As A Call to Vengeance, "Manticore Ascendant's" third book, opens, the brave but ramshackle Manticoran space navy has thwarted an attack from unknown invaders. Although they are relatively junior officers, series protagonists Travis Long and Lisa Donnelly occupy the center of Vengeance's narrative and their actions take the largest share of our attention. The plot also spends some time with sinister plotters, foreign and domestic, as we see them shape the conflict against which Travis and Lisa act. Of course we meet other brave spacers, as well as some venial ones, as the overall storyline moves Manticore closer and closer to the commercial powerhouse it will one day become.
Probably through Zahn and Pope's work, Vengeance eschews the numbing conversational segments which hamper Weber's solo work for genuine action and forward motion. The main Honorverse sequence has been dinged for offering characters who operate in the stratospheres of political and military life, leaving the lower-ranking folks a few crumbs at the edge of a scene. The "Ascendant" series leans heavily on the young and still somewhat green characters of Long and Donnelly, opening up the lower decks of the spacecraft to find their residents' stories. There are still kings, queens, lords and admirals a-plenty, but here they either share the screen time with others or are even in the background of the action.
Weber, Zahn and Pope combine likable characters -- Travis and Lisa could almost have stepped out of a good Heinlein juvenile and they brim with wit, good cheer and earnest sincerity -- with an advancing plot and a Manticore that's nowhere near the unstoppable force it will later become. They thus make the beginning days of the Honorverse's story a lot more fun than some of the doorstops Weber has produced on his own and they can remind readers why they enjoyed the Honorverse in the books' beginning days as well.
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The Star Empire of Manticore has been facing two enemies in recent books -- the shadowy Mesan Alignment and the immense Solarian League, the home nation of humanity in the galaxy. After several books dealing with the Alignment's work, Uncompromising turns the focus to the conflict with the League. The Alignment is still pulling strings in the background, but the primary focus of this story is the buildup towards conflict between the two star nations.
In the middle of this is Admiral Honor Harrington, our series heroine, who is trying to steer a course between all-out war and knuckling under to the pushy, arrogant and belligerent "Sollies." Manticore and its enemy-turned-ally Haven have an immense technological edge over the League's Navy. After all, they've been fighting each other off and on for 75 years, while the League Navy may not have fired more than one shot in anger at a time in about a hundred. But that League Navy is immense, and the sheer weight of metal gives Honor and other wiser heads pause at the idea of taking it on.
Behind-the-scenes treachery and sabotage, as well as underhanded tactics from the Sollies, push both sides toward conflict, and tragedy pushes Honor herself into a full take-no-prisoners mode that makes a confrontation inevitable.
Uncompromising earns a couple of points for not rehashing some of the same events covered in the last two or three books, and for bringing one part of the overall tale to a conclusion. The manner by which is concludes is a little facile, though, and can make a reader wonder why this step didn't happen three or four books ago.
It loses those points and more besides, though, with the by-now-typical meandering Weber speeches, conversations, dialogues and meeting minutes. Without much effort Uncompromising could shrink by 45% and be twice as good as it is. With that effort and some strict editorial standards it could maybe trim another five to ten percent and be really good. It's hard to see how an 800-page book can be sketchy, but Weber's choice of what to leave in (everything) and what to take out (not nearly enough, and a bunch of that wrong) make it so.
With one plotline resolved, the series can turn towards its other main enemy and the undivided focus may spur a quicker pace. The Honorverse is too much fun to just chuck it against the wall (not to mention what it would do to the wall and your rotator cuff) but it was a lot more fun when things happened instead of got talked about, and maybe it can be again.
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