HVT-007 In Enemy Hands

Honorverse Today

DEAR LISTENER: There were technical issues with portions of the recording quality. We considered re-recording the episode, but we would never be able to re-create the spontaneity that we got on this show. We hope the quality of the content will make up for the quality of the recording. The issues have been fixed and should not happen again.

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We’re officially halfway through the original set of Honor Harrington stories already! How did we get here so quickly? The individual novels are flying by, and the larger Honorverse story is unfolding. It’s hard to believe just how fast it seems the story is developing, especially because there is incredible depth and complexity to this world—this universe—David Weber is creating.

“In Enemy Hands” is book seven in what is regularly referred to as the main series, but your hosts will quickly caution you not to assume the content outside of that set of 14 novels is simply extra content in the form of sequels, prequels or “sidequels”. More on that at the end of the summary.

This novel is 530 pages, published by Baen Books in August 1997. In the story, we see some great space combat (of course), but also get a lot smarter about matters like the role and importance of international law (what we’ll call the laws of war), the honor found among professional military members on opposite sides of a fight, loyalty (properly placed and also misplaced), and the influence of politics on military capability. We see the impact of the war on Manticore and Haven as each manages strained or limited resources in the context of their national ideologies, technological advancements, and changes in military tactics. It’s also driven home in this novel that war is ugly and dangerous, and in the end, everyone is vulnerable.

We saw the impact of a lengthening war and limited resources in the previous novel, particularly frustrated by the impact and role pirates and privateers play. Here we see a more traditional impact on military forces as forces spread thin find themselves in extremis. In this case, the unit at risk is a squadron of traditional naval vessels commanded by Commodore Honor Harrington. While time permits, her unit takes on an optional convoy escort mission: one that should have been a “milk run,” with regular naval resources and not the Q-ships she was previously commanding. Early in the mission, however, Honor is in the lead element of the escorting forces and discovers a trap set by Haven. Consistent with her view of the roles and responsibility of an officer - a senior officer - she provides sufficient warning for the main convoy to flee to safety, using her lead element to lead the enemy away from the main convoy and escorting forces. Out-gunned, Honor makes the decision to surrender her lead forces rather than simply sacrificing those assets and personnel for no real gain for Manticore. Honor finds herself in enemy hands, along with her officers and crew.

What follows from this situation is the blatant immoral and unlawful treatment of her and her subordinates by the authoritarian Havenite government and the members of state security who had not been purged after the coup that brought Haven’s current government to power. Even so, we get to see the risk some of Haven’s traditional naval officers take, as they work to do the right thing — the lawful, moral and honorable thing — for their Manticoran prisoners. There is a lot to contrast with the previous novel, where we saw Honor (once again) demonstrate what the honorable and lawful treatment of the enemy’s military looks like when they’re prisoners of war.

We rated “In Enemy Hands” with a 4.5, a 5, and another 5 (out of 5), for an overall rating of 4.83 from your hosts.

Next up: we’re going to step away from the core series of novels and read the first anthology in the Honorverse called “More than Honor”. As we mentioned, the content outside of the core set of novels isn’t necessarily just supplementary text. This is an example, with the material in this anthology adding to the “main” story. It’s important to note the author also recommends reading the stories in this order, and so we’ll follow his sage advice. Grab a copy and as always, join in the conversation and the adventure!

You can find us, and all our episodes at http://honorverse.net, and email us at [e-mail]. We look forward to hearing from you.

Now, let’s be about it!