miss a lot of the enjoyment that comes from meeting familiar faces and seeing their evolution. So one must certainly read this saga in its chronological sequence.

Despite the spectacular space battles, the center of gravity in this novel is around the conflict between Grayson's social traditions and Manticoran values. Manticore is a liberated society where men and women are fully equal. In fact, Weber managed to portray this so naturally in the first book that it never even occurred to me to wonder about it. Rather than harping on "hey, look, they've got women in high commanding posts," which would surely have turned me off as self-serving politically correct propaganda, he simply writes as if this were the natural order of things. As a result, when the Graysons are forced to deal with a Royal Manticoran Naval officer who happens to be a woman, we are just as shocked as the Manticorans.

It is not that Graysons are evil brutes. Weber is careful to provide some sort of evolutionary justification for this type of society and he also notes that women are not only quite safe on Grayson but that they also enjoy decent lives within the confines of their families. In other words, Grayson is exactly like a moderately traditional Muslim society. However, it is clear that the time has come for things to change: modernization cannot proceed while women remain in such a subjugated position, and the alien values of the rich new ally would be very tempting indeed. This threatens the very fabric of society and some one Grayson are not happy with the necessary changes.

The novel essentially deals with how the more enlightened on Grayson make valiant efforts to overcome their prejudices toward women while at the same time confronting the subversive work of their archconservative opponents. Grayson will be dragged into modernity kicking and screaming, but only if it survives Masada's latest attempt to conquer it or, failing that, wiping out its entire population. And when the fundamentalists' first strike eliminates one of Honor's ships, the only defender standing between Grayson and the choice between total annihilation and slavery, is Honor Harrington. A naval officer. A woman. Will the leadership on Grayson be able to forge ahead and rely on a woman to save its planet? Or will they rather see their own demise? And will Honor even bother to risk the lives of her crew to protect the very people who have behaved so atrociously toward her?

A marvelous continuation of the saga, The Honor of the Queen boasts the first ever fighting by a treecat (Nimitz turns out to be quite a handful) and some frisbee-playing with the creature! The brutality of war intrudes yet again as hundreds of people die on Honor's watch and she comes perilously close to sacrificing her entire ship to save Grayson from a nuclear attack. Unlike the common unbeatable heroes, she emerges with a disfigured face and one blind eye after an assassination attempt. In other words, the novel reads like a chronicle of events that really happened, and it is this realism that keeps me coming back to Weber.

In this world good people are not without flaws and bad people are not without merits. After finding out that Masadans have tortured, raped, and murdered survivors from one of her ships, Honor is so enraged that she tries to execute summarily their leader. She does not simply reconsider, she has to be physically subdued and dragged away from him so he can be properly tried for his crimes. The Havenites in service of the Masadans are also quite honorable, with Commander Theisman warning honor of Manticoran prisoners on Blackbird, and Captain Yu who prefers to abandon his ship after a Masadan mutiny deprives him of command rather than stay and serve in their attack on Grayson. The only true villains here are the Masadans, whose unbending fundamentalism has turned them into murderous fanatics. Whereas Grayson will eventually modernize, Masada is beyond redemption, at least as long as it maintains its extreme theocratic system. In this, Weber can be said to have foreseen the Taliban and their eventual fate.

An excellent second entry in the Honor Harrington series, The Honor of the Queen also sees the heroine knighted, elevated to an earl, and awarded a homesteading on Grayson in recognition of her services. I am now running off to buy the next book.

February 5, 2006