** Finally Worth the War **
A good book should distract from real life even when you’re not reading it. After eleven entries, David Weber’s Honor Harrington series finally does. The story is no longer a slog limited understanding for middle management; I can now see what James S. A. Corey borrowed—structure, politics, propulsion—and why.
Weber’s universe remains brutal. You wouldn’t want to be Honor’s comrade, guard, or even a civilian from her home system. She has plot armor; everyone else in Manticore dies by the dozen. The Mesan Alignment, still twirling its mustaches, veers too far into conspiracy caricature, but the battles themselves are crisp and consequential.
What sets Weber apart is his effort to model the machinery behind war—the economics, bureaucracy, and politics that sustain it. Few writers even try. He sometimes lapses into Randian absurdity when sketching systems, but the ambition is admirable.