Here we are at the end of the main series set of novels—sort of. You’ll certainly find this book listed that way by some fans, and that’s just fine. However you bin this book, it’s characterized as a stand-alone novel, but it does what we’ve seen others do previously in the Honorverse: it gives us new information and perspective on events we’ve already seen. It also sets the stage for what is referred to as the Expanded Honorverse. Your hosts have discussed this before to a limited extent, and in our interviews with him, Mr. Weber also gave us some detail on the way the Honorverse will move forward in the future. Toll of Honor seems to be a stage-setter or bridge from the Honorverse we know and love to what lies ahead.

Featured in this novel are the events revolving around Honor’s duel with Pavel Young. As painful as the events were that ultimately brought the duel about, we get some more color here and it didn’t come across as simply filler material. Along these lines there’s some important and very touching storytelling about a key event or two tied to when Honor officially becomes a Steadholder on Grayson. We also learn a good bit about how the relationship between Horrace Harkness and Iris Babcock begins. This was a lot of fun and a wonderful way to balance the heaviness of Honor’s duel.

Related to all this, there’s an author’s note at the end of the book that’s definitely worth the time to read, so please don’t hit the end of the last chapter and shut the book.

Your hosts rated “Toll of Honor” with a trio of 5s (out of 5), resulting in an overall rating of 5.

Next time we’re going to cover “Friends Indeed”, the fifth novel in the Star Kingdom series by David Weber and Jane Lindskold.

For first-time readers, please grab your copy, invite a friend, and join us again for our continuing voyage through the Honorverse!

You can find us, and all our episodes at http://honorverse.net, and email us at honorverse@tpenetwork.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

Now, let’s be about it!

We know we’ve been enjoying this Honorverse adventure for a while when we realize the book we’re discussing this time wasn’t published when we began the podcast. David Weber keeps writing and we’re happy to have more content to read, enjoy, and discuss with you, our co-adventurers! What Price Victory is the seventh book in the Worlds of Honor anthology and brings us five short stories written by six authors: Timothy Zahn, Thomas Pope, Jane Lindskold, Jan Kotouč, Joelle Presby and David Weber. We have some familiar faces and a few new folks, too.

What Price Victory is 320 pages (hardcover), published in February 2023.

The first story in the book is Traitor, by Timothy Zahn and Thomas Pope.

It takes place sometime around 1528 PD and focuses on events surrounding a significant challenge to Andermani Emperor Gustav. What initially appears to be quiet and professional concern that Gustav may not be fit to lead the Empire, as the concerned parties assemble, it becomes clear that the real intent is to stage a coup. Things get wild!

Your hosts gave this story three ‘thumbs-up”.

The second story, Deception of Gryphon was written by Jane Lindskoldt.

The last book we discussed was A New Clan which featured Stephanie Harrington and her friends. This short story brings us back to Stephanie and Karl shortly after the events in A New Clan, but now these two heroes are on Gryphon with Stephanie’s parents. While there, they find themselves involved in what initially looked like a suicide, but quickly questions surface about whether or not it may have been a murder. As a credentialed law enforcement officer, Karl gets involved along with Probationary Ranger Harrington and the story unfolds.

We gave this story three “thumbs-ups”, as well.

The Silesian Command was the third story, written by Jan Kotouč.

Now we find ourselves early in the days of what is usually called the Second Manticoran-Havenite War, probably in 1919 or 1920 PD. The Star Kingdom of Manticore is growing and we’re seeing some of the struggles of the war spilling over into Manticore’s efforts to manage new territory gained when the Silesian Confederacy was split between the Star Kingdom and the Andermani Empire. There’s intrigue, nuclear weapons, a rogue People’s Republic of Haven State Security officer, and pirates!

Your hosts scored this one with two “thumbs-up”, and a “neutral” vote.

If Wishes Were Space Cutters, written by Joelle Presby, was our fourth story.

Joelle takes us back to Grayson and a character named Noah Bedlam. This young man dreams of bigger things in the future, then finds himself with a new job helping to build a space station. He takes the job and leaves his mom (who he lives with) behind—hopefully the new work will pay him enough to improve both his and her standard of living. High drama ensues when space debris hits the ship (a cutter) he’s stationed on, causing critical damage. With the help of a new acquaintance, he works to stem the unfolding catastrophe and save many lives. As a result, he’s recommended to attend pilot training.

We struggled with this one, scoring it with a “neutral” vote and two “thumbs-down”.

The fifth and final story is written by the man himself, Mr. David Weber, titled First Victory.

The events in the story unfold across a significant period of time between March 1846 and December 1877 PD. Most of the story is at the front end of this window culminating with Honor’s birth, then there’s a leap forward to when she’s 17.

Lots of tension and love in this story. Tension that is the relationship between Jennifer (Allison’s mom) and Allison (Honor’s mom)...

It seems too soon, but we’re already talking about the fourth book in the Star Kingdom series: A New Clan, once again written by David Weber and Jane Lindskold. If there was a sassy tag line taken from the summary of the book, it’s “Sex! Drugs! Rock and Roll! And Treecats!”

Published in June 2022, we’re hit with 420 pages full of fresh, new adventures in the Honorverse. As we mentioned in the podcast, there’s now also a fifth book in this series. We’ll certainly cover that when the time comes.

While our treecat friends are a key part of the story, here we’re following Stephanie and friends as they find themselves involved in uncovering the details behind what may be an illegal drug ring. Is this Forestry Service work? Not necessarily, but this well-written story comfortably explains how Probationary Ranger Harrington along with colleagues and friends find themselves involved in determining if a new drug in what is the beginning of common use has ties to a number of accidents involving other youths. Needless to say, things get messy and a little ugly, quickly. These “kids” are growing up!

After seeing the Rangers and Stephanie involved in significant wildfires previously, this is an interesting adventure as forestry work takes a side seat to more traditional law enforcement business in what is revealed to be a somewhat gray area. Like the others in this series, A New Clan is written with a young adult audience in mind, but still a good read for fans of any age. As always, we discuss our pros and cons with this novel from our perspective as Honorverse fans and hope you join right in with us.

We rated A New Clan with a 4, another 4 and a 3.5 (out of 5), for an overall rating of 3.8.

As always, thank you for listening and big thanks to those of you who also take the time to like and follow us on social media, to comment on our posts or even reach out to us with a longer note. At the end of this show we truly enjoy when we can read your comments and questions. Please keep them coming!

Next time on the Honorverse Today podcast, we’re turning our attention to Shadow of Freedom by David Weber. This book is the third novel in the Saganami Island sequence. We hope you grab it, read it, and find a friend to join us on the continuing adventure through the Honorverse!

You can find us, and all our episodes at http://honorverse.net, and email us at honorverse@tpenetwork.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

Now, let’s be about it!