Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Baen
Manufacturer: Baen
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 864
Printing Date: October 25, 2005
Publishing house: Baen
Sale Popularity Level: 566314
Studio: Baen
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
What price victory? The war with the Republic of Haven has resumed . . . disastrously for the Star Kingdom of Manticore. Admiral Lady Dame Honor Harrington, Steadholder and Duchess Harrington, the single victorious Allied commander of the opening phase of the new war, has been recalled from the Sidemore System to command Eighth Fleet. Everyone knows Eighth Fleet is the Alliance's primary offensive command, which makes it the natural assignment for the woman the media calls 'the Salamander.' But what most of the public DOESN'T know is that not only are the Star Kingdom and its Allies badly outnumbered by the Republic's new fleet, but that the odds are going to get steadily worse. Eighth Fleet's job is to somehow prevent those odds from crushing the Alliance before the Star Kingdom can regain its strategic balance. It's a job which won't be done cheaply. Honor Harrington must meet her formidable responsibilities with inferior forces even as she copes with tumultuous changes in her personal and public life. The alternative to victory is total defeat, yet this time the COST of victory will be agonizingly high.
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Rated by buyers 
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I've only recently started reading the Honor Harrington series and I have found them captivating. At All Costs is inspiring, exciting, occasionally infuriating (in the sense that you want to reach into the pages and shake some sense into a few of the characters), and absolutely heart wrenching. The author has done a marvelous job of developing all the characters, and of course most importantly Honor, throughout the series, so much so that you truly come to know them. I highly recommend the entire series.
Rated by buyers 
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...all for the convenience of moving the plot in one direction (Translated: Author laziness).
Mr. Weber cannot get out of his comfort zone, and this book demonstrates that even more than the previous (which was almost as bad). Other than battles getting bigger and missile counts getting higher - NOTHING surprising happens in this book. And NOTHING Changes!
-At war with Haven at the beginning, at war with Haven at the end.
-Can't figure out the assassinations at the beginning, can't figure it out by the end.
-Practically everything present at the beginning, is the same at the end.
Its as if he's dragging the plots along to keep the series going - no new ideas in the pipeline. The new ones he does have (the whole Mesa conspiracy) he seems to not know how to bring to fruition, which leads me to my biggest gripe about the book - smart people acting stupid.
In an effort to fill the book with as many space battles as possible (especially the "climax") he makes his protagonists (there aren't any real antagonists anymore except for Mesa) forget logic and push things along in a one dimensional way - conflict.
/spoiler
Lets summarize: Haven is sure they forged the documents, and they freely admit they assassinating the King and others, and they understand why Manticore is pissed at them because the new round of assassinations sure looks like them, and Eloise keeps saying "Dear God, we did that?" and "Oh my, this is terrible", etc. etc.
So what does she do after the debacle at Torch? Well it isn't what any 46 chromosome non-psychopathic human would do if given the knowledge their government was responsible for a war no one wanted - Translated: Be damned with Theismann's objections, get in a pinnace, and head straight for Manticore and plead your case directly with the Queen.
Nooooope! Not what she does. Instead: Well, since they don't believe my letter to them, lets just throw 500 ships at their home-world and bomb them into destruction - because that will get them to the table....where we then can tell them "Oops, my bad! We started this thing by accident".
Truly pathetic Mr. Weber.
Glad I didn't buy this in hard cover!
Rated by buyers -
As this is book 11 of the Honor Harrington series by David Weber, this review will not dwell on the back story leading up to At All Costs - read the very first 10 books to get an idea of the politics and machinations that this series has taken on.
At All Costs picks up where War of Honor left off - with Manticore reeling from the counter-blow by Haven that kills the ceasefire and brings the perpetual war between the Star Kingdom of Manticore and the Republic of Haven back in full force.
War of Honor might have been the end of this series as we knew (and loved) it with its focus on political intrigue and the ever-so-infuriating politics that Manticore had descended into. But luckily, Haven's surprise attack undid most of that fairly boring line of thought and brought White Haven and Honor, etc. back in charge of the Kingdom's future.
So, I was excited to see where all of this led with the long-awaited At All Costs. At first, I was afraid that this book would follow the same track as the previous as the very first 100 pages or so were more political intrigue and insider machinations that left me wondering what Weber was smoking. But, then it all starts to make sense (mostly, as much of the intrigue follows from Crown of Slaves, an off-shoot book that isn't necessary to read this book, but it would have made it easier to figure out what was going on in some instances) after that very first 100 pages and the action really gets going.
And going it does get...At All Costs returns the Honor Harrington series to what Weber does best - naval battles in the vacuum of space. And At All Costs is a series of space battles, with all of the characters - on both sides - that you have come to know an love.
Without giving away the ending of this installment, it is important to address the future of this series. Essentially, the action and weaponry accelerate at a breakneck pace to some extent in this book, and when it was all said and done, I had one singular feeling that I can only equate to what the military commanders around the First World War must have thought as they watched their 19th century gentlemanly battlefield tacts disintegrate in the face of machine guns and tanks.
One last note: Weber's other off-shoot book in this series, Shadow of Saganami, takes place in parallel with this book. It is not necessary to read it first, but it might also shed some light on some of the side stories going on here.
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A Guide to my Rating System:
1 star = The fibre pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.
5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.
Rated by buyers -
The narrative in Honor Harrington books come off as slightly heavy-handed, and some of the same jokes are recycled (i.e., commentaries on a person's ability to differentiate between their head and their posterior). That being said, I love them all, and this one ended in such emotion that it stayed with me for days. I REALLY hope Weber either finished this up before he retires or finds a suitable author to carry it on.
Rated by buyers -
I hope the HH series doesn't end with this book. It's no fit way for a largely great series and character to die. I can read and re-read the very first three books with wonderment and total joy but as the series goes on it begins a "Roman Empire" slide into self-indulgence that ends with this disappointing dénouement. Weber must be bored by now, or simply burned out. Perhaps, as some others have speculated, the editorial side of the author/publisher relationship was asleep at the switch. In any case, I'll probably buy another installment... if there is one... hoping the fire will return to Weber's writing.
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