The Honor of the Queen (Honor Harrington #2) (edició 2002)

Honor Harrington and her ship Fearless are on their way to Grayson as part of a diplomatic mission to sign a treaty with Grayson which will advance Grayson technologically and provide Manticore with an ally in its conflict with the Republic of Haven.

The problem is that Grayson is a place where women are definitely second class citizens. Honor's presence is an affront to all of Grayson. She deals with prejudice and intolerance as do her female officers. Because she fears her presence will hamper treaty talks, she convinces the diplomats including her old mentor Admiral Courvosier that she should escort some freighters to their next destination which will take about 11 days.

What she doesn't know is that Grayson's old enemies on Masada are getting ready to invade. And their religious fanaticism makes the Graysonites look positively liberal in comparison. Add in that the Masadans have the secret support of the Republic of Haven in the form of two ships with more power than Honor's and things get tense very quickly.

I liked the way this story told what was happening on Grayson and what was happening on the ships lent to the Masadans. The story was filled with plenty of space battles but also with character development for Honor and for the people on Grayson. ( )

Honor Harrington and her ship Fearless are on their way to Grayson as part of a diplomatic mission to sign a treaty with Grayson which will advance Grayson technologically and provide Manticore with an ally in its conflict with the Republic of Haven.

The problem is that Grayson is a place where women are definitely second class citizens. Honor's presence is an affront to all of Grayson. She deals with prejudice and intolerance as do her female officers. Because she fears her presence will hamper treaty talks, she convinces the diplomats including her old mentor Admiral Courvosier that she should escort some freighters to their next destination which will take about 11 days.

What she doesn't know is that Grayson's old enemies on Masada are getting ready to invade. And their religious fanaticism makes the Graysonites look positively liberal in comparison. Add in that the Masadans have the secret support of the Republic of Haven in the form of two ships with more power than Honor's and things get tense very quickly.

I liked the way this story told what was happening on Grayson and what was happening on the ships lent to the Masadans. The story was filled with plenty of space battles but also with character development for Honor and for the people on Grayson. ( )

Pretty great mil-sf story. A lot better than the first volume - probably because a lot of the infodumps did not need to be repeated - but also because the characters are definitely better developed. ( )

I am a victim of having already read some really great MilSF, and so many of them have had vibrant characters and an outrageous hat-trick narrow escapes.

What does this mean for this particular novel?

Well, unfortunately, the characterizations were NOT as good as the setup in the first Honor book. It seemed rather cardboard-cutout, actually. So I have to rely mostly on good worldbuilding and battles to carry me through this particular novel. It's not a dealbreaker, but it does lessen my enjoyment by loads.

It's a shame, too, because I liked the interplay between the ice-queen and her new crew in the previous one. So years have passed and Honor gets the honor of being on a diplomatic mission as a prelude to war. It's tactics. Staging planets and beachheads and supply lines.

Unfortunately, the planet they're courting for this seems awfully Isreal mixed with a bit more fundamentalist elements that seem Muslim. This book is from '93, so on one hand, I can be somewhat impressed with the willingness to explore social craziness when it comes to women's roles, the perception in the military from the fundamentalist PoV as well as Honor, the exemplary female officer, balking and resolving some of her own issues when dealing with very different cultures. It's all right.

But by this point in my reading career, it's woefully flat and mild and full of aspects that I just can't quite believe.

This is a spacefaring society and, yes, the colonists here were fundamentalists under major terraforming problems that tortured the populace and made them regard women as breeding machines blah blah blah.

No.

So wait, the characters fell in quality and the seemingly impressive worldbuilding bits are kinda falling short? Possibly. So what's left?

Space Battle.

That was okay. :) Oh, and battle wounds. Particularly Honor. I felt something for her there. ; ;

I will probably continue this at some later date, but I'm not sure it warrants the full-press treatment anymore. ( )

Honor Harrington visita el planeta Grayson, que es básicamente un trasunto de la Utah más fundamentalista. Hay roces debido a que para los Graysonianos una mujer de uniforme es algo repelente. Hay más peleas y Harrington debe tirar de heroísmo para que los Graysonianos la reconozcan como persona válida. ( )