Mission of Honor (Honor Harrington Series #12)

by David Weber

Overview

Honor Harrington is Back. The New York Times Best-Selling Series Continues.

3.8 Million Honor Harrington Books in Print

7 Million David Weber Books in Print

17 New York Times Best Sellers

The Star Kingdom of Manticore and the Republic of Haven have been enemies for Honor Harrington's entire life, and she has paid a price for the victories she's achieved in that conflict. And now the unstoppable juggernaut of the mighty Solarian League is on a collision course with Manticore. The millions who have already died may have been only a foretaste of the billions of casualties just over the horizon, and Honor sees it coming.

She's prepared to do anything, risk anything, to stop it, and she has a plan that may finally bring an end to the Havenite Wars and give even the Solarian League pause. But there are things not even Honor knows about. There are forces in play, hidden enemies in motion, all converging on the Star Kingdom of Manticore to crush the very life out of it, and Honor's worst nightmares fall short of the oncoming reality.

But Manticore's enemies may not have thought of everything after all. Because if everything Honor Harrington loves is going down to destruction, it won't be going alone.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781439133613
Publisher:	Baen
Publication date:	06/22/2010
Series:	Honor Harrington Series , #12
Pages:	608
Sales rank:	421,982
Product dimensions:	9.56(w) x 6.62(h) x 1.33(d)

About the Author

With more than eight million copies of his books in print and 33 titles on the New York Times bestseller list, David Weber is a science fiction powerhouse. In the vastly popular Honor Harrington series, the spirit of C.S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower and Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander lives on—into the galactic future. Books in the Honor Harrington and Honorverse series have appeared on 21 bestseller lists, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and USA Today. Additional Honorverse collaborations include the spin-off miniseries Manticore Ascendant with New York Times best-selling author, Timothy Zahn; and with Eric Flint, Crown of Slaves and Cauldron of Ghosts contribute to his illustrious list of New York Times and international bestseller lists.

Best known for his spirited, modern-minded space operas, Weber is also the creator of the Oath of Swords fantasy series and the Dahak saga, a science fiction and fantasy hybrid. Weber has also engaged in a steady stream of best-selling collaborations: the Starfire Series with Steve White; The Empire of Man Series with John Ringo; the Multiverse Series with Linda Evans and Joelle Presby; and the Ring of Fire Series with Eric Flint.

David Weber makes his home in South Carolina with his wife and children.

Interviews

CRYOBURN
By Lois McMaster Bujold
November 2010
Baen Books

AFTER A SEVEN YEAR HIATUS, THE CHARISMATIC MILES VORKOSIGAN RETURNS IN A NEW NOVEL BY AWARD WINNING AUTHOR

LOIS McMASTER BUJOLD.

Hear what Barrayaran Imperial Auditor Lord Miles Naismith Vorkosigan has to say about his return in an interview with his creator Lois McMaster Bujold.

(Miles dreams...)

LMB: Miles?

Miles: ...

LMB: Miles...?

Miles (rolling over and snorting): Eh...?

LMB: Miles!

Miles (sleepily): Who's there?

LMB: This is your creator, Miles.

Miles (coming alert): Oh! Uh... hello, Goddess...?

LMB: A proper attitude, at least.

Miles: So, ah... what are you doing here?

LMB: I'm here to interview you.

Miles (growing wary): Why? I thought you didn't like breaking the literary frame. Remember how you bounced off that weird production of Goldini's The Venetian Twins at the Guthrie Theater?

LMB: Yeah, well. Things move along. Speaking of which, how have you been since that adventure with the mad ba?

Miles (getting even more cautious): Busy. Very busy. Much too busy for you. All boring stuff, y'know? Committee meetings at the Council of Counts, domestic scenes, developing the Vorkosigan's District -- well, I've mostly been dumping that on Ekaterin -- all that. Nothing to interest you, I'm sure. I'm not the droid you're looking for. Move along...

LMB: Nice try. How're the kids?

Miles (springing to his feet, white about the lips): You stay the hell away from my kids!

LMB: Easy, there! They are still too young to get into much trouble on their own. Except in fanfiction I suppose. Nothing to support a commercial novel. And I did the kidnapping trope back when you were still a blob in your uterine replicator. You know how I dislike repeating a trope.

Miles (easing back, still suspicious): Well... maybe. (Seized by sly inspiration.) So why don't you go bother my cousin Ivan? Such a slacker, that boy. He could use the exercise.

LMB: You know, you're about the seven-thousandth person to ask that question. His turn may yet come. But he doesn't go with this year's theme.

Miles: Theme? You pick characters to go with your theme? What is this, some kind of interior decorating scheme?

LMB: No, I'm not smart enough for that. I set characters in motion and let them show me the theme. And then I say, Oh. And, My. And, Wait, how did we end up here, again? So, Miles... how's your health holding up these days?

Miles: Adequately, no thanks to you. As well you know.

LMB: Seizures still under control?

Miles: In a kludgy sort of way. (Suddenly interested) You thinking of doing anything about that? New galactic medical technologies, something?

LMB: No, actually. I prefer you the way you are. But regarding galactic medical technologies, I'm glad you brought up the subject. Although, from your point of view, they're hardly new. I was thinking about cryonics. And demographics.

Miles: You've done cryonics, remember? That's how I ended up with the damned seizures. What was that about not repeating a trope? You're not going to kill and freeze me again, are you?

LMB: No, no. Your second death will be your last, I promise.

Miles (muttering): I'm not sure I like the sound of that...

LMB: But I've been musing for a long time over the intersection of cryonics and demographics.

Miles: Other writers have done that.

LMB: Indeed. But this is my take. I've shown the impact of the freeze-the-dead technology as an occasional emergency medical treatment; what happens when it's taken up society-wide, when everyone wants in on the act? With realistic economics? There are people actually trying to start this in my world today; I've met some. The arguments that have promptly followed have been most instructive. Old human nature meets new technology, film at 11. My slice isn't actually when it's new tech, though. I'm looking at it a bit further down the line, at longer-term consequences.

Miles: Doesn't sound like Barrayar. We're barely up to figuring out how to incorporate uterine replicators.

LMB: Yes, that's why I'm sending you to Kibou-daini, a rather more technologically advanced colony planet than Barrayar. Although that isn't saying much. Most places are.

Miles: Hey! Don't insult my homeworld! That's my job. (Thinks fast.) Anyway, I won't go. As I pointed out, I'm busy.

LMB: Actually, Emperor Gregor's sending you.

Miles: Oh. (Long pause) Barrayaran connection, is there?

LMB: That's for me to know and you to find out.

Miles (grumpy): Gee, thanks. I really appreciate that.

LMB: You won't, actually. But it'll be pretty amusing for the onlookers.

Miles: Are you sending me by myself?

LMB: No, you get to take your favorite minion, Armsman Roic.

Miles: Well, that's something, anyway. Good man, Roic. Despite that little incident back when with the bug butter.

LMB: You are getting older and creakier, you know.

Miles: Hey! I'm just turned 39, I'll have you know!

LMB: It's a hard-used 39. You need reliable help, I acknowledge that. And Roic is practically a Boy Scout, or at least a Canadian Mountie. Quite a change from old Sergeant Bothari. Have you noticed how your minions are getting saner and saner as you age? Why is that, I wonder?

Miles: Sampling artifact. If you're starting with Bothari, there's nowhere to go but saner.

LMB: Point. But we digress. Society-wide cryonics, what happens next? That's the question.

Miles: And what's the answer?

LMB: You know I don't do answers. Didactics are so not my thing. Let a hundred flowers bloom -- and then study and classify them. Besides, I have to leave you some free will.

Miles: It all sounds a trifle morbid.

LMB: Oh, it's all of that. An extended meditation on people's relation to death must have a certain amount of darkness built-in. But it's all in the tone, y'know. There will also be comic relief.

Miles: I'm not sure I like the sound of that any better. I'm still traumatized from that damned dinner party you put on.

LMB: You put that party on yourself, Miles. I merely didn't stop you.

Miles: (inarticulate growl.)

LMB: Actually, you are only just now of the age -- middle -- where you could tackle this theme properly. Miles in the middle, caught between the last generation and the next, and the only Barrayaran Imperial Auditor with such an intimate personal experience of what cryonics tech can do -- your whole life for the past decade has been its gift, as you will point out.

Miles: I will, will I? To whom?

LMB: No spoilers.

Miles (wheedling): Ah, c'mon, you can spoil me...

LMB: I already do.

Miles (tartly): Not so's I've noticed.

LMB: You should have seen the outtakes.

Miles (tempted pause): No, this nightmare is weird enough already.

LMB: Wise man.

Fin.