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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780743435741
ISBN number: 0743435745
Label: Baen
Manufacturer: Baen
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 416
Printing Date: September 03, 2002
Publishing house: Baen
Sale Popularity Level: 37199
Studio: Baen
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Rated by buyers 
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This, the fourth novel in the author's ongoing Honor Harrington series has no naval battles. But there's plenty of action anyway:
Picking up where the third tale, "A Short Victorious War," left off, Pavel Young, who acted cowardly in the action against the People's Republic of Haven in the last novel, is being court martialed for desertion. By all rights, he should have been executed for his crimes, but--as is usual in the Honorverse--politics intervened, a compromise is reached, and he's spared the death sentence, although he's cashiered from the Navy.
He immediately starts scheming to eliminate Honor. She fights back. There's murder, mayhem, a couple of duels, and an exile. And it's a great character study, too. The author this time fleshes out some of the quirks we've seen in Honor--and now she seems like a real person, not just a space opera heroine.
This one's strictly for fans of the series and probably will baffle newbies, who ought, of course, to start with "On Baselisk Station," the very first book in the series, which has now reached 11 novels.
Rated by buyers -
Very entertaining even though there are no space ship battles. Really focuses on Honor's character.
Rated by buyers 
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Less spaceships blowing up, more political infighting. Honor has an enemy who is now in disgrace. Her society, with all its advanced
technology and space fleets, has duelling. Said enemy manoeuvres Harrington's bed warmer into such an event, to get back at her. This is where I started to lose interest in the serious. Definitely more on the melodramatic side, with dastardly villainous types and whatnot.
Rated by buyers -
"Field of Dishonour" is the fourth book in a wonderful space opera series set some three thousand years in the future and featuring David Weber's best fictional heroine, "Honor Harrington." In this book the action moves from space battles to a court martial and then to a series of duels.
These books are best read in sequence and I strongly recommend that you start with "On Basilisk Station" which is the very first one.
The Honor Harrington stories are replete with parallels to the time of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. In particular, the Royal Manticoran Navy in which the heroine serves is clearly based on the Royal Navy at the time of Nelson.
The technology of space travel and naval warfare in the Honor Harrington stories has been written so as to impose tactical and strategic constraints on space navy officers similar to those which the technology of fighting sail imposed on wet navy officers two hundred years ago. Similarly the galactic situation in the novels contains many similarities to the strategic and political situation in European history in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
This seems to be quite deliberate: many thinly veiled (and amusing) hints in the books indicate that they are to some extent a tribute to C.S. Forester, while the main heroine of the books, Honor Harrington, appears to owe more than just her initials to C.S. Forester's character "Horatio Hornblower."
In the previous book, "The Short Victorious War", Honor's home nation of Manticore, and their allies, were attacked by the People's Republic of Haven or "Peeps" - an agressive superpower which has been gradually conquering the small nations on its borders in bitesize chunks.
Following a coup in the People's Republic after their very first round of attacks were not successful, Haven is now run by a "Committee of Public Safety" headed by one Rob S. Pierre, but the new Peep government is just as committed to the war as the old one was.
Weber clearly means the reader to understand that Haven represents Revolutionary France, and that Manricore and her allies face a war to the death against Haven, which may go on for a long time.
At the start of book four Lord Pavel Young, who tried to rape Honor Harrington when they were both cadets at the naval academy, left her unsupported "On Basilisk Station" in book one, and left her ships unguarded by running away in battle in book three, is facing a court martial. Meanwhile Captain Honor Harrington has brought her ship, the battlecruiser HMS Nike, home for repairs, and is enjoying an all-too brief period of happiness with her lover, captain Paul Tankersley.
Young and his powerful family are willing to pull every political truck in the book to try to get him off and discredit Honor, who they regards as being to blame for his disgrace. They will stop at nothing, including killing, to gain revenge. They realise too late that their attacks on Honor and on people she loves have been the worst possible thing they could have done: they've made her angry.
Many people read Weber for the space battles. They may want to give this book a miss - it's the only Honorverse book which doesn't have a single space battle. Instead there is a great deal of political manouvering, and various successful and unsuccessful attempts to kill people through duels and assassinations. However, it plays an important part in character and plot development in the series, and some of the scenes are very exciting. In particular, Honor's relationship with the people of Grayson develops in new and unexpected directions.
At the time of writing there are thirteen full length novels and four short story collections in the "Honorverse" as the fictional galaxy in which these stories are set is sometimes known. The main series which tells the story of Honor Harrington herself currently runs to eleven novels; in order these are
On Basilisk Station
The Honor of the Queen
The Short Victorious War
Field of Dishonor
Flag in Exile
Honor among Enemies
In Enemy Hands
Echoes of Honor
Ashes of Victory
War of Honor
At All Costs
The four collections of short stories set in the same universe, not all of which feature Honor Harrington herself, are
More Than Honor
Worlds of Honor
Worlds of Honor III: Changer of Worlds
Worlds of Honor IV: The Service of the Sword
The two spin-off novels are "Crown of Slaves" (with Eric Flint) which is a story of espionage and intrigue featuring a number of characters, including Anton and Helen Zilwicki, very first introduced in earlier Honor Harrington books such as this one, and "The Shadow of Saganami" which is a kind of "next generation" novel featuring a number of younger officers in the navies of Manticore and her ... Read More
Rated by buyers -
I was disheartened about this book before even picking it up. My very first port of call was Amazon to read the reviews on the book. Numerous reviews made mention of the lack of Space Battles in the forth of the Honor Harrington saga. I'm reading these books for a Sci Fi, lasers flash'n, ships exploding, the good guys always win, fix.
I knew I wasn't going to get it with this installment.
This was the very first book in 15 years that I read in a day. I couldn't put it down (having to surrender myself to the wrath of my disgruntled ignored wife afterwards).
This book starts to really show how much the characters are developing in the series, and how much the reader starts to care for the main players.
Might have to read the thing again whilst I wait for the 5th book to arrive from the States :)
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