Jack of Harts

It is impossible to overestimate how much I have loved the Honor Harrington series of books over the years. From when the books started On Basilisk Station until the finale of Uncompromising Honor, I have been a fan. First David Weber and then others that he has cowritten books with have become “Must Buy On Sight” authors for me. I do not check reviews. I simply buy them, and not once have I regretted those classifications. The Honor Harrington series, and everything he’s had a hand in writing, have been golden nuggets of imagination for my mind.

And it would be impossible to rate exactly how much his writing and stories influences my own writing. I purposefully write in a different style than he does, and I most certainly avoid the walls of math he puts in his stories. There are many other ways in which I don’t write like him. If I tried, I would be a poor copy, and that would do none of us any good. But I do take many lessons from him, and I worked hard to incorporate those in my writing. I have learned much of the craft of writing just by analyzing his books, and the books of those he associates with. That is the highest praise I can give to an author. Well…there is the fact that one of the ships in my Jack of Harts universe is named Harrington. I do reserve the honor of naming my ships after things I like, or friends I have. I think most authors do that. It’s our little way of bestowing immortality onto the things that have affected us.

Like Honor Harrington.

Uncompromising Honor is a conclusion to the story arc begun On Basilisk Station. Honor grew up in a Star Kingdom that knew it was going to war with Haven, one day or another. She volunteered to serve, she fought pirates and slavers, and in time she went to war. She lost loved ones and friends. Mentors and trusted allies. She lost her arm, her eye, and nearly her life more than once. But she always got back up and did her duty. Or what she considered her duty, which was not always what those in power thought her duty SHOULD be. She fought Haven. She fought corrupt nobility. She fought sexist pigs. She killed more than one of them in spectacular fashions and more than one of them made satisfying thumps as they hit the ground. And as the story progressed and the Solarian League entered the fray, she fought them too.

That is the story of Uncompromising Honor. The Solarian League has pushed Manticore again and again. Idiot fleet admirals and conniving spies and agents of Mesa have pushed the two nations into conflict again and again. Untold millions of civilians and military personnel have died since the Solarian League started to wake up to the fact that the barbarians on their borders think they’re hot stuff. The League has been humiliated. Manticore has been pissed off. And everybody in the galaxy has been watching anxiously as they get closer and closer to pulling the trigger and going hog wild on each other. Each of them see a slim window of opportunity in which they could win. And in the end, each of them take it.

And that is how Uncompromising Honor brings her story to a conclusion. Her story was originally supposed to end in her death at the Battle of Grayson, or so I understand. And then it was supposed to end with her death at the Battle of Manticore. Both defensive last stands, holding the line against implacable enemies until the very end. The only thing left of her a message that the tradition continues. That the Royal Manticoran Navy held the line to the very last. Instead the story we first got introduced to On Basilisk Station came to a satisfying conclusion in the heart of the Solarian star system. A book series that has killed countless drums of ink detailing stories happening in far off worlds a thousand and more lightyears from Earth, came back to the home of mankind. A final showdown between an Uncompromising Honor and those who had helped kill so many of her family, friends, and countrymen.

It is a good book, and I enjoyed reading it. It is not an end to the series. David and others have created many characters other than Honor who can headline stories for a long time to come. We will see more stories in the universe. But this book is a conclusion to Honor’s story arc. It is a conclusion that establishes a new universe to play with. A new baseline from which stories can flow.

I am happy to have read and shared this universe and this story with millions of fans. I am happy to have laughed and cried with Honor and her friends for half of my life. I will be happy to be able to say I am an Honor Harrington fan for the REST of my life.

And on that fact, I do not believe I will ever compromise. 😉