maza's Full Review: David Weber - The Short Victorious War: Library Ed...
This book and the next one of the series, A Field of Dishonor, should be read as one. I strongly suspect that Weber started out to write only a third book, but when the set-up for the climactic confrontation stretched near book length, he (or the publisher) cut it off and called it a book. The story resumes immediately in Field of Dishonor and builds toward the resolution of a conflict that started in On Basilisk Station.
After lengthy recuperation from the wounds she suffered on Grayson, Honor is assigned a new command, a plum, _Nike_, the newest battlecruiser in the Manticoran fleet. _Nike_ is designated the flagship of a squadron that is assigned to defend a remote naval base. Once again Honor is flag captain to an admiral.
There is a great deal of detail of fleet and Manticoran politics. These scenes are intercut with scenes of the incursions, provocations, and machinations of the aggressive People's Republic. It is clear to the Navy that the Peeps are building toward war, but the Manticoran Parliament dithers, equivocates, vacillates. And, we are privileged to know, the Navy's own intelligence is flawed. Where will the first attack fall? Will the Navy be ready, or will its units be in all the wrong systems?
The military and political manouvering is enlivened by a plot thread of Honor's finding the first, or at least the first satisfactory, sexual relationship of her career. A person becomes nearly as important to her as her command, for a time. Meanwhile, one of the other captains in the squadron is an old enemy of Honor's; a man who has hated her since they were cadets together. Lord Pavel Young is the officer who left her to sink or swim on Basilisk station. Now he has to accept the admiral's orders as relayed by Honor. The Peeps attack; the squadron is outgunned and must defend a base containing thousands of lives, among them Honor's lover.
The first problem with this book (and the previous books in the series) is Weber's generally flat prose style and tin ear for dialogue. The prose is grammatical and clear enough; and Weber does have good plotting skills; so when there is a battle or a confrontation, you can't turn the pages fast enough. But when characters slow down and talk to each other quietly, or when there is scenery to be described -- you can't turn the pages fast enough.
Perhaps a larger problem for some readers is Weber's open admiration for all things military. Most Naval types, indeed almost anyone in a uniform, is honest, reliable, warm-hearted and clear-sighted -- even the military on the enemy side. Not only are all Weber's military folk straight-arrows morally; they possess almost the only accurate political perception in Weber's universe. The civilian government perpetually holds them back from doing the right thing (striking hard, first, and fast) and it is portrayed as weak and morally compromising. This kind of fawning after the military really isn't necessary and it unbalances the stories. Honor simply doesn't understand how to do a bad job.
But that wasn't the root cause of the dissatisfaction, the vague sense of possibilities unfulfilled, with which these books left me. Finally it came to me: Honor never faces a hard choice. She faces difficulty, hard work, and personal danger with bravery and panache; but in every case the proper, morally good, course of action is obvious; she only has to have the courage to pursue it. That is the essence of military adventure, of course. These books are at a far higher level than a game of DOOM -- so is it unfair of me to want more?
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