Honor is back in the Star Kingdom but faces a lengthy recovery due to her ordeal in the Cerberus System. Meanwhile, the rest of the galaxy waits with bated breath as the war between the Star Kingdom and Peoples Republic heats up.

Overall a good book but I wish there were more Honor in it. I felt like we spent too much time with side characters and not enough with Honor. I get that she was recovering and teaching, so I understand why we didn't spend this time with her. This is another good addition in the series but personal exceptions were not met causing me to rate it a bit lower. ( )

This episode concerns itself with with happens after Honor returns from imprisonment along with 400,000 other former prisoners including a Peep Admiral who knows what really happened at the time of the Harris assassination and the role the current leaders on Haven played in it. This is a very bad public relations problem for the Peeps just when they are starting to amass some military victories under Admiral McQueen.

Meanwhile on Manticore, Honor is getting ready for all sorts of medical intervention to fix the nerves on her face, reinstall her artificial eyes and manage a new prosthetic left arm. Nimitz is also going to undergo repairs of his injuries but the loss of his telepathic connection with his mate and the other treecats isn't as easy to repair. However, Honor's mother has an idea based on an old Earth language called "sign language" which might give Nimitz a way to communicate again and will open a whole new way of interacting with all the treecats who have adopted humans. Honor is also tasked by the Admiralty to teach at Saganami Island and take over as Commandant of the Advanced Tactical School while she is on convalescent leave and is supposed to be resting.

On Grayson, Steadholder Mueller is continuing his campaign to undermine Benjamin's reforms and he has a new partner from the religious fanatics on Masada financed by the Peeps though Mueller doesn't know all those details. Mueller just sees them as subordinates funneling illegal funds to him in his campaign to undermine Benjamin's reforms. They have a bigger plan though: they plan to assassinate Benjamin and Queen Elizabeth of Manticore to throw the Alliance into chaos. Honor is able to save Benjamin and Queen Elizabeth but she is unable to save the Prime Ministers of either Star System. The lack of the Prime Minister on Manticore means that those who opposed his plans finally get a chance to form their own government and they are sure the Peeps are just misunderstood and really want peace with Manticore.

The Peeps need the chaos! Manticore and its allies are finally ready to debut their new weapons which will give them a strong tactical advantage and finally let them bring the war to its conclusion. And the leaders of the Peep government are ready to get rid of their successful military leader before she decides to overthrow them. Their policies have been working against them as a number of military leaders and the spies they set on them are finally coming to realize just how bad the Peep government is and a quiet revolution is growing.

While this episode still had quite a few space battles and descriptions of weapons, I felt like the focus on this one was more political. The government of the Peeps was imploding and the military was coming together to oppose all the government abuses. Honor becomes much more politically astute even though she really doesn't want to. I'm eager to see where the story goes next. ( )

This episode concerns itself with with happens after Honor returns from imprisonment along with 400,000 other former prisoners including a Peep Admiral who knows what really happened at the time of the Harris assassination and the role the current leaders on Haven played in it. This is a very bad public relations problem for the Peeps just when they are starting to amass some military victories under Admiral McQueen.

Meanwhile on Manticore, Honor is getting ready for all sorts of medical intervention to fix the nerves on her face, reinstall her artificial eyes and manage a new prosthetic left arm. Nimitz is also going to undergo repairs of his injuries but the loss of his telepathic connection with his mate and the other treecats isn't as easy to repair. However, Honor's mother has an idea based on an old Earth language called "sign language" which might give Nimitz a way to communicate again and will open a whole new way of interacting with all the treecats who have adopted humans. Honor is also tasked by the Admiralty to teach at Saganami Island and take over as Commandant of the Advanced Tactical School while she is on convalescent leave and is supposed to be resting.

On Grayson, Steadholder Mueller is continuing his campaign to undermine Benjamin's reforms and he has a new partner from the religious fanatics on Masada financed by the Peeps though Mueller doesn't know all those details. Mueller just sees them as subordinates funneling illegal funds to him in his campaign to undermine Benjamin's reforms. They have a bigger plan though: they plan to assassinate Benjamin and Queen Elizabeth of Manticore to throw the Alliance into chaos. Honor is able to save Benjamin and Queen Elizabeth but she is unable to save the Prime Ministers of either Star System. The lack of the Prime Minister on Manticore means that those who opposed his plans finally get a chance to form their own government and they are sure the Peeps are just misunderstood and really want peace with Manticore.

The Peeps need the chaos! Manticore and its allies are finally ready to debut their new weapons which will give them a strong tactical advantage and finally let them bring the war to its conclusion. And the leaders of the Peep government are ready to get rid of their successful military leader before she decides to overthrow them. Their policies have been working against them as a number of military leaders and the spies they set on them are finally coming to realize just how bad the Peep government is and a quiet revolution is growing.

While this episode still had quite a few space battles and descriptions of weapons, I felt like the focus on this one was more political. The government of the Peeps was imploding and the military was coming together to oppose all the government abuses. Honor becomes much more politically astute even though she really doesn't want to. I'm eager to see where the story goes next. ( )

To my mind, this book marks the turning point where Weber's writing tics start to actively interfere with my enjoyment of the books-- his dialogue gets more info-dumpy, all his characters sound the same, and we spend way too much time hopping all over the place. ( )

I truly loved this book, in part because I got to see more of what happened behind the scenes of the war. Honor's relationship with her mother shone through, laced with love, affection, and friendship. In some ways, the book can be summed up in this quotation: Everything in the universe demanded its own price . . . and the greater a gift, the higher the price it carried.

Another theme was the price of fanaticism can be quite high. Watching someone get played because of his fanaticism, was painful, especially as the evil became more apparent. It saddens me when someone is blinded by hatred.

The final theme is this one as expressed by Honor: "But that will be the third thing that supports you in battle, Ladies and Gentlemen: the knowledge that your people will die uselessly if you screw up. It's not your job to keep them alive at all costs. It's your job to be certain they don't die for nothing." Keeping faith with those who have died is important in this book. I hope it will be in the next one as well.

This is not the place to start reading the series. If you like military SF, start with On Basilisk Station. Be aware that by this point, there are a lot of political undercurrents. ( )