More Than Honor (Worlds of Honor #1)

This is the second collection of shorts built around the "Honorverse" of David Weber. In this one, Honor Harrington does not appear at all but that doesn't stop it from being a good read. It consists of 3 short fiction stories and 1 "background" essay.

"A Beautiful Friendship" is by Weber. It details the story of Stephanie Harrington, Honor's ancestor, and her place as the first human to be adopted by a treecat. It is a good adventure story of an intelligent but headstrong young girl on a frontier planet. The genes that will eventually be passed on to Honor are present and visible.

"A Grand Tour" is the work of David Drake. It tells the story of an aristocratic scholar form Manticore who learns of an act of piracy by a Havenite ship. Since he has a reserve naval commission, he takes matters into his own hands using, of all things, a light cruiser won in a poker came. It comes across much more believably than it sounds.

"A Whiff of Grapeshot" is from S. M. Stirling. It takes place entirely on Haven and tells the story of the suppression of the Leveler revolt alluded to in some of the Honor Harrington stories.

"The Universe of Honor Harrington" is the background essay from Weber. In it, he details humanities march to the stars, describes the technology that makes it possible and looks at the political systems of Manticore and some of the other polities encountered in his series. It is well worth the read for fans.

This is an excellent little volume.

This was a decent book. The stories, on the whole were entertaining. I very much enjoyed learning about the Levellers. Though, I was surprised that Mr. Weber chose to explain the story outside the main book series.
Weber expanded the universal history somewhat from the original appendix included with Honor's first book. I personally liked it, but it might not be for everyone.
Unfortunately, I cannot get past Stirling's inclusion. Let's see: it didn't take on an offshoot storyline, it didn't touch on any major characters, it doesn't include any previously referenced planets... Oh, and I especially liked his little note at the end explaining that he took his story's inspiration from actual events. I get this image of him sitting at his PC/typewriter with a smug look on his face, toasting himself with brandy, thinking, "I'm so clever. They will love to wallow in my intelligence." Bah.
A (mostly) tasty tidbit of a book.

If you've managed to read any of my other reviews, you know I staunchly support Honor, and the military necsseties. Now, we have 1 story by DF Weber, in which he introduces the treecats as more than Honor's quizzical, mischeveous emotional guru. Learn a little something intruiging about the Harrington lineage too.. 1 story from David Drake, which starts out making me wonder if anything interesting could possibly occur, then it does. Better than the Slammers even. 1 story from SM Stirling, who may have abandoned the 5th millennium of his own creation, but writes quite well in Honor's. If SM Stirling wrote for the Peeps, and DF Weber wrote for the Manties, there'd be hell to pay on both sides, something akin to 2 of Niven & Pournelle's Motie warriors duking it out. No survivors. They're that good. Not to spoil it for you, but if things evolve from Stirlings contribution, God help the Manties. Either that, or the Peeps may actually be salvageable after all. Read it. For the warm fuzzies of the first story, the triumph of the second, or the bitter hope of the third.

This volume has three stories and a glossary timeline regarding technology. I thought one of these was worth the time to read it.

"A Beautiful Friendship" by David Weber is the story of the first treecat/human contact on the planet Sphinx, featuring the 11 year old ancestress of Honor Harrington. At 132 pages, it's decent young adult science fiction. Three and a half stars. This was the best part of the book, and has been rewritten and expanded in [[ASIN:1451637470 A Beautiful Friendship (Star Kingdom)]]. I recommend buying that novel, and not this book.

"A Grand Tour" by David Drake is a tale from the 1700's Mediterranean rewritten involving alien artifacts and a slumming Manticoran scion of nobility. While written in 1998, the author hadn't heard of an MP3 player and doesn't get how lasers work. He uses charming British slang, such as 'wogs' when describing the native (human) populace. Two and a half stars.

"A Whiff of Grapeshot" by S.M. Stirling deals with a politic/military crisis on the homeworld of the 'peeps'. I didn't like any of the characters who kept speaking one military cliche after another to each other, including the trite line about a 'butcher's bill' near the end. One star.

"The Universe of Honor Harrington" by David Weber is a bunch of technical details involving timelines, spaceships, and his theoretical starship drives. I simply wasn't interested, as the information is presented in a dry, info-dumping fashion. One star (unless you like Weber's exposition, in which case buy this volume).

Overall, I'd read the first story in the expanded form and never touch this volume, unless you are a diehard fan of the Honor Harrington universe.

It was overall an ok book but, I wasn't exactly engrossed by it like earlier Harrington novels.

Adds additional information to the universe of Manticore, Sphinx and the People's Republic. Enjoyable reading.

No problems, good experience.

Quick turnaround, no problems.

Replacing books destroyed by water

Great series and this is a terrific follow on.