Field of Dishonor
Review
Field of Dishonor, by , is the fourth book in the Honor Harrington series. It reduces the scale of the narrative, trading fleet battles for political maneuvering and personal grudges.
Field of Dishonor picks up right where The Short Victorious War ends, with a court martial split along political lines. Pavel Young is found guilty and cashiered, but acquitted of the charges that would have hanged him. I was worried going in. This book is mostly political and personal drama without the massive naval battles that defined the first three books. But it worked! The change of pace was exactly what the series needed, and it should have easily been the best book so far.
But ’s writing is getting worse: he is really starting to pad scenes with long descriptions of his worldbuilding and what his characters are thinking and planning. Telling, not showing, taken to the extreme. Sometimes there are entire paragraphs of explanation between each line of dialogue. The How David Weber orders a pizza parody is too spot on. And I’ve heard it only gets worse as the series progresses. I’m not sure how much longer I can put up with it.
But the action scenes are satisfying! The marine training mission that “accidentally” and systematically dismantles the gangsters protecting Paul Tankersley’s murderer is right out of ’s Without Remorse. Dueling was set up in On Basilisk Station but then vanished for two books, and never really built the honor culture that would make it feel right. Still, the duels provide the perfect opportunity for Honor to show how deadly she is, and how wrong Young was to mess with her.
I’ll be taking a break from the Honor Harrington series for a bit. ’s style is starting to wear me down, and I’m honestly not sure if I’ll come back. Until then I’m going to read ’s Accelerando which has been sitting on my pile for 20 years, and probably skim ’s There Is No Antimemetics Division again since we’re finally reading it for book club.