The continuing adventures of Max Robichaux and the USS Cumberland as it does battle with the Krag. This was a fun action filled read that finished up in a small cliffhanger leading into the the next book in the series. For those reading along, you will find all the protagonists introduced in the first book in lots of new action scenes. I will say that their were some things about the book that I could have done with a little less of, one being the continued scenes where the Doctor is shown as a clueless idiot in regard to naval activities and at the same time held up as a highly observant overachiever in many other areas. Hopefully the author will let the almost snide and somewhat sarcastic comments regarding this die off in the the third book as this lowered my rating on this book. Still a fun read though.

4 Stars for a good read and recommended for those reading the series. ( )

I've got to admit, I mostly enjoyed the first book in this series except for a couple of things I viewed as minor flaws. Well, in this book, they become MAJOR flaws, so much so that I couldn't finish it and just put it away forever. Here are the two things. It's set centuries into the future and apparently, much of the crew were either born on the ship or born on ships and have been in space on ships for their whole lives. Centuries in the future. Yet it seems that every other page, there's a pop culture reference back to 20th Century Earth, particularly America. So, say in 2700 AD, people will know the lines from Beatles songs??? Do we know pop culture from 1100 AD? We know some history, sure, but do we refer to it every 10 minutes, every day of our lives? Of course not! Then there is the beloved idiot doctor, who doesn't understand anything that's not medicine or somewhat scientific. Like nothing about the military or engineering or anything, so what you have is an entire info dump thing with this Dr. Sahin, where whenever something happened at all, some other character would explain everything to him as though he were a middle schooler. The supposed "genius" on the ship. That bugged the SHIT out of me! Max is eternally lecturing Sahin on what this is or what that does or why we do things this way, etc. How in the hell did he get any degrees, let alone advanced degrees??? Seems like everyone on the ship knows more than this guy. I have, according to Goodreads, 187 books to read while I'm reading allegedly 172. (I've finished most of those, but haven't written reviews yet. I'm only in 40 or so at the moment.) If I've got that many books to read, and many are quite large and very technical, why in the hell would I give this author another chance??? I assume there's a Book 3 out or coming out. I don't intend to read it. I will, however, keep up with this author and read some reviews sometime down the road. If it seems like there's been an improvement, who knows? I may give him one more shot. This book though? Not recommended. ( )

I was worried that I had not read the first book in this series. Turns out that was not a problem. I was worried that a military sci-fi book would not be in my range finder. Turns out that was not a problem. I was worried that all we were going to get were intense blast-them-out-of-the-sky battles. Turns out that, too, was not a problem. What we have is a wang-doodle space opera. Lots of action, humor, character development, with one flaw. No women. No women on a futuristic space vessel? The author explains this very late in the book. I loved reading this book but I am still finding that aspect lame. I'll just go back to polishing my ray gun now. My thanks to the author and Goodreads for a complimentary copy of this work. ( )

For Honor We Stand is the second novel of the Man of War trilogy; the first is To Honor You Call Us. If you like military science fiction, don’t miss these.
These are Honsinger’s first novels, but you would never know it. The writing is excellent. Many aspects of the characters and the political situation are only revealed as the story unfolds, rather than being thrown at you in pages of expository prose.
The plot is basic - implacable aliens out to destroy humankind - but the details are fascinating. There are detailed ship-to-ship and small unit actions enough to satisfy Honor Harrington fans.
The naval lore is fascinating, both the old terrestrial navy traditions that have survived, and the new traditions of the Union Navy. Honsinger openly acknowledges his debt to Patrick O’Brian, and this might appeal to those who ordinarily aren’t big SF fans.
The third volume, Brothers in Valor, is due out later in 2014. ( )