Welcome to the second book in the Honor Harrington main series of books. Let’s continue our journey into the Honorverse!

The second book in the series is titled “The Honor of the Queen”. Like the first book, it was also published in 1993 by Baen Books. This one ran 422 pages. The events in this story take place approximately three years after the events that occurred in “On Basilisk Station”.

After a strong setting of the stage in the first novel, David Weber tosses us right into the action in this second book—and that’s almost an understatement! Honor is selected to be the senior, uniformed military officer on a diplomatic delegation to Grayson, under the leadership of Admiral Courvosier, who serves on the delegation out of uniform and in a diplomatic capacity. He selects Honor to participate based on his knowledge of her abilities spanning her career back to her days at the Academy. He is not only Honor’s professional mentor, but also a father figure for her. There is also a career academic on the delegation—Reginald Houseman. He is a participant based on those credentials, but he has very limited practical experience, and as a result, a very narrow view of foreign policy, politics, leading to a somewhat different agenda than that of the Queen and her Foreign Office. He also holds the military in disdain, causing very real problems for Admiral Courvosier and the rest of his team. As you read the book, you’ll notice most of his criticisms of the professional military aren’t true and are in fact self-indictments.

The situation is this: the great opposing power to Manticore is the People’s Republic of Haven. In an effort to create a defensive buffer to Haven, Manticore works to influence Grayson to ally with them, essentially blocking a future invasion route into Manticoran space. At the same time, Grayson is engaged in a struggle with a radical and increasingly hostile neighboring system called Masada. Haven is supporting Masada in their attempt to conquer Grayson and secure the invasion route to Manticore.

To add a layer of complexity to the situation, Grayson is essentially a theocracy that had previously separated itself from humanity many centuries prior, finding society too secular. In an ironic turn of events, Masada separated itself from Grayson for the same reason, now viewing Grayson as apostate. The relationship between Grayson and Masada was abrasive to begin with and has only grown cooler as time has passed. To add one more layer of complexity to the situation Admiral Courvosier and Honor enter: the government of Grayson, based on their particular view of religious law, has placed women in their culture in a status that leaves them subordinate to men and essentially without rights. In practice, they’re more akin to beloved pets rather than equal humans. They have very few rights, especially when it comes to holding positions of power or responsibility within the government, including serving as officers in the military. When the delegation makes contact with Grayson, the culture of Manticore, and the senior commissioned female officer (also a ship’s captain as well as a squadron commander) finds herself at immediate odds with Grayson and the purpose of the mission.

In the midst of that friction, things begin to go badly when tension becomes combat. Hostilities break out with significant tactical (and possibly more significant) losses for Grayson and Manticore, Grayson cautiously (perhaps reluctantly) accepts the offer of alliance made by Manticore, placing their cultural views (biases?) on the back burner. Honor’s expertise, actions and leadership are on display for all to see as she represents the Queen’s intent when it comes to protecting Grayson and working to achieve a formal alliance. Honor also suffers a significant physical and personal loss as the result of her faithful and honorable service.

David Weber gives us an incredible...