The Short Victorious War
(Honor Harrington #3)

David Weber

Riverdale: Baen Books, 1994. ISBN: 0-7434-3573-7. Pp. 376

Review © 2006 Branislav L. Slantchev

This is the third Honor Harrington novel in the series and is quite a bit more sluggish than the first two for despite some top-notch space combat scenes, it really tries to flesh out some of the politics (mostly on Haven) and give some fullness to Honor's personal life. As such, it does not rank as highly as its predecessors but it's nevertheless fun and absolutely vital for the sequels. In fact, this book ends smack in the middle of its most important subplot, which makes it read like an introduction to the follow-up.

After years of expansion, the People's Republic of Haven has finally gobbled up all the weaker systems around it. Now it has not contend with the Kingdom of Manticore, which surpasses it in technology and efficiency but is lacking in numbers. The government of Haven applies that specious philosophy of a "diversionary war," which any political scientist would know to treat with a grain of salt the size of Antarctica. The problem with waging a "short, victorious war" for the purposes of profitable conquest is that it requires one to be in a very sound fiscal and military situation. In other words, weak states only fight these wars at their own peril. In fact, I cannot think of a single example in which a state as distressed as Haven lashed out at a powerful adversary and lived to tell the tale.

History provides examples of this. Take the Russo-Japanese War of 1904. Weber, of course, is perfectly aware of this parallel since he's taken the title of the book from a quite by the Russian Foreign Minister at the time who thought the imperial government could profit by disabusing the Japanese from their pretensions to a sphere of influence in the far east. The problem is that Russia was in no position to fight this war on such a far-flung front and ended up losing it, along with her entire Baltic fleet which went down ignominiously in the straits of Tsushima. A domestic revolution (in which said minister lost his life) followed and forced the Tsar to grant the first semi-constitutional rights to form a parliament. Before anyone thinks this never works, let's not forget that the Japanese themselves had fought a short, victorious war against the Chinese about two decades earlier. But they were strong, and the Russians were not.

Weber traces the domestic conspiracy on Haven that would unseat the government, and here the parallels are not with 1905 or 1917 but rather with the French Revolution (I mean, Robert Stanton Pierre... Rob S. Pierre... it does not get any more transparent than this). Of course, as soon as the news of military disasters begin to trickle in, the revolutionary committee sweeps into power and the purges immediately begin in a bizarre cross of the French Terror and Stalinist purges. In all of this, Honor has only a peripheral role to play, unfortunately.

She has been left understrength (as usual) at Hancock Station when the bulk of the fleet has concentrated elsewhere in a total miscalculation of Havenite intent. This, admittedly, is an understandable mistake because the pattern of seemingly random incursions did not suggest Hancock as the target of a major thrust by the Havenite fleet. But of course it is, and Honor is left to make a gallant last stand against overwhelming odds while desperately awaiting reinforcements. The interesting twist here is that Pavel Young, the would be rapist, the one truly black character in the series, appears only to find himself under Honor's command (even though she is junior in rank, she is the commanding Admiral's flag captain). In what will turn out to be a momentous event for everyone involved, Young finally reveals his personal cowardice as he breaks off from the formation in the middle of the fight and refuses to return despite direct orders to the contrary. This nearly causes the collapse of Honor's strategy but, even more importantly, is grounds for court-martial with a possible death sentence in case of conviction.

The other momentous event is that Honor falls in love for the first time in her life. And it is with Paul Tankersley (whom some may recall from the first book, he was Young's exec). It is amusing to read about her discovering the "wonders" of womanhood, letting her hair grow, learning to put on make-up, and enjoying sex quite a bit. When one remembers that she is at least a head taller than her lover, the scenes with them embracing standing do bring some funny images to mind. Honor is Weber's creation and far be it for me to criticize who she should behave, but it seems a bit strange that she would make all these drastic changes so quickly (within months) even as she was prepared to sacrifice Paul with the rest of the station when it became clear that there was no way to evacuate them in time. But maybe that's just me.

The novel moves way too ponderously to be truly entertaining and I started cringing at the tedious personal observations that turn any dialogue into a psychoanalytical session. There are passages that take pages to wade through just to cover three lines of dialogue. I don't care how observant people are, but all this suppressed smiles, knowing glances, and raised eyebrows really began to get on my nerves. I like the politics (although I really doubt that a totalitarian government can be wiped out as easily as Haven's was) and I enjoy the occasional frivolity as much as the next guy (I was quite partial to Honor's hang-gliding), but the insightful characterization and enunciation of every little detail in one's speech were just too much. I hope Weber returns to the far more entertaining aspects of his story-telling soon.

February 9, 2006