Honorverse

Plot

The series follows Honor Harrington, military heroine and later, influential politician, during a time of extreme interstellar change and tension. Most of the more than 20 novels and anthology collections cover events between 4000 and 4022 AD with "PD" (Post-Diaspora) dating beginning with a dispersal to the stars from the Sun ("Sol") in 2103 AD. The main series novels are set primarily in a timeline beginning 40 years after Harrington's birth on October 1, 3962 AD (1859 PD), and some short stories flesh out her earlier career. Additional novels and shorter fiction take place up to 350 years earlier, and still-earlier canon history is filled in between narratives and in appendices attached to the main novels and anthologies.

The political makeup and history of the series frequently echoes actual history, particularly that of Europe in the last half of the second millennium. The series is consciously modeled on the Horatio Hornblower series by C. S. Forester, and its main character, like Horatio Hornblower, on a mix of Thomas Cochrane and Admiral Lord Nelson. Weber originally planned for Harrington to die in the fifth book. This was later changed to parallel Nelson by having her die at the peak of her career in the climactic Battle of Manticore in 1921 PD (4024 AD), then continue the series with her children as the main protagonists. However, collaborating author Eric Flint intervened, asking for the invention of a mutual enemy for both the Star Kingdom of Manticore and the Republic of Haven to oppose in a spy-and-counterspy spin-off sub-series the two contractually agreed to co-write, just as they have contracts to write in Flint's 1632 universe. This "rethink" and redesign caused Weber to move the series' internal chronology up by about 20 years and begat the Crown of Slaves novel, first in the "Crown of Slaves" sub-series based on a number of the short stories of the first four collections. In this scenario, proxies for Manticore and Haven oppose the same hidden enemy, the genetic slavers and powers behind the government and corporations of the planet of Mesa. Mesa is later revealed in Mission of Honor to be part of a secret cabal of about a dozen highly capable planets that are busily building a secret navy using advanced technologies at a secret planet and known to itself as the Mesan Alignment. The Mesan Alignment's navy has new technology and conducts a sneak attack on Manticore in 1922 PD during the twelfth mainline novel, Mission of Honor. The Mesans have a 600-year-old secret program to reinstitute purposeful genetic engineering of humans and break up the Solarian League, while taking down all opponents opposing such genetic engineering. This makes the staunchly anti-genetic-slavery star nations of Haven, Manticore, and various associates of the planet Beowulf primary targets of the Mesan Alignment. The "Crown of Slaves" sub-series books and last two mainline Honorverse novels detail the rising extent of this threat.

As the two sub-series progress, albeit with somewhat-separate casts of characters, each is expected by Weber to carry the detailed storyline events particular to their astrographical region forward and tie together into an ongoing plotline concerning the massive and monolithic Solarian League, which foreshadowing in the most recent novels suggests is about to undergo severe disruption. The thirteenth mainline novel, A Rising Thunder, ties together events in both sub-series and synchronizes the timeline of each sub-series with Honor Harrington's mainline novels. This book confirms the Solarian League is officially now the new Mesan cat's paw, effectively at war with both the Star Empire of Manticore and the Republic of Haven, as it has been manipulated into error after error by the operatives of the Mesan Alignment.

Setting

Among a handful of anthologies, the thirteen Honor-centered novels, and two subordinate sub-series starring some different characters, the universe first explored in On Basilisk Station has a diasporal historical background for the backstory storyline, in which mankind, over almost two millennia, migrated to systems beyond the Sol system, first in slower-than-light starships, then by increasingly efficient and effective hyperspace drive-propulsion systems. Early daughter colonies also spawned colonies, forming regional networks of related populations. With travel limited to slower-than-light speeds, any marginally habitable nearby planet was of interest, and Earth's scientists went through a period in which they regularly genetically modified the human genome for survival positive adaptations to marginal environments, such as heavy gravity, thin atmosphere, thick atmospheres, or toxic environments (e.g. Grayson). Some corporate entities also began breeding for super soldiers and superior intellects, good looks, sexual prowess, etc., or mixes of such traits, practices that led to a horrific "Final War" on Old Earth. Long-established and advanced daughter colonies like Beowulf mounted a variety of rescue missions and initiated a thousand-year effort to clean up the Earth gene pool. For a time, the cultural centre moved off the Earth as it took about 500 years for the planetary economy to recover its pre-eminence within its shell of highly populated, highly developed planets. Located in the center of the spherical Solarian League, Earth's Old Chicago eventually re-emerged as the nominal League Capital.

By the Gregorian calendar currently in use, the Honorverse novels are dated beginning with year 2103 A.D.—the epoch date of the Diaspora's beginning.

The FTL hyperspace propulsion system in the stories is around 600 years old at the time period in which the novels are placed. This technology uses the ability to "sail" along a vast network of "gravity waves" on different successively higher hyperbands, each higher band giving a more-efficient speed multiplier but requiring more powerful (therefore bulkier and more expensive) engines to reach; the higher bands significantly shortening transit times on a given gravity wave for a given base speed, which is limited by particle densities and radiation shielding as Newtonian speeds increase. Analogous to prevailing trade winds creating certain favoured sea routes on Earth, the relatively static fixed gravity waves form favoured travel paths. A lack of gravity waves in some regions means that they must be plodded across by relatively slower means. These favorite routes and desert crossing points are susceptible to illegitimate exploitation by pirates and commerce-raiding warships, both interested in preying on the rich pickings of the interstellar merchant cargo ships that carry upwards of 2–7 million metric tonnes of cargo.

Concept and creation

David Weber didn't set out to create a female protagonist; "it was the way the character came to me," Weber explains. "I didn't set out to do it because I thought that it was especially politically sensitive on my part or because I thought it was likely to strike a chord with female readership or be a financial success. It was just the way that the character first presented herself." Weber doesn't find writing a female character particularly challenging, because, he says, "I'm writing about a human being who happens to be female." When he first started writing, he had developed her entire back story before he started the first book. However, since he knew from the beginning that these books would become a series, he deliberately set Honor up as a character who changes and grows. One example Weber offers is that in The Short Victorious War, Honor off-handedly refers to her genetically enhanced metabolism, which isn't fully explored until In Enemy Hands: "It was one of those little things that I knew about or that I was holding in reserve," Weber says.

The first name of his character—Honor—had come to Weber long before the last name did. Weber knew that if the Honor novels worked, she was inevitably going to be compared to C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower, so he saw to it that she had the same initials. He said, "There are certainly, clearly, similarities between the two. There are also huge differences. And Honor has never been as neurotic as Hornblower was. Hornblower always carried a massive sense of inferiority around with him. Honor never did." Weber also feels that in the later books in the series, she has more in common with Admiral Horatio Nelson than Hornblower. Weber revealed in the foreword to Storm from the Shadows that it had originally been his intent to kill her off in the Battle of Manticore, thus further echoing Nelson's death (in his greatest battle, Trafalgar) and have the emerging Mesa problem be dealt with by the next generation, specifically her children. When writing At All Costs, he decided instead to keep her alive, and move the Mesan-related events up, to be her problem.

Publication

Many of Weber's books are available at the Baen Free Library; chapters of some texts are otherwise available online. The first-edition hardcover releases of War of Honor, At All Costs, Torch of Freedom, and Mission of Honor contained a CD with copies of most of Weber's published books at the time, labeled for free redistribution.

Honor Harrington series

On Basilisk Station (April 1992) ISBN 0-671-57793-X / HH1

The Honor of the Queen (June 1993) ISBN 0-671-57864-2 / HH2

The Short Victorious War (April 1994) ISBN 0-671-87596-5 / HH3

Field of Dishonor (December 1994) ISBN 0-671-57820-0 / HH4

Flag in Exile (September 1995) ISBN 0-671-31980-9 / HH5

Honor Among Enemies (February 1996) ISBN 0-671-87723-2 / HH6

In Enemy Hands (July 1997) ISBN 0-671-57770-0 / HH7

Echoes of Honor (October 1998) ISBN 0-671-57833-2 / HH8

Ashes of Victory (March 2000) ISBN 0-671-57854-5 / HH9

War of Honor (October 2002) ISBN 0-7434-3545-1 / HH10

At All Costs (November 2005) ISBN 1-4165-0911-9 / HH11

Mission of Honor (June 2010) ISBN 1-4391-3361-1 / HH12

A Rising Thunder (March 2012) ISBN 1-4767-3612-X / HH13

Uncompromising Honor (October 2018) ISBN 9781481483506 / HH14

The Honor Harrington series has been produced several times in audiobook format, at first in cassette (90 min) format by Library of Congress, narrated by Madelyn Buzzard (books 1–10), later by Audible Frontiers beginning in 2009, narrated by Allyson Johnson.

Spin-offs

The Honorverse is a tightly plotted, highly organized invention that was designed with a specific overarching storyline. Its storyline has shifted from the original plan to include new enemies, and did not result in the battle death of heroine Honor Harrington, as was planned originally for book five, and then later for book eleven. The series' canon is maintained solely by its creator, who acts as editor of the works in the universe by other collaborating authors.

Like some of the strategy employed by co-author Eric Flint in his 1632 series, the series has, starting with War of Honor, begun incorporating a broader viewpoint from more than one central character, many of whom, like in the 1632 series, appeared in other series works as supporting characters. Stories in the Worlds of Honor collections directly lead to events and character stars of the Crown of Slaves (CoS) sub-series, whereas the Shadow of Saganami's star cast and some of the characters of the CoS derive directly from the mainline novels. Both contain purposely invented new protagonist characters as well. Weber deliberately has synchronized events in the mainline series with the tellings of local knowledge and vice versa in both sub-series. In other words, the broad front on which he is now telling the overall story is geographically distinct, but synchronized in his timeline: events in one quadrant will affect life and events in the related narratives centred on other main characters.

Short fiction in the series serves as deep backstory or, like the short stories centred directly on Honor Harrington, exposes episodes of her earlier career in much the same way C. S. Forester revealed the not-yet-in-command life of the young Horatio Hornblower. Some of the more important of these tales reveal a greater knowledge of Sphinx's native species, letting the reader in on knowledge not known even to the Honorverse occupants. Among these tales are the revealed history of how treecats and humans first bonded, how the treecats protected and bonded with the royal family, and other treecat tales of greater or lesser importance, such as how the treecat society decided to migrate to the stars. Other short stories expose points of view and life problems from places around the larger universe. Some offer insights to life behind enemy lines in the view of its citizens and their experience, or that of a protagonist in the Verge, or in the Solarian League.

Stories and essays by David Weber, along with other writers invited by him to participate. The stories may either precede or be concurrent with the main Honor Harrington series.

Ad Astra databooks

Honor Harrington: Saganami Island Tactical Simulator (2005) ISBN 0-9748797-4-6

Saganami Island Tactical Simulator fleet boxes

Honor Harrington: Saganami Island Tactical Simulator: Manticoran Fleet Box 1 (2006) ISBN 0-9748797-5-4

Honor Harrington: Saganami Island Tactical Simulator: Havenite Fleet Box 1 (2006) ISBN 0-9748797-6-2

Honor Harrington: Saganami Island Tactical Simulator: Andermani Fleet Box 1 (2006) ISBN 1-934153-02-8

Honor Harrington: Saganami Island Tactical Simulator: Silesian Fleet Box 1 (2006) ISBN 1-934153-05-2

Honor Harrington: Saganami Island Tactical Simulator: Havenite Fleet Box 2 (2010)

Ship books

Honor Harrington: Saganami Island Tactical Simulator: Shipbook 2: Silesian Confederacy (2006) ISBN 0-9748797-7-0

Honor Harrington: Saganami Island Tactical Simulator: Shipbook 3: The Short Victorious War (2010)

Jayne's Intelligence Review

Jayne's Intelligence Review: The Royal Manticoran Navy (2006) ISBN 1-934153-08-7

Jayne's Intelligence Review: The People's Republican Navy (2007) ISBN 1-934153-09-5

Ships of the Fleet

Honor Harrington: Ships of the Fleet: 2006 (2005) ISBN 0-9748797-2-X

Appearances in anthologies and collections

The Warmasters (May 2002) ISBN 0-7434-3534-6: An anthology, containing the Honorverse short novel Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington. The story has previously appeared in a Worlds of Honor collection.

Letter from Stephanie (2011) (Baen.com) Baen Free Stories 2011 By David Weber

Grayson Navy Letters Home (2012) (Baen.com) Baen Free Stories 2012 By Joelle Presby

Infinite Stars (October 2017) ISBN 9781785654596: A Bryan Thomas Schmidt anthology that contains the previously unpublished Honorverse short story "Our Sacred Honor".

Dark Fall (2018) (Baen.com) Baen Free Stories 2018 By David Weber

Noir Fatale (May 2019) ISBN 9781481483971: An anthology edited by Larry Correia and Kacey Ezell that contains the previously unpublished Honorverse short story "Recruiting Exercise".

Give Me Libertycon (June 2020) ISBN 9781982124649: An anthology edited by Christopher Woods and T.K.F. Weisskopf that contains the previously unpublished Honorverse short story "Heart of Stone". The story is expanded on in the Star Kingdom series novel A New Clan.

Onward Libertycon (June 2022) ISBN 9781946419460: An anthology edited by Christopher Woods and T.K.F. Weisskopf that contains the previously unpublished Honorverse short story "A Travesty of Nature". The story is expanded in Toll of Honor.

Requiem: An Honor Harrington Story (2023) (Baen.com) Baen Free Stories 2023 By David Carrico

Worlds of Weber (September 2008) ISBN 978-1-4391-3314-9/ISBN 1-4391-3314-X: A David Weber collection that includes nine short stories, set both in and out of the Honorverse. The two Honorverse stories have previously appeared in Worlds of Honor collections.

In other media

In 2006, an Honor Harrington movie was announced by Echo Valley Entertainment.

However, later information suggested that it would actually be a television series, to be written and produced by Peter Sands. When David Weber was asked which actress he envisioned as Honor Harrington, he replied, "I don't think there's anyone out there who has the proper combination of height, physicality, and demonstrated acting ability to be 'perfect' for the role, so my mind is fairly open on this topic." Actress Claudia Christian, who plays Susan Ivanova on Babylon 5, has been suggested as a potential candidate; Weber says "She's much shorter than Honor, but so are most women, and I think she could handle the physicality... I think it's more important to have someone who can portray Honor's character and command style than it is to have someone who is six feet two inches tall." Weber's concern is that the director would push Christian to re-create Ivanova's character while playing Honor and "Ivanova's command style is totally different from Honor's."

An Honor Harrington wargame, Saganami Island Tactical Simulator (SITS), was released at Gen Con in 2005 by Ad Astra Games.

An Honor Harrington video game called Honorverse: The Online Game was announced in August 2008; a beta was scheduled to be released in the Spring of 2010.

In 2014 Evergreen Studios announced plans to make a multi-platform adaptation of the Honor Harrington character, under the title Tales of Honor. A mobile game called Tales of Honor: The Secret Fleet was released that year for Android and iOS platforms. Tentative plans at that point also included a television series and a feature film. Evergreen Studios shut down in 2015, which led to the cancelation of most of their projects, including the mobile game, which is no longer available.

Also, in 2014, a five-issue comic book miniseries Tales of Honor: On Basilisk Station from Top Cow Productions, adapting the novel, began on March 5, 2014, concluding later that year. In 2015, Top Cow also released Tales of Honor: Bred to Kill, an original story.