HVT-010 Worlds of Honor

Honorverse Today

This episode, we find ourselves reading and discussing the second anthology. This one is entitled Worlds of Honor. It was published in 1999 and contains five stories.

Aptly named, these stories are as much tied to Honor’s worlds, as to the characters we read about. Through the pens of several authors, we travel to Sphynx, Manticore, Gryphon, and Sylvestria.

First comes the story The Stray, written by Linda Evans. Linda brings us to Sphynx for the second bonding between a human and treecat: that between Dr. Scott MacDallan and Fisher, just 15 months after Stephanie Harrington is adopted by her treecat.

The story focuses on a stray treecat named True Stalker who, near death, finds Scott and Fisher. He leads them to the crash site of an aircar, located near a facility owned by BioNeering. There are essentially two storylines here. First, we gain additional insights into what humans and treecats experience as a bonded pair. We also glimpse into the treecats’ moral code as Scott and Fisher learn through True Stalker that the aircar crash wasn’t an accident. It was a murder to cover up what’s occurring in the related storyline.

In the second storyline, related to this case something has gone wrong at the BioNeering research site with the devastating result of killing off a significant section of Picket Wood trees. As we already know, this species of tree is a clonal organism (much like the Aspen tree on Earth). It is also a primary environment for treecat colonies. The murder of the aircar crew was an attempt to hide the significant damage that had been done to the forest. What wasn’t known or anticipated by BioNeering: one of the crew aboard the shuttle was paired to the treecat True Stalker — the same cat that found and brought Scott and Fisher to the crash site. Ultimately, the crime is revealed.

As a side note, we learn of Manpower Unlimited., a company which provides cloned and bio-engineered human slaves to corporate colonies looking for labor they wouldn’t have to pay to work in dangerous environments. This is a company that will play a large role in future stories.

All three of us gave this story a “thumbs-up”, with Raul sneaking a second “thumbs-up” in for good measure.

The second story was written by David Weber: What Price Dreams? We are introduced to Princess Adrienne and her father King Roger II. We see an estranged relationship which was the result of the assassination of Adrienne’s mother, Queen Solange. The damaged relationship between Roger and Adrienne is further fueled by the Princess’ fascination with treecats. When she makes a trip to Sphynx two important things happen: she’s adopted by the treecat Seeker of Dreams; and next, she’s target of an attempted assassination. The attempt is ultimately foiled by Seeker of Dreams and his clan.

Of note, these events occur not long after the first adoptions of Stephanie Harrington and Scott MacDallan. As a result, not much is known about treecats, adoptions are still very few, and as a result, opinions run strong. With Adrienne’s salvation coming through the hands of treecats, King Roger has a change of heart regarding treecats in general, and the rights of these sentient creatures.

One nugget of information we gain from this story is of a technique called a “psych adjustment,” with all its unresolved moral baggage. We get just enough information about it to see what happens when psych adjustments are used for malicious purposes where an adjusted individual is effectively programmed and used to attempt the assassination of Adrienne. Another nugget is more background on Manpower and Mesa and especially their attempts to get hold of treecats for “research” purposes.

Your hosts all rated this one with a “thumbs-up” as well.

Queen’s Gambit was the third story in the anthology. It was penned by the expert hand of Jane Lindskold. Here we move forward in time to the Manticoran reign of King Roger III. The story begins with his accidental death while skiing on the Indigo Salt Flats. Foul play is suspected by his daughter, Elizabeth, who becomes Queen Elizabeth III. This story directly connects to the main storyline in terms of time, as Elizabeth III is queen during Honor’s service. Here, Honor and her best friend “Mike” Henke are young officers, not long out of the Academy. This story brings additional information to us about the Earl of North Hollow and his family, also important within the primary Honorverse storyline.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway is when young Queen Elizabeth is ultimately convinced that to challenge her father’s murderers to a duel (rather than letting them walk) would be a disaster. This reinforces an ongoing storyline about the potentially negative consequences of exercising some rights when the individual involved is someone as senior and visible as the Queen. Or, to a tie back to Honor’s storyline, when a member of the nobility (Honor) challenges another noble (Pavel Young) to a duel. We learn just how well Elizabeth understands Honor feelings about justice.

Once again, your hosts all gave heartfelt “thumbs-up” for this story.

The fourth story is called The Hard Way Home, also by David Weber. In this story, we find ourselves in the company of Susan and Ranjit Hibson (sister and brother) on a ski trip to Gryphon. Through their loving banter, we learn that Susan has a strong desire to join the Manticoran Marines when she’s old enough. As they ascend the slopes in a lift car, a devastating avalanche buries hundreds of victims in the snow, including Susan and Ranjit.

Ranjit and another survivor are injured. From their position, trapped within the car, the kids realize their only possible chance to survive is for Susan to attempt to dig her way to the surface and signal for help.

Meanwhile, above the surface, we see a “young” Lieutenant Commander Harrington working for Commander Anthony Agursky (the 14th Baron of Novaya Tyumen and friend of Pavel Young). Agursky is a difficult officer to work with, but Honor has no real issue with him until the avalanche occurs. Honor is commanding the deployed pinnaces and begins to provide immediate search and rescue to the victims. Rather than provide immediate aid to those in need, Agursky tells Honor to stand down so they can take the time to make a plan to provide assistance. When Honor (who grew up on Sphynx and familiar with snow and avalanches) points out to Agursky that any delay will cost lives, he attempts to bench her. Instead, the Captain of their ship intervenes, pulls Agursky away from the scene, and puts Honor in clear command of the military contribution to the search and rescue efforts.

It's through this that Honor ends up on the ground. Nimitz detects and ultimately finds Susan as she’s digging her way to the surface from the buried lift car. Susan, Ranjit, and the other victims in the car are saved. In a heartwarming set of events, due to Susan’s tenacity, Honor arranges a place for her in Marine training — provided she keeps her grades up.

Your hosts once again all gave “thumbs-up” to this story.

The fifth and final story in Worlds of Honor was Deck Load Strike, written by Roland J. Green. Roland takes us to the planet Sylvestria at the end of the Erewhon Wormhole Terminus. This is a planet that’s strategically important to both Manticore and Haven. As a result, two warring factions on the planet are used by the greater powers against each other to posture for an expected future fight.

Putting it bluntly, none of us cared much for this story and would probably dare to say what you just read above is the entire story in a nutshell.

Your hosts characterized this story as “filler” and rated it with two “thumbs-down” and one “neutral” vote.

Overall, we rated the “More Than Honor” anthology with a 4.5, a 4, and another 4.5 (out of 5), for an overall rating of 4.3.

We also pondered some treecat names for ourselves, offered up by Jim. As we tossed these around, we also wondered if we should ask David Weber to assign us some names. I guess we’ll see what happens, but for now let us know what you think of these: for JP; for Raul; and for Jim.

Next up: we return to the main storyline again, this time to Ashes of Victory, where the story continues after Honor’s escape from Haven’s prison planet Hell. We sincerely hope you read along with us.

As always, genuine thanks to each of you for listening, and especially folks who have found the time to send us comments. If you haven’t already done so, consider spreading the word to others who you know are Honor Harrington fans, or to those who might enjoy the Honorverse!

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!