Ashes of Victory (Honor Harrington Series, Book 9)

by David Weber

2001

Status

Available

Publication

Baen (2001), 672 pages

Description

The People's Republic of Haven made a tiny mistake when it announced the execution of Honor Harrington. It seemed safe enough. After all, she was already dead. Unfortunately, they were wrong. Now Honor has escaped from the prison planet called Hell and returned to the Manticoran Alliance with a few friends. Almost half a million of them, to be precise including some who know what really happened when the Committee of Public Safety seized power in the PRH. Honor's return from the dead comes at a critical time, providing a huge, much-needed lift for the Allies' morale, for the war is rapidly entering a decisive phase. Both sides believe that victory lies within their grasp at last, but dangers no one could foresee await them both. New weapons, new strategies, new tactics, spies, diplomacy, and assassination all are coming into deadly focus, and Honor Harrington, the woman the newsies call "the Salamander," once more finds herself at the heart of them all. But this time, the furnace may be too furious for even a salamander to survive.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member gilroy
I will admit there were more politics than I am happy with when it comes to a good science fiction book, especially one of a military admiral in command of a decent ship. However, having followed the series since book one, this is simply showing the further progression of Honor, the main character.
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If you read the series regularly, the ending would be ... predictable but the exact ending of the book was not as I would have expected. Definitely a worthy read.
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LibraryThing member jjmcgaffey
First of the heavy politics books in this series - less interesting to me than the straight(er) adventure, but still good. Major changes all round in this one - have they announced the treecat signing yet?
LibraryThing member TadAD
Basically, they're getting a bit stale and old. I'll stop with this one.
LibraryThing member ClytieS
I love this series, and I particularly like the determination, ingenuity and adaptability shown by the protagonist. Honor Harrington is indeed a deserving successor to Horatio Hornblower, and like any really good SF book, this one asks us questions about our current world. "What if" a country
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started a "short war" to distract its populace? What if it locked up "terrorists" in an isolated hellhole? What if, indeed...
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LibraryThing member LaserWraith
While I've always liked the Honor books, this one particularly frustrated me because I would read about what the enemies were planning right under the good guys' noses, it seemed. And then, that government which was installed in place of Cromarty is terrible, and frustrating too. :P
LibraryThing member FKarr
Honor Harrington -- no space battles this time, all backstory and political machinations
LibraryThing member scottcholstad
Ashes of Victory is an excellent follow up to Echoes of Honor. I loved it. So much happens in this book that your head just swims. There are some real shockers too. This book is probably a turning point in the series. At least that's what I'm guessing.

So, Honor is back on Grayson from her stay on
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the Haven prison planet of Hades and she's a massive hero there and on Manticore as well. Hell, all over the entire Alliance. Everyone's spirits are lifted. And Haven recognizes they have a PR disaster on their hands after they had announced -- and shown -- her execution. Manticore's Queen Elizabeth calls Honor to Manticore to meet with her and, since Honor's title had shifted to her cousin since she had been assumed dead, to give her the title of Duchess and a new and huge estate. Additionally, the Navy asks her to teach tactics at the Academy and finally does the right thing by jumping her three slots from Commodore to full Admiral. She's stunned and honored. She also has the nerve damage in her face repaired, her lost eye replaced, and her lost arm replaced by a prosthetic arm she clumsily has to learn to use from scratch. But she's well on her way to being back to full health. Nimitz, too, has surgery and is physically repaired, although they're still trying to figure out a way for him to regain his empath abilities. And Honor has a specialist teach the tree cats, and the humans, sign language so they can all talk, and boy do they talk.

Meanwhile, Haven's Admiral McQueen remains on the offensive, if somewhat cautiously. However, Saint-Just decides to move on his perception of McQueen's ambition and many Navy personnel wind up dead as a result. This, after Haven top man Pierre is assassinated. Saint-Just is the only Committee member left and takes over as dictator. At the same time, Manticore finally decides to go back on the offensive with its new and mighty secret weapons they've been developing for the past few years and their offensive is completely destructive. Haven has no chance. However, as I said, there are some shockers in the book and both systems experience massive system changes that will change everything in the military and political dynamics for both. It's somewhat mind blowing and totally unexpected. The ending of the book, like virtually all Honor Harrington books, is tension filled, fast paced, and action packed. It's very exciting to read and experience. Now I'm looking forward to the next book. Again. I seem to say that with every Honor book I review. From what I understand, however, things change in the series from battles and naval engagements to politics and I'm not entirely thrilled with that, but I'm still going to read. I'm really into the series. I think it's quite good and I think the Honor character is a very good character. If reading the series in order like one must, this book is highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member Jean_Sexton
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
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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.
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LibraryThing member being_b
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.
LibraryThing member kmartin802
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
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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.
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LibraryThing member kmartin802
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
Show More
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.
Show Less

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2000-03-01

Physical description

672 p.; 4.19 inches

ISBN

0671319779 / 9780671319779

Barcode

1600646
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