In Fire Forged

Three novellas, one by David Weber and two by well-known sci-fi authors. Weber's entry focuses on an event early in Honor's career during one of her first outings as captain of the somewhat elderly warship, the HMS Hawkwing - suffice it to say, it involves the Sillies, politics, terrorists, and

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slavers. The level of technical detail Weber includes is, as always, occasionally a chore to wade through (but I've never found skimming those bits to impinge much on the quality of the story!).

Characters in the other two stories are familiar if you've read much withing the Honor-verse, and it's always a treat to catch up with them again.

Well done on all counts, I just wish I didn't always feel obligated to consult a character map and timeline when I haven't picked up an Honor book in a while.

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Three (or four) stories - the stars are almost entirely for the third. The first one - Ruthless by Megan Lindholm - is good but slight. "How Prince Michael proposed to Judith", with complications of (incompetent) political plots and kidnapping. The bad guys are so totally outclassed that it's no

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fight. The second, An Act of War by Timothy Zahn, is mostly annoying - I dislike manipulators and unreliable narrators, and the protagonist (not hero!) is both. I have no idea, even at the end, who Charles actually was or who he was fighting for - anti-Haven, probably, but that's about it. I do expect him to show up in the Honorverse somewhere, spinning a plot... The third story, Let's Dance! by Weber, is an early Honor - the oft-referred to dealing with the Audubon Ballroom in Silesia. Politics, action, fighting slavers, and Honor - in all senses of the word. Excellent. Then there's a "fact" article by Andy Presby (presented as a magazine article by a retired yard dog off Hephastus), about ship's armor in the Honorverse - the physical structure and historical reasons for what and why and how it's made and used. Mildly interesting - people who spend time debating throw-weight of missiles and ships' accelerations would probably love it.

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This anthology contained three stories and one technological article. I'm afraid the latter made my eyes glaze over. However, the three stories were strong enough that I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I am glad I had read The Service of the Sword first as there were two continuations of stories from

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that anthology.

"Ruthless" by Jane Lindskold continued the story of Michael Winton who is in line for the throne and Judith who escaped from Masada. This one was a page turner and kept me on the edge of my seat.

"An Act of War" by Timothy Zahn was another continuation. This wasn't my favorite of the stories, but I had a sick fascination to see where it was going and if a character was going to end up alive or dead.

"Let's Dance" by David Weber was a long story that featured Honor Harrington from early in her career. I liked seeing some more background for a fictional character I've grown to care about.

"An Introduction to Modern Starship Armor Design" just wasn't my cup of tea.

I would strongly recommend this book to fans of Honor Harrington, provided they had read The Service of the Sword first. For most others, the stories require too much background to truly enjoy them.

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