Honorverse


The Honorverse is a military science fiction book series, its two sub-series, two prequel series, and anthologies created by David Weber and published by Baen Books. They are centered on the space navy career of the principal protagonist Honor Harrington. The books have made The New York Times Best Seller list.

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" dating beginning with a dispersal to the stars from our sun 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, 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, 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. 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 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 winds creating certain favoured trade routes, 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.
Within each hyperband, ships have a local speed limited by particle densities that, at high relative speeds, become cosmic radiation. Better physical shielding or a better particle shield generator enables faster speeds within the band, on which base speed, multiplied by that band's multiplier, results in shorter journey times. Merchant ships have immense size and thin walls with virtually no physical shielding, as well as cheaper, relatively weak particle shield generators and hyper generators. Commercial carriers, like sailing ships and freight trains of Old Earth, trade off journey time by increased size and volume carried, so as to keep shipping costs economical. Military vessels, having no profit motive and already physically shielded, also carry better particle shield generators and can attain much faster interstellar voyage times both within a band, and because their better protections enables them to enter higher hyperbands with higher local particle counts, but higher speed multipliers.
The interaction of gravity effects also manifest in much rarer, generally widely scattered wormholes, through which hyperdrive equipped ships can travel virtually instantaneously between the wormhole's end points. In some systems, several of these wormholes are found to be co-located forming an irresistible trading nexus, perhaps because their ends have some mathematical affinity: they occur with entrances relatively close together in very small spatial volumes.
The greatest known aggregation of these co-located "Junctions" or Terminus Loci occurs in the Manticore binary star system, whose wormholes connect the wormhole junction to six other star systems, giving the Manticore system an astrographic position to be coveted, and an immense revenue stream from transit tolls, manufacturing and trade, and a large carrying trade.
In the stories, no means of faster-than-light interstellar communications exists. Messages between star systems must be physically carried by starships. Even using the fastest ships available as couriers, this communications "lag" between worlds has many consequences, greatly increasing the responsibility placed upon starship captains and senior military commanders far from home, complicating the coordination of military campaigns, and allowing a single accident or attack to render a planet incommunicado.
The stories include numerous dependent and independent polities and several major star nations including two giant aggregations of many planets, Haven and the Solarian League. Protagonist Honor Harrington is a citizen of the Star Kingdom of Manticore which is, during the first 20 or so works of the series, the key rival and the main stellar protagonist against the star-conquering Republic of Haven; these two nations are consciously based on Imperial Britain and Napoleonic France, although Haven also seems to be influenced by the former Soviet Union. The first books deal with a universe of escalating tensions and military incidents until war breaks out in the third novel and lasts until the formal peace in A Rising Thunder, the thirteenth mainline novel. Each star nation suffers horrendous losses at the end of the eleventh novel, At All Costs, during the Battle of Manticore, when Haven makes an all-out bid to conquer the Star Kingdom before general deployment of a feared 'super weapon'. In the anthologies, Eric Flint and Weber wrote stories that birthed the first sub-series, resulting in the novels Crown of Slaves and Torch of Freedom. The sub-series introduced some far-more dangerous adversaries, the interstellar corporations of Mesa: Manpower Unlimited, Jessyk Combine, and others. This group was then revealed to be part of the even more dangerous and hidden secret adversaries of the shadowy Mesan Alignment. The Alignment included corrupted leaders of Solarian Core worlds promoting the destruction of the old order. Mesan puppet masters are revealed to be pulling the strings of corrupt Solarian League bureaucrats and admirals in both the sub-series and the main series. Enormously ambitious, the Alignment plans the overthrow of the Solarian League, and the complete destruction of the Star Kingdom of Manticore, Haven, Beowulf, and all of those polities' historic allies.
Disruptive technological advances have been few in the Honorverse for most of the 500 years leading up to the series; as the series opens, that technological stagnation has led to a similar stagnation in both military strategy and tactics. During the course of the book series, both forms of stagnation are brought to a violent end by developments stemming from the Havenite/Manticoran Wars, which give both Haven and Manticore a substantial technological advantage over the Solarian League by the time of the most recently published books of the series.

Protagonist

Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington is a fictional character created in 1992 by writer David Weber as the heroine of the eponymous "Honorverse", a universe described in a series of best-selling military science fiction books set between 4003 and 4025 AD.
Harrington is an officer in the Royal Manticoran Navy, the space navy of the Star Kingdom of Manticore, an interstellar monarchy that counterbalances its relatively small size with superior space combat technology and capability. She has a genius for tactical command, often overcoming significant odds in critical battles and frequently finding herself at the centre of significant military actions. Her dedication to duty and uncompromising performance results in receiving numerous awards and promotions, earning the respect of interstellar empires, and accumulating implacable enemies. She is a skilled martial artist and through her association with her treecat companion Nimitz, develops an empathic sense that assists her in understanding the emotions of those around her.

Early life

Honor was born on October 1, 3961 AD, at Craggy Hollow, County Duvalier, in the Duchy of Shadow Vale on the planet Sphinx, in the Manticore binary star system. Sphinx is the second inhabited planet with a long slow orbital year and long seasons orbiting around the star 'Manticore A' of the three inhabited planets of Star Kingdom of Manticore, located much farther out in the liquid water zone than the planet Manticore, which is nearer the inner margin of inhabitable zone, whereas the third inhabited world Gryphon orbits 'Manticore B'. Her ancient house and the Harrington family seat dates back to the second migration and first settlements of Sphinx and is located near the city of Yawata Crossing, which will become nearly destroyed by huge pieces of the destroyed space station, HMSS Vulcan, during the sneak attack by the Mesan Alignment in 4025 AD. She is the daughter of neurosurgeon Alfred Harrington and physician/geneticist Allison Benton-Ramirez y Chou Harrington, both with towering renown and fame of their own among the Manticore and Beowulf medical establishments; and her father is known to have one of the most beneficial and dominant genetically modified gene variations that he has passed onto Honor. A former officer in Manticore's Naval Medical system, he is well regarded by the Manticore admiralty as well.

Class background

Socially, by virtue of her father's ancestry, she was born a yeoman—meaning that she is a descendant of paying settlers of the second wave of settlement of the Star Kingdom of Manticore, not a member of the nobility—who for the most part can claim descent from the first colonists who invested in the joint venture purchasing settlement rights to the new system and who subsequently underwrote the migration of that first wave of colonists in slow ships to Manticore. Yeomen are socially ranked above a 'zero balancer' — someone who could not afford to buy passage to Manticore during the second 'faster than light' migration wave, nor had valuable skills that the colonial government induced to migrate with favorable terms, but whom the administration offered passage with a term of indenture required to pay back the colony.
Officially, yeomen have ancestors whose skills were in enough demand that Manticore paid their way. Her mother is a direct immigrant from the long settled planet Beowulf, which is known for its strong research and practice in the life sciences, and it is revealed in A Rising Thunder, her brother is one of its planetary directors—and both siblings are from Beowulf family famous for its intellectual, especially medical abilities, making them something of a noble house in Beowulfian regard. Beowulf was one of Earth's original daughter colonies in the early diaspora which is dated to have begun in 2102 AD, and further Beowulf connects directly to Manticore via a Wormhole, the 'Beowulf-Manticore Bridge' and the two populations have much intermarried and cross-migrated, giving Beowulf and Manticore an extremely close interstellar relationship.

Genetic heritage and background

Since Honor Harrington's paternal ancestors were "genies", people genetically engineered to survive on high gravity planets such as Sphinx, she not only benefits from the enhanced intellect associated with that genetic heritage but is even stronger and quicker than non-genies who grow up in the heavier gravity of Sphinx. As revealed in In Enemy Hands, this Meyerdahl Beta modification gives her more efficient muscles, enhanced reaction speed, stronger bones, tougher cardiovascular and respiratory systems, high metabolic rate, and a higher than average intelligence quotient. Her maternal ancestry mostly originated from Asia, which manifests in her facial features and coloring. The Mesan Alignment is conducting its string pulling behind the interstellar political events in an attempt to overthrow the Solarian League and its early laws outlawing genetic engineering upon man and genetic slaves in general as pushed into law by the highly prestigious daughter colony Beowulf after "Earth's Final War" where genetically altered soldiers and their genetically enhanced leadership played a horrific role and took decades to defeat. It took further decades, even centuries, for Beowulf and sister colonies to undo much of the genetic damage that had occurred to Old Terra's population during the long chain of prelude conflicts leading to the final war.
Harrington was raised in the Third Stellar Missionary Communion, but is only privately religious, as the sect is not evangelistic. Her behavior on Grayson as a Steadholder and when marrying in Mission of Honor demonstrates she has a quiet personal faith she does not push on others.

Treecat influences

Honor is one of the few people adopted by a Sphinxian treecat, a telempathic intelligent indigenous species—who spent much of their history with humanity scouting and concealing their true abilities from mankind. The adoption process is involuntary and uncontrollable and strikes like 'Love at First Sight', known to human experience, but strikes much more powerfully. The bonding is more of a recognition of something that was missing suddenly being complete and so right that life without the new bond is unthinkable. So striking suddenly, the mutual adoptions are essentially an empathic life-bond, and hers occurred during Honor's childhood, a rarity since most adoptions involve adult humans. She had dubbed her 'cat Nimitz, although to his own people he has been known as "Laughs Brightly", a member of a clan that lives near her home, and in the treecat community, formerly being one of their scouts by occupation, as are most adopted cats since they most often interact with the humans they are spying upon.
Honor is known to the treecats as "Dances on Clouds" for her frequent climbs up into the Copperwall Mountains overlooking her parents’ house to launch a hang glider with Nimitz on her back. Having conducted considerable research, she is one of the foremost experts on treecats, and is a descendant of and in-part named after Stephanie Harrington—who was the first human to bond with Treecats when she figured out what was occurring in the Great Disappearing Celery mystery and ambushed Climbs Quickly in the act of treecat burglary—surprising both races with the resultant bonding that nearly ended the life of both sapients.
Improving upon all her ancestor's knowledge, for many other ancestors had been subsequently adopted in the intervening centuries and these kept diaries or journals, Honor enjoys a closer empathic link with Nimitz than any before known link between the two species. Her link to Nimitz had initially grown over thirty some T-years to become so deep as to allow her to "taste" the emotions of other humans around her through Nimitz in the earlier works of the series—for example when she foiled the attempt to assassinate the Protector of Grayson in the second novel, The Honor of the Queen. Later books dropped hints that Honor may be developing empathic talents of her own even as her life became complicated by the courtship, marriage and pregnancy of Nimitz's mate Samantha in Honor Among Enemies. This hint of psi talents blossomed under stress during her captivity on the way to the prison planet Hades when she was held far apart from Nimitz , and thereafter gradually became an overt capability she initially preferred not to have, then accepted by Honor and subsequently figured out by her very closest associates. The ability grew gradually into a formidable ability to "read people correctly" as perceived by outsiders, but was from the start always a closely guarded secret as it gradually became suspected by friends and associates as the extraordinary capability it has become. Her legend was also picked up by foreign flag diplomatic and intelligence appreciations about her, especially from Manticore and in private back channels of the Manticorian Admiralty. Eventually, it became overtly recognized by her closest confidants and suspected by a few selected foreigners.
Weber then further segued the ability during political crises management into a nearly open secret acknowledged to various other high-ranking allies in the novels after Ashes of Victory. For example, in A Rising Thunder this point is directly addressed in dialog with the Haven diplomatic delegation visiting Manticore in the discussion about whether the Mesan Alignment could actually exist—in short for her to detail what she sensed from the just concluded briefing by Herlander Simões, the Mesan physicist who had defected from the Mesan Alignment when the diplomats were again alone in session.
Honor's career and the success of the collected works in the Honorverse really can't be understood without her association with Nimitz and then, through him, her association to other Treecats—including to all of the Treecat race, as is gradually revealed through stories such as Changer of Worlds where the Treecat community is seen to be endorsing Samantha and Nimitz's decision to migrate with volunteers and their kittens off planet. The encounter and other short stories in the anthologies provides much deep background about human-treecat relations, and reveal, as explicitly stated in A Rising Thunder'' in exposition to the Haven delegation, the Treecat elders and society as a whole have effective recordings of their experiences with humanity through the offices of their Memory Singers, like Samantha, and further they confer planetwide about decisions regarding their relationships with humanity. In that thirteenth Honor Harrington novel, the Treecat Memory Singers are explicitly examining their collective memory to aid the alliance forming to oppose the Mesan Alignment cum Solarian League war. One result is the Treecats 'enlist' in the alliance to act as truth detectors and as a counter to the demonstrated Mesan ability to cause many trusted individuals to perform adverse functions that are concurrently suicidal, they are a new type of security for the new alliance—counter-anti-nanite-controlled-assassins and spy detectors.

Career

At the Academy

Harrington attended the Royal Manticoran Navy's Saganami Naval Academy on Manticore's Saganami Island, and became an officer in the Royal Manticoran Navy. One of the RMN's best tacticians, she can make effective tactical evaluations, often quickly and intuitively. She also became a sailplane pilot. Her mathematical aptitude and navigational skills are excellent, but her poor performance in mathematics courses was the source of much irritation, and more than a few problems, while at the Academy. At Saganami Island, her roommate and best friend was Michelle "Mike" Henke, paternal first cousin of Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore. Having been shy and lacking in self-confidence, Harrington learned much from "Mike" Henke during those years.
Also at the Academy, Harrington unwittingly became the target of a perverse, boorish midshipman, Lord Pavel Young, heir to the Earldom of North Hollow. When he attempted to rape her in the showers, she defended herself, sending him to the hospital. Although the Academy Commandant suspected the truth, her shame and low self-esteem kept her from disclosing the details or pressing formal charges. Young thus escaped with a reprimand for conduct unbecoming rather than dismissal from the Academy. Her outstanding abilities enabled her career to progress steadily, if erratically, despite the enmity of the Young clan and various attempts by it and its allies to sabotage her RMN career.
Her midshipwoman or "snotty" cruise aboard HMS War Maiden under Captain Bachfisch allowed her to demonstrate her ability as a combat tactician when, during an engagement with Silesian rebels, the rest of the command team was killed, disabled, or cut off from the rest of the ship. She assumed command, and after finishing off the opposing ship, was promoted ahead of her class to ensign.

In command

Early commands
Harrington's first command is a Light Attack Craft; she is later given command of the destroyer HMS Hawkwing, and after a year of service goes to the RMN's Advanced Tactical Course. Harrington graduates high in her class from the ATC, and immediately assumes command of the light cruiser HMS Fearless as a Commander. Her exploits while posted at Basilisk Station bring her widespread fame — and an in absentia sentence of death from the People's Republic of Haven. Now firmly on the fast track to senior rank, she proves to have something akin to the Nelson touch, earning the devotion of her officers and enlisted personnel, as well as the high regard of both Manticore's allies, and her military opponents. However, she also makes new political enemies and suffers several personal losses, including the murder of her lover by a professional duelist sent by Pavel Young.
In the news
During the closing events in the second novel, The Honor of the Queen, Harrington received a letter of reprimand for striking a crown envoy and a cautionary and serious but almost pro-forma dressing down by Admiral of the Green Hamish Alexander. The dressing down was very public, witnessed by the Manticore Ambassador to Grayson and the Grayson head of state. Its sting was reduced, however, by Harrington's knighting moments later by the Ambassador. At the same time, Harrington was awarded several medals, ennobled by Grayson as one of its few Steadholders, and further ennobled in the Star Kingdom as Countess Harrington.
The crown envoy in question was Reginald Houseman, who had ordered the illegal evacuation of Manticorans from Grayson after the First Battle of Yeltsin. Houseman had made the mistake of personally threatening to ruin Harrington's career for refusing to abandon Grayson to her enemies; Harrington lost her temper and slapped Houseman hard enough to fling him across the room with a bloody nose and mouth. After a year's convalescent leave, having lost her eye among other damages in the engagements in Yeltsin in defense of Grayson, she was given the newly commissioned state-of-the-art Battlecruiser Nike and made flag captain of a new squadron, both professional plums demonstrating the high regard she'd earned in her first navy, before again encountering Captain Pavel Young—whose career was decidedly going the other direction.
Attached to a cruiser squadron assigned as screening elements for her Battlecruiser squadron in The Short Victorious War, Young demonstrated cowardice in the books' finale as Haven finally began the war long expected by both sides in its opening bid to conquer Manticore and its alliance against Haven. Prior to Young's arrival on the forward base called Hancock Station, Honor had become romantically entangled with his former executive officer stationed there as engineering staff and whom Young blamed in part for troubles he'd experienced after trying to stick it to Honor in the first book. He took note of their relationship during his court martial, seeing them holding hands.
A political target
Thus, Field of Dishonor begins with his court martial and cashiering, and continues with his decision as Lord North Hollow to take revenge upon Honor, the navy, and his former executive officer and Honor's de facto fiancé, Paul Tankersley. North Hollow pays an assassin to have Tankersley killed in a staged duel so as to hurt Harrington, expecting the killer to also kill Honor afterwards. She'd taken leave to be invested as and undertake her Grayson duties as Steadholder Harrington while Nike was being repaired after the battle for Hancock. Captain Tankersley was killed while Honor was over a week away on Grayson, but North Hollow was deliberately betrayed by his own security chief and direct action specialist, a woman whom he held to his service under threat of blackmail—a family specialty that gave the Earldom much political power for it held the much feared 'North Hollow Files' with devastating dirt on many Manticorian politicians. She was also forced to service his rather sickening and exotic sexual appetites and the thought of endless years of having to service him made it easy to betray him.
An infamous duelist
With this plot uncovered and herself named as North Hollow's next victim, Honor felt she had no choice but to challenge him directly to a duel when he'd attempted to murder her by employing a crew of other paid assassins in a public restaurant. Because he was a sitting member of Parliament, the opposition parties united in protest so Harrington was beached by the Manticoran Navy for her duel with Pavel Young on political grounds setting the backstory for Flag in Exile. Moving to Harrington Steading during her unemployment, she finds herself at the heart of political dissent, turmoil, discord and counter-cultural forces opposing the reforms instituted by Protector Benjamin Mayhew and especially opposing such ungodly concepts such as female Steadholders and women officers. The conspiracy hopes to discredit her by sabotaging the work performed by one of her companies while the Grayson Space Navy eventually recruits her, making her the second ranking admiral in their young, rapidly expanding navy. The sabotage works in part, killing hundreds for which Honor is blamed for a time but the conspiracy is revealed through good forensic engineering and is then dealt with effectively just in time for a battle fleet to come calling on the GSN. Wounded and exhausted from events on the ground over the preceding week, Harrington gets up after only an hour's sleep and again saves the planet from invasion, this time by hoodwinking a superior Haven task force into a tactically bad position then defeating it, earning the Swords to her Star of Grayson. After three years as a key figure in the burgeoning Grayson navy, units are available for other than system defense and begin joining the RMN which is straining to maintain offensive momentum against Haven. Honor is again offered starship command in the RMN; offered the ability to 'redeem' her place in the RMN through a proposal made by her political enemies who have become desperate to do something, anything to oppose the costly crippling piracy in the Silesian Confederation.
Rehabilitated by the opposition
She is given command of four Q-ships as a de facto Commodore and starship captain— four converted merchant ships turned into merchant cruisers, but given impressive missile and energy armaments, an improved inertial compensator system, particle shielding scaled up to go with the increased acceleration abilities, and sidewalls allowing head to head combat with light combat units up to Battlecruiser grade opponents. These cruisers were also made into light carriers similar to the escort carriers created on merchant hulls during World War II, and able to carry a dozen new and advanced light attack craft. Her experience with these units, results in the militarily revolutionary pod-superdreadnaught classes which will come to dominate the new military reality. In this command, she rescues a planet from a pirate flotilla, defeats a Havenite commerce raiding fleet and begins a relationship with a senior officer of the Andermani Empire.
Commodore Harrington
When Harrington is captured by Haven en route to a new command in In Enemy Hands, the death sentence for the Basilisk Station action—delivered in absentia in a show trial under the pre-revolutionary government of old Haven—is ordered to be carried out by the new revolutionary regime. En route to the secret prison planet of Hades, Chief Petty Officer Horace Harkness, who'd been dissembling as a traitor, hacks into the ship's computers and stages a well timed jail break when her ship, PNS Tepes, arrives in orbit. Honor loses an arm in the ensuing action, an action which also takes the lives of a number of subordinates dear to her heart. However, after coaxing one shuttle to mimic a pilot attempting to flee, and another to bring up its impeller drive inside the boat bay, her party manages to escape when the drive wedge of the shuttle-turned-bomb destroys the PNS Tepes and kills the worst member of Haven's ruling triumvirate, Cordelia Ransom, whose specialty is class warfare. Harrington's shuttles escape and hide on the planet's surface, going unnoticed in the debris field, save for suspicions by the tactical officer and commander of a PNS navy vessel friendly to Honor.
As Echoes of Honor begins, assuming Harrington was also killed on Hades, the PRH propaganda office releases a fake video recording of her "execution". As a result, simultaneous state funerals were staged for her on both Manticore and Grayson, while she is recuperating and formulating plans to take over the planet's management. The Royal Manticoran Navy renames the new Medusa class she had helped inspire to the Harrington class in her honor, although she convinces them to retract the change when she returns. The Grayson Space Navy christens their lead starship in their parallel class the GNS Honor Harrington. Despite her similar protests upon her return, the Graysons find various inventive reasons to avoid renaming it, or for removing the 4 meter tall heroic statue sitting atop an 8-meter column depicting her martyred self outside the main entrance to Grayson's Parliament building –— much to her embarrassment.
Working with the equipment of the two fully outfitted assault shuttles her crew had escaped with, the escaped prisoners monitor Hell's communications bands and develop a picture of normal operations on the prison world. In the process, they find the enemy has concentrated the one group of individuals they most want to enlist to aid them in a single camp. These prisoners are the recalcitrant troublemakers who are also ex-military officers from the various planets the People's Republic had conquered in recent decades. After using this group as an assault force, the one shuttle with working IFF successfully masquerades as a guards unit and drops the force inside the defense perimeter of the base, successfully capturing it. The other shuttle drives up to orbit and neutralizes the People's courier boat before it can leave orbit and raise an alarm. Superior Manticore educations again give the party an edge allowing the new management to successfully hack into the planetary computers where they successfully capture a PNS fleet with transports and escape to allied territories with a record number of prisoners, including political and military figures the universe believes executed in the revolution long before. They also have records and interviews revealing who is really behind the revolution and the bloody attack on the former government of the People's Republic of Haven.
Admiral Harrington
Forced to undergo extensive reconstructive surgery for the missing limb and re-rehabilitate the prior reconstructive surgery to her face and eye which the Peep guards had short circuited, Ashes of Victory assigns the newly minted Duchess Harrington to teach at the alliance's premier naval academy Saganami Island, and to command the Advanced Tactical Simulator which is co-sited on the base. She is jumped three grades in Manticorian service, giving her the rank necessary for the post. Her involvement with fleet is indirect but extensive from both these training commands as she is also tasked with modeling and simulating the mix of advanced weapons that have suddenly become available from development of a small fusion reactor that can ride on a missile or other small platform. Her team at ATC thus develops and games the fleet doctrines soon used by the upgraded fleets in being, and especially the offensive arm, the Eighth Fleet under Admiral Alexander. ATC is normally a senior Admiral's billet, and the Admiralty insists she not complain for achieving the rank the command believes she would have achieved without the political opposition in her past.
Her tactics and strategies developed at ATC are adopted almost without change by Eighth Fleet in its new offensive using the new technologies of Ghost Rider, LAC strike Carriers, and Pod-Superdreadnaughts. At the end of Ashes of Victory, Honor pilots her intrasystem yacht to prevent a missile strike launched by assassins against the Queen's spaceship, thereby saving Queen Elizabeth and Protector Benjamin, but not preventing the missile targeted on the ship containing the two star nation's prime ministers and other cabinet rank officials. The government falls, and the new government is made up of a coalition of parties inimical to Honor and the Queen with no real interest of settling the war with Haven, and the new management in the Admiralty puts Honor and Admiral White Haven on half pay, so the two become the voice of the loyal opposition in the upper house of the Manticoran Parliament.
Honor the politician
The new government is corrupt and venal, looking for ways to take money from military projects and under the slogan of 'building the peace', divert the same tax base to pet projects where they can have minions siphon off funds to contributors and personal wealth, while simultaneously maintaining the state of emergency that prevents an automatic election because of pending changes in the house of Lords due to the annexation of Trevor's Star into the Star Kingdom. Having become a political thorn in the side of the government for over three years, the government concocts ways to eliminate the popularity of Honor and Hamish Alexander, promoting a slime campaign depicting the two as sexual partners. Despite Alexander's pre-existing marriage, the pair defuse the situation by entering into a polygamic marriage. The government then decides the deteriorating situation in Silesia warrants sending Honor in command of a fleet to check expansionist activity by the Andermani Empire. War of Honor details this political backstory and the military build down by the corrupt government which is also antagonizing its allies as well as the new Haven government under President Eloise Pritchart which is trying to make a peace settlement. While most spending programs are corrupt, one which was designed to siphon funds to the government's special interests, actually pays off by discovering a new wormhole terminus. The new government of Haven is tired of being put off in the peace talks and having received tech upgrades from a secret research and development program feels they can restore their fleet to primacy by taking out construction suspended by the High Ridge government and attacking the weakened Manty garrison forces in a strategic order. Hearing that Honor is being given a weak fleet in Silesian space, the planners reason that they can also attack there and neutralize that bogie-man and deal a blow to Manticorian morale.
Honor is sent with an inadequate RMN force, but Protector Benjamin insists on reinforcing her with the special unit, The Protector's Own, of which she is the permanent commanding officer. Getting a whiff from an intelligence source, she mousetraps the Havenite Fleet even as all the other Haven attacks go home successfully pushing the Manticoran Fleet back from all the systems they'd conquered and destroying their picket units. The worst damages are to the extensive satellite ship yards in the Grendlesbane Star System where much new construction was suspended and had to be destroyed before the Havenite Fleet could capture it.
RMN Fleet Admiral
The corrupt government seeks to form a coalition war cabinet, but the Queen blocks the effort, so the government falls, returning the Crown Loyalists and Centrist coalition to power under the brother of Hamish Alexander, who is made First Lord of the Admiralty—with the government needing someone trustworthy to undo the damage imposed by the High Ridge administration.
In At All Costs, Honor is given command of the Eighth Fleet, a heavy assault force of advanced capital ships, and new weapons of unmatched abilities. But overall, the Manticoran fleet has become severely weakened, and she must devise a strategy to keep the Republic of Haven off balance until the fleet can be built up. Under her leadership, the fleet begins a campaign to dismantle the industrial base of the Republic of Haven, by sailing deep behind enemy lines and raiding Havenite space based infrastructure, forcing the republic to go on the defensive and worry which of its systems will suffer next. Haven deploys a counter strategy that eventually causes severe damage to Eighth fleet during one raid when they use her own tactics from Silesian space against her forces, and the offensive campaign is temporarily put on hold. During this battle, Michelle Henke is captured by the Republic of Haven, setting the stage for Storm from the Shadows.
Manticore then fields a new weapon system, "Apollo", that not only neutralizes the new system defense systems Haven is deploying, but also turns the tide of the war, as it renders modern missile defensive systems effectively worthless, and further, capitalizes on the new MDM Ghost Rider missiles that have been in the field by enhancing their long range accuracy. Realizing his nation's poor strategic position, Admiral Thomas Theisman of Haven resolves to launch one final massive, desperate strike on the Manticore system itself, hoping to end the war before Apollo can be widely distributed in the field to all units by the Royal Manticoran Navy. This attack almost succeeds and completely destroys most of the Manticoran fleet protecting the home system, and almost as much of Third Fleet, normally deployed to defend the Trevor's Star wormhole terminus deep within the spatial volume of the Republic of Haven.
At the last moment, Honor and Eighth Fleet arrives coming through the wormhole from Trevor's Star as well and equipped with Apollo, use it to decimate the sole strong remaining attacking Havenite fleet and threaten the remnant forces still in the battleground—forcing their capitulation and capture. Involving hundreds of ships of the wall on both sides, the Battle of Manticore is the largest naval engagement in human history, and it is extremely costly for both sides. Honor's long time friend Alistair McKeon is killed, and most of the Manticoran Navy's non-Pod capital ships are destroyed. Eighth Fleet assumes the duties and title of Home Fleet. Haven loses more than 90% of the forces deployed during the attack, and its best tactician, Lester Tourville, is captured after he surrenders what remains of his force to Honor. An effective truce between the two sides goes into effect, as neither nation possesses the capability to continue offensive operations. Honor mourns McKeon's death in a dramatic scene at the end of the novel.
Honor the diplomat
Events in a new addition to the Star Kingdom, the Talbott Cluster, grow more problematic. The megalomaniac outlaw corporation Manpower Incorporated and the planet 'Mesa' continue their plans to dislodge Manticore from the cluster, and they immediately put another plan into action, following the failure of their first attempts as recounted in The Shadow of Saganami. They seek to start a conflict between Manticore and the Solarian League in order to remove the Cluster from the Star Kingdom and for other, as yet unknown, reasons. Despite Haven's attack on Manticore, Honor is shown in Storm from the Shadows as an advocate for at least partial reconciliation with Haven, as it increasingly appears that war with the Solarian League is inevitable. During her brief appearance in Storm, Honor discusses potential long-term strategy against the Solarian League with the Manticoran leadership, including Queen Elizabeth, whom she persuades to give the Solarian threat a priority over Haven.
In Mission of Honor, Admiral Harrington is assigned as envoy to Haven. After a successful attack by the Mesa Alignment Navy on the Space Stations of the Manticore home system, Harrington helps bring about an alliance between the Star Empire and Haven against Mesa / Manpower. She subsequently becomes the first commanding officer of the newly created, multinational Grand Fleet.

Summary

In the course of her career, Honor Harrington becomes a Duchess of the Star Kingdom of Manticore, a Grayson Steadholder, and an Admiral in both the Grayson Space Navy and the Royal Manticoran Navy. She also earns several medals for bravery, including the Parliamentary Medal of Valor for saving both Queen Elizabeth III and Protector Benjamin Mayhew IX from a surprise attack. She earned the Star of Grayson for saving Grayson from a Masadan attack as well as saving Protector Benjamin and his family during the Maccabeus coup assassination attempt. She is the only living holder of the Star of Grayson, and the first in six hundred years to receive it twice, as noted by the crossed swords beneath. She receives the Monarch's Thanks on several occasions, including her role in search and rescue efforts during an avalanche on Gryphon and her handling of an accident on HMS Manticore.
Honor Harrington's rank and titles as of the end of the events in At All Costs include Admiral of the Fleet and Captain HMS Unconquered Lady Dame Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington, Steadholder Harrington, Duchess Harrington, Countess White Haven. This makes her the fifth highest-ranking person in the Manticoran aristocracy. Her claim to "Countess White Haven" is unclear but arguable, since she is Earl White Haven's second wife, but in any event is not held in her own right. In many respects, Steadholder Harrington, Duchess Harrington, and each of the Admirals Harrington are different entities inhabiting the same body. Due to recognition of her status as Steadholder by the Manticoran Foreign Office and the backing of the Queen, Steadholder Harrington's Grayson armsmen are permitted to accompany her armed on RMN vessels, as required by Grayson law. This has led to several situations in which Honor has been accompanied by armed men in her service to places where such would never be ordinarily permitted, such as the Queen's residence at Mount Royal Palace.

Posts

Honor is physically very tall at 188 cm. This is a source of much humor in the series, especially when compared to her "tiny" mother Allison Harrington.
Honor Harrington has a cool soprano voice, and slightly almond shaped brown eyes.
Honor is recognized as a great teacher both in the classroom and shipboard environments and has a calm, tolerant management style. Her subordinates have ample opportunity to learn from their mistakes and improve performance; the Bureau of Personnel has noted a distinct increase in efficiency from her subordinates. She rarely loses her temper without severe provocation. Warning signs include a flat, deadly calm tone in her voice, a facial tic in the right corner of her mouth and more obvious warning signals that Nimitz gives such as flattened ears, hissing, and tail twitches that are exactly in time with Honor's facial tic. Her most loyal subordinates, including Scotty Tremaine, Alistair McKeon and Andrew LaFollet, are very aware of these warning signs and will sometimes intervene to stop her..
Honor loathes coffee and considers hot cocoa far superior.
She regularly is seen drinking "Old Tilman" beer from a bottle.
She owns and practices with a replica Colt M1911.45 caliber semiautomatic pistol, a weapon considered to be an anachronistic "hand cannon" by her contemporaries, who prefer pulsers, which fire small-calibre high explosive darts at extremely high velocity using a gravitic propulsion system. She acquired a taste for obsolete handarms from her uncle, Jacques Chou, who is an active member of the Society for Creative Anachronism. His training made her a pistol expert.
Honor lost her left eye while defending Protector Benjamin Mayhew from an assassination attempt. The eye was replaced with a prosthetic, though on occasion it has been disabled. Additionally, some of the nerves on the left side of her face were damaged during the same incident, and were replaced with artificial nerves.
Most of her left arm was lost during the escape from the PNS Tepes and was replaced by a cybernetic arm which, among other interesting features, contains a hidden pulser pistol inside the index finger. Its sight is slaved to her prosthetic eye via a small video camera embedded in the cuticle.
Honor practices a fictional martial art known as coup de vitesse. This is a fusion of several Western and Asian martial arts, where emphasis is placed on offense at the expense of defense, resulting in a very brutal and effective style. As of War of Honor, Honor has earned an eighth level black belt. There is only one higher rank. Her proficiency has saved her and others several times.
Honor has become proficient with the Grayson style of swordplay, involving a blade very similar to the katana, which by a quirk of history is used ceremonially by Steadholders and is the center of a martial art on Grayson. The sword style of the Graysons is derived from the film The Seven Samurai - presumably the Kurosawa version - the only recording of swordplay that existed on Grayson once their culture had devolved to the point where swords were desired.
Honor has a mental block regarding mathematics, despite her high intelligence and kinesthetic aptitude. This has absolutely nothing to do with her ability to perform; on at least one occasion she has instinctively computed complex four-dimensional intercepts in her head during combat. In a normal situation even simple mathematics are challenging for her at times. Honor's problems with mathematics almost resulted in her failing out of Saganami Island.

Concept and creation

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, therefore he chose Harrington's name so that she had the same initials. He says, "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, Honor 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 Honor off in the Battle of Manticore, thus further mimicking Nelson's life and have the emerging Mesa problem be dealt with by the next generation, specifically, Honor's children. When writing At All Costs, he decided instead to keep her alive, and move the Mesan-related events up, to be Honor's 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

  1. On Basilisk Station / HH1
  2. The Honor of the Queen / HH2
  3. The Short Victorious War / HH3
  4. Field of Dishonor / HH4
  5. Flag in Exile / HH5
  6. Honor Among Enemies / HH6
  7. In Enemy Hands / HH7
  8. Echoes of Honor / HH8
  9. Ashes of Victory / HH9
  10. War of Honor / HH10
  11. At All Costs / HH11
  12. Mission of Honor / HH12
  13. A Rising Thunder / HH13
  14. Uncompromising Honor / HH14
The Honor Harrington series was produced several times in audiobook format. At first in cassette format by Library of Congress, narrated by Madelyn Buzzard, 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 recently, 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 sub-series, whereas the Shadow of Saganamis 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.

''Worlds of Honor'' anthologies

  1. More Than Honor / HHA1—three stories by authors David Weber, David Drake, and S. M. Stirling plus a Honorverse background history, and including the story in which treecats and some of their characteristics first come to human knowledge.
  2. Worlds of Honor / HHA2—five stories by authors David Weber, Linda Evans, Jane Lindskold and Roland J. Green.
  3. Changer of Worlds / HHA3—four stories by authors David Weber and Eric Flint. The short novel Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington is built around the Honorverse's eponymous character.
  4. The Service of the Sword / HHA4—six stories by authors David Weber, Jane Lindskold, Timothy Zahn, John Ringo, and Eric Flint; one by John Ringo and Victor Mitchell jointly. Originally to have been titled In Fire Forged—a title that was re-used for a different book in 2011.
  5. In Fire Forged / HHA5
  6. Beginnings / HHA6

    ''Crown of Slaves'' series

  7. From the Highlands by Eric Flint—introduces the main characters of the series.
  8. Fanatic by Eric Flint—furthers the character of Victor Cachat.
  9. Crown of Slaves / CS1; with Eric Flint—the two character groups introduced in From the Highlands re-encounter each other at a state funeral in Erewhon. High-level international politics and spy-craft ensue.
  10. Torch of Freedom / CS2; with Eric Flint—Victor Cachat and Anton Zilwicki, the universe's two top spies, work together to undertake a dangerous mission to the heart of Mesa, home of the evil corporation Manpower Unlimited, to gather information that may end the second war between their respective governments, Haven and Manticore.
  11. Cauldron of Ghosts / CS3; with Eric Flint. "Zilwicki and Cachat return to Mesa—only to discover that even they have underestimated the Alignment's ruthlessness and savagery."

    ''Saganami Island'' series

  12. The Shadow of Saganami / SI1: The novel is primarily set in the remote Talbott Cluster, connected to Manticore via a newly discovered junction terminus, and includes characters already introduced in other works, such as Helen Zilwicki and Abigail Hearns, as well as brief appearances by many others.
  13. Storm from the Shadows / SI2: The novel continues the events in the Talbott Cluster, and centers around Honor Harrington's best friend Admiral Michelle Henke and characters from the original book of the series. The events of the book include the results of Talbott government's signing its constitution and becoming part of the Star Empire of Manticore. The shadow conflict between Mesa and Manticore heats up as more Mesa-orchestrated incidents accrue to bring about war between Manticore and the Solarian League.
  14. Shadow of Freedom , / SI3: The novel continues the events in the Talbott Quadrant as the conflict with the Solarian League turns to outright war. Attacks on Manticoran shipping by Frontier Security and continued manipulation by the Mesan Alignment spur Admiral Henke to first react, then adopt a policy of offensive operations. This culminates in Manticore's first offensive victory of the war, the previous Manticoran victories having been defensive in nature.
  15. Shadow of Victory / SI4

    ''The Star Kingdom'' series

This series features Stephanie Harrington, Honor Harrington's distant ancestor, and the first human to be adopted by a treecat:
  1. A Beautiful Friendship / SK1
  2. Fire Season by David Weber and Jane Lindskold / SK2
  3. Treecat Wars by David Weber and Jane Lindskold / SK3

    ''Manticore Ascendant'' series

This series, which begins eleven years after the first book in The Star Kingdom series, features Travis Uriah Long, an enlisted Navy man and later an officer, and is centered on the small Manticoran Navy of that time.
  1. A Call to Duty by David Weber and Timothy Zahn. / MA1
  2. A Call to Arms by David Weber and Timothy Zahn with Thomas Pope. / MA2 It is expanded from the short story of the same name originally published in the Beginnings anthology.
  3. A Call to Vengeance by David Weber and Timothy Zahn with Thomas Pope. / MA3

    Companion

—Includes the new short novel I Will Build My House of Steel by David Weber.

Ad Astra databooks

; Saganami Island Tactical Simulator fleet boxes
  1. Honor Harrington: Saganami Island Tactical Simulator: Manticoran Fleet Box 1
  2. Honor Harrington: Saganami Island Tactical Simulator: Havenite Fleet Box 1
  3. Honor Harrington: Saganami Island Tactical Simulator: Andermani Fleet Box 1
  4. Honor Harrington: Saganami Island Tactical Simulator: Silesian Fleet Box 1
  5. Honor Harrington: Saganami Island Tactical Simulator: Havenite Fleet Box 2
; Ship books
  1. Honor Harrington: Saganami Island Tactical Simulator: Shipbook 2: Silesian Confederacy
  2. Honor Harrington: Saganami Island Tactical Simulator: Shipbook 3: The Short Victorious War
; Jayne's Intelligence Review
  1. Jayne's Intelligence Review: The Royal Manticoran Navy
  2. Jayne's Intelligence Review: The People's Republican Navy
; Ships of the Fleet
  1. Honor Harrington: Ships of the Fleet: 2006
  2. Honor Harrington: Ships of the Fleet: 2007

    Other collections containing Honorverse stories

  3. The Warmasters : A multi-author anthology, containing the Honorverse short novel Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington. The story has previously appeared in a Worlds of Honor collection.
  4. Worlds of Weber /: A David Weber anthology 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.
  5. Worlds : An Eric Flint anthology that contains the Honorverse short novel From the Highlands. The story has previously appeared in a Worlds of Honor collection.
  6. Infinite Stars : A Bryan Thomas Schmidt anthology that contains the never previously published Honorverse short story "Our Sacred Honor".
  7. Noir Fatale : A multi-author anthology edited by Larry Correia and Kacey Ezell that contains the never previously published Honorverse short story "Recruiting Exercise".

    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, 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.
Evergreen Studios have announced plans to make a multi-platform adaptation of the Honor Harrington character, under the title Tales of Honor. A monthly comic book series from Top Cow Productions will begin on March 5, 2014, to be followed by a mobile game called Tales of Honor: The Secret Fleet. Later plans include a television series and a feature film.

Stories listed by internal chronology