2013
is a big year for fans of the Honorverse
series of military space opera novels. Earlier this year came Shadow
of Freedom
(link); already out at the time of this writing (and in fact I've
already started reading it) is the sixth volume of short stories and
novellas written by David Weber and friends, entitled Beginnings;
and with autumn will come the third of the new “Young Adult” Star
Kingdom
novels, Treecat Wars.
This present volume, House
of Steel,
was, according to an afterword, conceived in conjunction with the
twenty-year anniversary of the first appearance of Honor Harrington,
On Basilisk Station
in 1992, and contains as about a third of its length a substantial
novella featuring the father of the current Manticoran Queen
Elizabeth III, King Roger III, with the balance comprising a
long-awaited in-universe guide to the Star Empire of Manticore, its
staunch ally the Protectorate of Grayson, and their respective
militaries that figure so prominently in the series.
