Diplomacy, Budgets, and Blasters
At the beginning of War of Honor I was wondering if I should settle for the mediocrity of this series. Ten books in, this is the first one I was motivated to finish.
The appeal has never been the plot of any single book, but the long meta arc. Here Weber leans into a more Clausewitzian view, where diplomacy, economics, and domestic politics weigh as heavily as fleets in motion. Maybe it took the previous nine books of exposition, but now things are getting interesting! Post-war budget cuts become a plot point, a refreshing detail reminiscent of Truman, Eisenhower, and FDR biographies. The multiple points of view add texture, especially the poker game commanders play with limited information.
Weber’s weaknesses show, and I don’t think info dumps are among them. Honor remains a Mary Sue. Sure, it’s part of the charm but also what makes these books low-effort to read. The catchphrase “let’s be about it people” sums up the problem: people based execution is abstracted away, leaving the title character untouched by the mess of organizational dynamics. People and power politics are painted with a naïve brush.
Yet there’s a reward in how Weber blends negotiations, bad actors, and tactical gambles into a broader poker game. It’s clumsy in places, but clearly a generation earlier than The Expanse and A Song of Ice and Fire, and that makes it fun.