Honor Harrington

[Lindley]

I've been reading the Honor series for quite a while now. However, I'm starting to get to the point where all the spin-offs start to appear, and I'd like some advice on which order to read things in.

So far I've gotten up through War of Honor. I have both At All Costs and Shadow of Sagnami on my shelf, but I'm not sure which to read first (or yet another!).

Suggestions?

 

[Mysterion]

I've been reading the Honor series for quite a while now. However, I'm starting to get to the point where all the spin-offs start to appear, and I'd like some advice on which order to read things in.

So far I've gotten up through War of Honor. I have both At All Costs and Shadow of Sagnami on my shelf, but I'm not sure which to read first (or yet another!).

Suggestions?

This page list all the HH books, stories and spin-off books by internal chronology:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorverse#Stories_listed_by_internal_chronology

Looks like after War of Honor, Crown of Slaves is next followed by Shadow of Saganami. Hope that helps you.

 

[Lindley]

Yeah, I looked at that page. A little helpful, but chronology doesn't always tell you everything. That's why I was looking for readers' opinions. I mean, on that list the two books I mentioned pretty much occur simultaneously.

 

[Mysterion]

Yeah, I looked at that page. A little helpful, but chronology doesn't always tell you everything. That's why I was looking for readers' opinions.

Personally, I'd stay with the "mainline" books and read At All Costs after War of Honor. Then go back and read the spin-off books separately.

 

[T J]

I just started this series a few months ago thanks to a thread about here... I'm up to book 4 Field of Dishonor, it's pretty interesting. This thread will be helpful for the future.

 

[gblews]

Timely thread. I was looking into getting into this series and just bought "Ashes of Victory". Problem is that there seems to be so much that has happened before this story, that I feel like I should read some of the other books first.

I don't necessarily want to start at the very beginning, but can someone suggest a decent place from which to start?

 

[Mysterion]

Timely thread. I was looking into getting into this series and just bought "Ashes of Victory". Problem is that there seems to be so much that has happened before this story, that I feel like I should read some of the other books first.

I don't necessarily want to start at the very beginning, but can someone suggest a decent place from which to start?

You really want to start with the first book of the series in this case: On Basilisk Station. It sets a lot of the balls in motion for later on.

 

[Lindley]

I've never understood the desire to start anywhere other than the beginning.

If you like the series, wouldn't having a large number of books to look forward to be a good thing? And if you don't, who cares which one you read?

 

[Forbin]

Timely thread. I was looking into getting into this series and just bought "Ashes of Victory". Problem is that there seems to be so much that has happened before this story, that I feel like I should read some of the other books first.

I don't necessarily want to start at the very beginning, but can someone suggest a decent place from which to start?

It's pretty serialized. You HAVE to start at the beginning if you want any hope of understanding where things are later in the series.

 

[Star Wolf]

I've never understood the desire to start anywhere other than the beginning.

If you like the series, wouldn't having a large number of books to look forward to be a good thing? And if you don't, who cares which one you read?

I see the Honorverse novels like I see Clancy. Start with the first ones published because Weber like Clancy caught the writers version of victory disease and their tight great books started dragging on and on and on. So if you like the tight action story and start to learn the characters and the verse then the longer padded followup books are easier to take.

Hopefully Weber got edited down the line and he never spent 75 pages describing a tree which caused a gas tank to fail like Clancy did in Code of Honor

 

[Lindley]

It's not quite that bad, but sometimes he can go on for pages about all the political backstory backing up a single line spoken by a character. Or half a chapter describing a weapons system while the bird is on the way to the target.

 

[T J]

Or half a chapter describing a weapons system while the bird is on the way to the target.

Noticed that. While interesting it can be annoying.

 

[coolghoul]

I think the publishing order (generally) is the way to do this.

eg. If reading Asimov's Foundation series, I would still say that you should read it in Published order rather than starting with a chronologically earlier story that was more of a "retro-fit" (I'm not calling it a retcon).

I did break with that tradition in the Drizzt books (jumping to fantasy). I tried reading them chronologically and found the series which was actually published first to be boring as anything. The chronologically earlier (but published later) trilogy was much more interesting.

However, in comics, sometimes issues get delayed so even the published order doesn't work. Which makes me ask others....

I haven't read Honor Harrington as yet. So can't be of more help. I have heard off and on about this but haven't read this - I take it, this is recommended?

 

[Star Wolf]

I haven't read Honor Harrington as yet. So can't be of more help. I have heard off and on about this but haven't read this - I take it, this is recommended?

It may have been just about the best Hornblower in space series. The earlier books take a 1900s navy through the WWII task forces analogy.

 

[Lt. Trull]

I've read (audiobooks) all the harrington series... and all the jack campbell lost fleet series and find the lost fleet books a little more believeable (military and weapons) then the harrington books...

 

[Stiletto]

I've read (audiobooks) all the harrington series... and all the jack campbell lost fleet series and find the lost fleet books a little more believeable (military and weapons) then the harrington books...

Man, I would love to hear the audio books versions of Honor Harrington. I've already have read them all, but I have a long commute to work. I haven't been able to find any of the Honor audio books.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Good thread.

I'm interested in this book series...

 

[cbspock]

Audible has a bunch of the Honor books on audio.


-Chris

 

[Technobuilder]

Characters are what make a story for me.

How a character acts in and responds to various situations is always more important to me than the events themselves.

Note, for anyone who has gotten into this series and is thinking about it in terms of a Mainline series with 2 spin-offs, you may want to revise your understanding.

Weber has reincorporated the spin-offs back into the mainline series and now the universe is just that much larger.

I don't think the forthcoming Honorverse book Mission of Honor would be nearly as rewarding as I expect it to be, without having already read Storm from the Shadows & Torch of Freedom.

I guess it helps that I'm a big fan of most of the spin-off characters already though.

Also, even if you're not a completest like I am, you're going to want to read at least 2-3 of the stories from the Anthology Books a piece. They provide a lot of background and motivational understanding for characters introduced later on.

 

[Forbin]

That sounds like too much work!

Webers later verboseness started to make the later books a bit of a chore to slog through.