At All Costs

I’ve been reading Honor Harrington books for the last few years, after Baen started giving away the first book in many of their series away for free of their website.

It was really Lucas who got me hooked, but that’s another story entirely.

At All Costs is the most recent book in the series (I think it’s book #17, but I’m not sure). It comes after Crown of Slaves, and happens in parallel with the events in Shadow of Saganami, which it references frequently.

For the uninitiated, the series follows Honor, who in the first book is a starship captain, through her life, being in wars, falling in love and experiencing loss, being a POW, commanding others in battle, etc. It’s “hard” sci-fi - things follow rules set out by the author (in this case, it’s mostly gravity control providing for faster than light travel and communication, and biotech advances) , and although technology progresses, they never use it as the fantasy smoke and mirrors you get in a soft sci-fi story (like most TV and movie sci-fi).

I think what keeps me reading is the characters and situations. While there is intelligent life other than humans, it isn’t done cheesily like in Star (Trek|Wars) - the species are distinctly different. The human cost of war is played up a bit, and characters on both sides of the battles are given depth. The universe is consistant an interesting, and the settings are expanded from book to book - in this sense, it’s very much like the first 4 Harry Potter book (that’s another story in it’s entirity…).

One of the more enjoyable aspects of the books is that they plays with social, religious, and political ideas in an abstracted but consistant manner. You have whole societies based on readily recognizable concepts, drawn out over time, with interesting consequences.

I enjoyed reading it. The ending was a bit abrupt (as they usually are) and leaves you wanting more, but it looks like the next book is coming out next april. I can’t wait!