# Field of Dishonor

![Book cover of Field of Dishonor](/books/covers/field_of_dishonor.jpg)

by [David Weber](/books/authors/david_weber/)
Book 4 of [Honor Harrington](/books/series/honor_harrington/)
★★★☆☆

## Review

_Field of Dishonor_, by David Weber,
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_](/books/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_ David Weber'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 <cite>[How David Weber orders a pizza][pizza]</cite> 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.

[pizza]: https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-david-weber-orders-a-pizza/606473

**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 Tom Clancy's _Without Remorse_.
Dueling was set up in [_On Basilisk Station_](/books/on_basilisk_station/) but then vanished for two books, and
Weber 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_](/books/series/honor_harrington/) series for a bit. Weber'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 Stross's _Accelerando_ which has been sitting on my pile for 20
years, and probably skim [qntm](/books/authors/qntm/)'s [_There Is No Antimemetics Division_](/books/there_is_no_antimemetics_division/) again since we're
finally reading it for book club.

## Reviews that mention _Field of Dishonor_
- [_The Short Victorious War_](/books/the_short_victorious_war/)

## Related Books
- [_On Basilisk Station_](/books/on_basilisk_station/) by [David Weber](/books/authors/david_weber/) --- ★★★☆☆: On Basilisk Station by David Weber is the first book in the long-running military science fiction epic, the Honor Harrington series. It introduces Commander Honor Harrington, a brilliant naval officer exiled to a remote star system with an aging ship and a demoralized crew. There, she must enforce the law and uncover a smuggling plot that proves to be the opening move in an interstellar war.
- [_The Honor of the Queen_](/books/the_honor_of_the_queen/) by [David Weber](/books/authors/david_weber/) --- ★★★☆☆: The Honor of the Queen, by David Weber, is the second book in the Honor Harrington series. Harrington must forge an alliance with Grayson, a planet of religious conservatives who don’t believe women belong in uniform, while Haven plots to stop her.
- [_The Short Victorious War_](/books/the_short_victorious_war/) by [David Weber](/books/authors/david_weber/) --- ★★★★☆: The Short Victorious War, by David Weber, is the third book in the Honor Harrington series. Harrington takes command of the battlecruiser Nike as the People’s Republic of Haven makes its move and a revolution brews in Nouveau Paris.