The Shadow of Saganami (Saganami Island)

David Weber has a lot of fans particularly for his Honor Harrington series. There have been ten novels and three collections of stories in that series and books from it have landed on best-seller lists. He has expanded his Honorverse to include two new series. The first in the "Crown of Slaves" branch focuses on politics and war over the issue of genetic slavery. Shadow of Saganami focuses on another area of this universe and brings in a new cast.

The Hexapuma, a brand-new cruiser commanded by a hero of the last war is assigned to bring a new cluster of planets into the growing Manticoran Empire after a referendum in which the vast majority call for annexation. Weber is able to introduce an (almost) entirely new cast of characters. Much of the action is centered around a group of midshipmen on their first cruise but the action involves many of the ship's leaders as well as politicians and terrorists from several worlds.

There is very little doubt that Weber writes from a post 9/11 perspective. The terrorists are being helped by a wide assortment of groups ranging from out of control bureaucrats to businesses directly involved with slavery. Plots abound as different groups and individuals plot their own destinies.

The book is long and exciting. Imagine trying to read more than 700 pages at one sitting! Terekhov, the captain, is a marvelous character, haunted by his past and focused on preventing both terrorism and war. The supporting cast is also strong. Even the villains are, in most cases, three dimensional.

For long-time readers of Weber there is the pleasure of running into old friends like Ginger Lewis, Aubrey Wanderman, Helen Zilwicki and Abigail Hearns. There are new characters who are certain to become favorites as well.

The issues that arise in the book are relevant to today's world and put in the context of good space opera. Fans of Weber will love the book and those who read this as their first Weber experience are likely to go looking for all the other books.

As Honor Harrington has progressed in her career, she has had to abandon the command of a starship, in order to take on squadron and then fleet command. While this is good for her, it's not as good for readers, because David Weber is at his best, I think, when he is telling the story of a single starship captain and what such a person and a dedicated crew can do when faced with a critical choice or puzzling-and-threatening situation.

In this book, Weber returns to the world of a single starship, in the service of the Star Kingdom of Manticore. Honor Harrington appears briefly in the book, but it is not a book about her at all. Instead, it is about a new generation of officers, serving on a heavy cruiser. It's a great piece of standard Weber space opera: fun to read, and a bit overloaded with heavy exposition (I'd ding it half a star for the somewhat awkward expository passages if that were possible, but it's not).

At first, I thought the book would not hold my attention, but I was wrong. Once I sorted out who all the players were, this was a rollicking good read. It's not deep or particularly meaningful, but it is an excellent example of the kind of book it set out to be; the five stars are for the good story, the interesting characters, and the excellent fit between the plot and the writing (but as I mentioned above, I wish I could ding it half a star). Highly recommended to anyone who enjoyed the early Honor Harrington books.

As Honor Harrington has progressed in her career, she has had to abandon the command of a starship, in order to take on squadron and then fleet command. While this is good for her, it's not as good for readers, because David Weber is at his best, I think, when he is telling the story of a single starship captain and what such a person and a dedicated crew can do when faced with a critical choice or puzzling-and-threatening situation.

In this book, Weber returns to the world of a single starship, in the service of the Star Kingdom of Manticore. Honor Harrington appears briefly in the book, but it is not a book about her at all. Instead, it is about a new generation of officers, serving on a heavy cruiser. It's a great piece of standard Weber space opera: fun to read, and a bit overloaded with heavy exposition (I'd ding it half a star for the somewhat awkward expository passages if that were possible, but it's not).

At first, I thought the book would not hold my attention, but I was wrong. Once I sorted out who all the players were, this was a rollicking good read. It's not deep or particularly meaningful, but it is an excellent example of the kind of book it set out to be; the five stars are for the good story, the interesting characters, and the excellent fit between the plot and the writing (but as I mentioned above, I wish I could ding it half a star). Highly recommended to anyone who enjoyed the early Honor Harrington books.

After going to college with Dave and then later fixing his Osborne computer for him, I read a draft version of one of his Starfire books. It was excellent and I encouraged him to get it published. Later I got hooked on his Honor Harrington books. Where David excells is when he has a narrower focus and this is why I like his new Saganami Island Series, of which this is the first book. We meet students from Honor's teaching days on their middie cruise in the Talbot Cluster. Why this book re-earns a 5 star rating is because he shrinks down the multiple story lines that dragged War of Honor down to a 4. He also minimizes the repetition of details that dragged that book down as well. This is a nice tightly written book that brings more life to the Honorverse, and looks at other forms of corrupt government. The action is well told and the political points of view make great warnings to us in today's world.

Once again, David Weber has done something marvelous. Our thirst for more Honor Harrington was mysteriously slaked by a book which featured almost NO Honor Harrington. Instead, Weber gives us a fabulous book using a few known characters with mostly unknowns and expands the universe (and the addiction) as well as providing a deeper look at the society he has created.

This does not mean that I'm not waiting anxiously to hear what Dame Honor herself is up to, but this book is a winner.

If you are looking for Honor Harrington, this is not the book to find her. This is a great book focusing on her students and how they apply her lessons. While a good read, and a good book; Don't be pulled in by the jacket cover. Honor Harrington is mentioned but the book has nothing to do with her.

Honor Harrington is mentioned a few times here but very much "off camera" as a few of her students get the spotlight.

Weber's trademark storyline of a routine show-the-flag mission becoming a desperately outnumbered battle rings true. But this time we've got a flawed captain, an irresolute admiral and midshipmen on their first cruise! Add in two very different terrorist groups, greedy corporate raiders, human slavery and corrupt politicians and you've got a can't-put-down blockbuster.

If you've been curious about David Weber's "Honorverse" here's a good way to get started!

Summary: The Star Kingdom of Manticore is annexing the Tabott Cluster but the Solarian League and the Mesan slave traders are quite opposed to this plan.

Background: There are about thirteen books before this one. To summarize them all would take many, many reviews. Suffice to say, the war with Haven ends, but no treaty is signed due to governmental hang-ups, and the war starts again. To survive, Manticore allies itself with the Andermani Empire. Together the two multi-star nations annex the Silesian republic and Manticore annexes the Talbott cluster which is on the other side of a newly discovered wormhole from Manticore home space. Not everyone is happy with these new developments.

The story: This story focuses on a semi-new group of characters. There are a few reused from previous books (Helen Zilwicki and Abagail Hearns--both very interesting and smart young women), but the captain at the focus is a completely new character. Aivars Terekhov is a captain with some ghosts in his past that he is trying to work through. The foes are the Solarian League, the Office of Frontier Security (OFS), and the Mesan/Monican slavers. The slavers don't like Manticore because of Manticore's position on genetic slavery and Mesans in general. The OFS doesn't like the Manticorans because the Manties are horning in on what OFS considers its territory. So this group does its best to stop the annexation movement. The planets of the Talbott cluster are poor and lacking in modern technology, but they see the benefits of being Manticoran rather than Solarian and asked for the annexation. There's the setup.

The review: It was a good book, but on the whole, a disappointment. It focused mainly on Terekhov and the newly graduated midshipmen/women. The split in focus really hurts the book. Honor had her own first book in which to become a realistic character--Terekhov has to share his book with dozens of minor characters. The "Firebrand" portion was set up as a huge undercover terrorist movement which fizzled out after being on only two not-very-important planets. The Monican fleet invasion was also set up to be a great space battle, but it too fizzled out without the promised bang. The characters, despite all sorts of opportunities, seemed pretty bland. Or flat. A semi-main character was killed off at seeming random (probably to give credence to the prediction made in the beginning of the book that some of the new officers wouldn't survive). Paulo and Helen were decent characters that I feel could have more adventures. Of course, I was kinda rooting for a Helen/Van Dort thing to add some extra complications to her life. For a girl with such an interesting father and sister (Anton Zilwicki-super spy and Queen Berry of a planet of freed slaves), Helen sure comes off as flat and dull. I wasn't excited by Terekhov--he had a good back story but still managed to be really bland. Terekhov certainly doesn't measure up to Harrington. The Talbott terrorists were both good and bad. One was a crazy woman who didn't mind killing everyone in sight--more development here would've been good what with the current Middle East situation. The other guy was not a killer, but a patriot. Again, a bit more development and I might've cared what happend to him. These people were "fighting for their homes" but Weber didn't make me see what was worth fighting for.

Part of the problem seems to have been the conflicting storylines. On one hand, the author was trying to introduce a new set of characters, now that he has Harrington no longer in charge of a single ship or single squadron, there isn't the potential for one-on-one space drama. He has to replace her with someone who can do the "little" things now that Harrington is in charge of the entire war effort. Unfortunately, Terekhov comes off as a pale imitation of Harrington. Weber created a hugely strong female character (Harrington) and a very strong male lead (Earl White Haven/Hamish Alexander) and then had to top those two when they became too rarified to get their hands dirty. So Weber is trying to introduce these new characters while also trying to dump us into a whole new political mess (Weber excels at political messes. For those who watch American politics, you will probably like all the sniping in these books). He has to give us background so we care about these planets, he has to develop the people on these new planets, and he has to introduce the conflicts of the people who don't want these new planets to be a part of the Manticore Kingdom. There are 17 planets in the Talbott Cluster. There are 6 new midshipmen, a new captain, a previously introduced, but since forgotten diplomat, and all the governments of the planets, the people of them, the terrorists, and the misc other folk who show up. There are only 750 pages in the book. Unfortunately, the book makes the mistake of trying to cover too much and ends up covering too little of each. Terekhov's ship seems to spend most of the time running back and forth between the three major fires and the rest is just shoved to the side like cardboard scenery.

This is not to say that the books is bad--it's not. It is very readable and believable. It is just ultimately unsatisfying. The first Honor Harrington book started with a few small problems and allowed the reader to grow into the characters and situations. This one starts with several major problems and doesn't give us a chance to really get to know the characters or situations. They are over and dead before we can really come to care. And we are cheated out of the spectacular space battles one expects from Weber. There also weren't as many interpersonal conflicts to spice up what was there. Helen and Paulo circled and fought, but then got themselves straightened out and turned bland and wishy-washy. Van Dort could've added some complications, but never really did. Abagail never got to be anything more than a competent background character. In the end, I just didn't care whether a character lived or died. And of course, the ship was battered but made it home, just like almost all of Honor's ships. The ending was overdramatic and overkill--Honor's ships did more for the kingdom consistently and never got the respect that Terekhov did.

The Final Word: In the end, it is a decent book with a few characters with real potential, but just a filler for the rest of the series. Decent but disappointing.

Just when I was afraid that the Honorverse was in danger of running out of steam Weber launches this brilliant new off-shoot. The Shadow of Saganami is fresh, fun, and a great read, building on the universe we know and love with intriguing new characters and a great plot. While you don't really need to have read the prior books they do help you understand how things work in this new series.

For those of you who don't remember from before, Commodore Edward Saganami went down fighting superior odds in a heroic battle that inspired generations of Manticoran navel officers, sparked a naval tradition of courage and honor, and led to his name being placed on the main Manty training center. The opening sequence of the book has a brief "cameo appearance" by Honor Harrington who replays that epic battle for a graduating class of midshipmen. It is stirring and memorably written.

Okay, on to the rest of the plot... The central action surrounds a newly launched cruiser, Hexapuma (affectionately known as the nasty kitty), led by Captain Terekhov, a hero from the last war who may or may not have lost his nerve along with his last ship and much of it's crew. Hexapuma is assigned to bring a new group of planets (the Talbott cluster) into the Manticoran Empire after a referendum in which more than 80% of the population called for annexation to get away from nefarious Sollie influence. It's the disaffected fringe within the 20% that our heroes need to worry about...

The plot is complex, twisting, and hard to predict. The pacing is great. There is a bit more political intrigue and a bit less action than some previous Harrington novels but it is extremely well done nevertheless. The perspective is primarily centered around the aforementioned midshipmen (and woman)'s first cruise, though various ship's leaders, politicians, business moguls, and terrorists from several worlds are involved as well, creating a wonderful melting pot of characters, skullduggery, and intrigue. The new characters are great and the action quite memorable. Even the bad guys are three-dimensional. Like real people they didn't just wake up one day and decide to be evil. Everyone has sincere motivation.

Highly recommended. A great read!

From the time I discovered the first two David Weber-Honor Harrington novels (all that were published at the time) he became one of my favorite sf authors and the Honor books one of my favorite series. Each newbook was a delight to read, if not better than the one before, than at least as good. I even liked his fantasy series that began with THE WAR GOD'S OWN.

However, when we reached the last Honor book, WAR OF HONOR, I began to have qualms. While adequate, I found it overly long and I thought the defeat of the Peeps was wrapped up rather clumsily.

Then came CROWN OF SLAVES, the first book set in the Honorverse "co-written" by another author (Eric Flint). I was willing to give Flint a try but the book was also long, dull, with little action and much endless dialogue and exposition about the increasingly complex diplomatic and political situation and populated with characters I found unbelievable, silly and for whose fate I gave not a damn. I abandoned it after a 100 pages.

Well, I thought, since the actual writing in that case was almost certainly done almost entirely by Flint, maybe it wasn't Weber's fault. So I still had hopes for the first new Weber Honorverse book, SHADOW OF SAGANAMI.

Unfortunately, they were quickly dashed. If you love endless discussions of political intrigues and the formation and dismemberment of diplomatic alliances, you'll adore this volume, the kind of book that once you put it down, you can't pick it up again! If you want the kind of good rousing "Hornblower in space" yarn that Weber used to excel at, forget it. You won't find it here.

It's sadly true that some authors, once they have built up a sufficient fan base to guarantee a certain level of sales with each new book, tend to go on autopilot and write routine tales with routine plots and routine characters. I'm sorry to say that this appears to be the case here. Pity.

P.S. - I almost forgot to mention Weber's other collaboration, this time with John Ringo on the "March" series about the Imperial prince marooned on an alien planet having to fight his way home. Also pedestrian stuff, but still better than SAGANAMI.