By David Weber and friends
One of the cooler things about David
Weber's Honorverse (which I recently described here)
is that he allows other science-fiction writers to contribute,
sometimes collaborating with him for full-length novels, sometimes
(as here), penning short stories and novellas for a series of volumes
collectively entitled, after the second, Worlds of Honor.
They are, of course, of varying quality – or maybe a better word
would be pertinence (I'm thinking mainly of a story by David
Drake in the first volume, I think, that basically has nothing to do
with the particular aspects of the universe Weber has created, but
rather could have been set in any science-fictional context) – but
generally all make good reads. Sometimes characters that will later
play an important role in the main series are introduced by one of
his fellow authors in a story contained in one of these collections.
And in each of the Worlds of Honor volumes thus far Weber
himself has included a short story or novella set at some earlier or
unexplored stage in the career of his main heroine, Honor Harrington.
Here we have three stories including one by Weber, plus a treatise
on one aspect of the technology postulated in the series that allows
the rousing tales of interstellar warfare.
“Ruthless” by Jane Lindskold is
something of a follow-up to a story by the same author in the
previous volume, which introduced the characters of Judith, her
daughter Ruth, and Queen Elizabeth's son Prince Michael. Ruth is, of
course, an important character in the Crown of Slaves spin-off
series by Weber and Eric Flint. Here, she is a child, little more
than a toddler, become a kidnapped pawn in a plot to force Prince
Michael to disgrace himself and discredit a recent development in the
Star Kingdom's diplomatic maneuvering against the People's Republic
of Haven. As in the earlier story, Judith once again proves herself
a strong young woman and, along with Michael himself, tracks down the
kidnappers with the help of the instigants' own daughter, a former
classmate of the prince, thwarting the plot against the Star Kingdom.
“An Act of War” is something of a
lark by Timothy Zahn. When a con man playing a dangerous game in the
People's Republic of Haven is caught out, he must orchestrate a real
con to try to get the Star Kingdom of Manticore and the Anderman
Empire into a war which will divert the Manticorans' attentions and
resources away from Haven. … Except that that's not his real goal
at all. It's a complex and twisty tale that leaves me wanting to
read more about the mysterious Solarian dissident agent “Charles.”
“'Let's Dance'” is this volume's
contribution by Weber himself, and the longest. It takes place a few
years before we actually met Honor as captain of the H.M.S.S.
Fearless in the first novel, On Basilisk Station. Here
she is commander of a destroyer, the H.M.S.S. Hawkwing,
recently dispatched on a cruise in the Silesian Confederation, a
lawless and corrupt loose association of star systems – Weber
describes it as a “kleptocracy” – that just happens to be an
important trading partner with Manticore. The story takes up with
the immediate aftermath of the Hawkwing's encounter with
pirates and finds Honor dealing with the local Silesian authorities
who are in bed with the pirates. Not all of the Silesian navy's own
officers are corrupt, however, and through an encounter with one who
seems a cut above the rest she finds herself approached by the
anti-genetic-slavery Audubon Ballroom, ultimately carrying out a
joint raid with that officially terrorist organization against a base
in a Silesian system – with the full knowledge that her actions
will cause a diplomatic furor that will likely ruin her career.
“Let's dance!” is the battle-cry of the Audubon Ballroom, and
let's just say you don't want to be a genetic slaver on the
Ballroom's dance card! One thing Weber does very well is convey the
complexities of the situation and the moral debate over whether
terroristic tactics are ever justifiable even if understandable given
the horrors that the victims of genetic slavery such as make up the
Audubon Ballroom have been subjected to.
The last section in the book is not
really a story, but a dry exposition on “An Introduction to Modern
Starship Armor Design” by Andy Presby. Sometimes these can be good
reads in and of themselves, such as when Weber in the first Worlds
of Honor collection described the basic theory of
faster-than-light travel, laser-head missile warfare, and the history
of the “Diaspora,” man's expansion in the galaxy with special
attention to the development of Haven and Manticore. This time,
unfortunately, even this fan of such technical detail and extensive
datadumping couldn't get more than a few pages in. There are also a
few pages of technical schematics that, frankly, don't illuminate
anything for me either. But I'm sure there are Honorverse
fans that eat this kind of stuff up even more than myself.
All in all, “'Let's Dance!'” is by
itself enough to warrant picking this volume up, especially given the
increasing importance of the evils of genetic slavery in the
developing plot in the most recent books of the main series. The
other two stories, expecially “Ruthless,” are well worth reading
as well.
Cheers, and Thanks for reading!
.jpg)
