# The Honor of the Queen

![Book cover of The Honor of the Queen](/books/covers/the_honor_of_the_queen_first_edition.jpg)

by [David Weber](/books/authors/david_weber/)
Book 2 of [Honor Harrington](/books/series/honor_harrington/)
★★★☆☆

## Review

_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.

Halfway through _The Honor of the Queen_, I checked Goodreads and was surprised to find
it rated higher than [_On Basilisk Station_](/books/on_basilisk_station/), because the first half drags under Weber's [overly verbose world-building][pizza] and
three problems: Harrington has to make uncharacteristic mistakes so the plot
can move forward; there's a constant theme of "the practical naval officer
must---regrettably!---overrule the too-trusting bureaucrats"; and David Weber is weird about Asian women in a way that hasn't aged well.

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

Harrington's mistakes are especially frustrating because they clash with Weber's own hawkish '90s centrism, which I also
flagged in [_On Basilisk Station_](/books/on_basilisk_station/): the military always knows what's right, the diplomats
and liberals are hopelessly naive---except when the plot needs Harrington to
be the naive one. The leaders of Grayson understand their culture needs to
advance; it's their underlings that are the real problem. The elites can and
must work together to control the public, except when they make stupid
mistakes apparently.

The '90s attitude also shows up in Weber's
treatment of Asian women: Harrington's mother is exotic, sexy, brilliant, and
loyal to her white husband, while Ensign Mai-ling exists only to be sexually
assaulted and demonstrate how evil the enemies are.

With all that hanging over it, I thought the book was going to collapse. Then
the shooting starts, and as I've said [before](/books/the_triumphant/), Weber can write action. In [_On Basilisk Station_](/books/on_basilisk_station/), I complained the pacing was uneven: either too fast or too slow. In _The Honor of the Queen_, he's improved significantly. The combat moves quickly but still
allows time to build tension. And Weber sets up the
reinforcements at the end well enough that they don't feel like a cheap deus
ex. But like last time, Harrington's only trick is being more willing to
sacrifice her crew and ship than her opponent---though maybe that's the
consequence of the "despite sacrifice" ethos from above.

A few bits reminded me of other works. The frontier justice on
Grayson---lynching men who disrespect women---is straight out of [Heinlein](/books/authors/robert_a_heinlein/)'s [_The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress_](/books/the_moon_is_a_harsh_mistress/). The religious
fanatics with their Mormon-like polygamy reminded me of [_The Legacy of Leonidas_](/books/honor_of_the_regiment/#the-legacy-of-leonidas) from [_Honor of the Regiment_](/books/honor_of_the_regiment/). But more broadly,
Weber was writing in the same moment that produced Clancy's _Debt of Honor_ and Crichton's _Rising Sun_, and it shows: the hawkish politics, the orientalism, and the
certainty that the professionals know what must be done but the bureaucrats
won't listen until it's almost too late.

This book is in conflict with itself: it spends the first half making
Harrington incompetent so that she can demonstrate her competence. And the
action feels like a retread of the encounter with the Q-ship in [_On Basilisk Station_](/books/on_basilisk_station/). But
I enjoy the space battles, and nothing else I'm reading delivers that
age-of-sail sense of duty and sacrifice. I hope Weber
finds a way to let Harrington win without getting her ship blown to hell in [_The Short Victorious War_](/books/the_short_victorious_war/).

## Reviews that mention _The Honor of the Queen_
- [_Field of Dishonor_](/books/field_of_dishonor/)†
- [_On Basilisk Station_](/books/on_basilisk_station/)
- [_The Short Victorious War_](/books/the_short_victorious_war/)

† _Mentioned via a link to the series._

## 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 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.
- [_Field of Dishonor_](/books/field_of_dishonor/) by [David Weber](/books/authors/david_weber/) --- ★★★☆☆: 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.