The Great Honor Harrington Read Along is a read along led by me with critical analysis and SPOILER FILLED looks at the Honor Harrington series and related works by David Weber and collaborators. I’ve read the whole main series and the overwhelming majority of the offshoots, but some of these will still be first time reads. However, spoilers will be abundant throughout these posts, including for much later books in the series.

Shadow of Freedom by David Weber

The Honorverse novels are getting so densely packed with side characters that it makes it difficult to summarize Shadow of Freedom. Basically, a bunch of escalations with the Solarian League happen all over the place, and Mesa’s fingerprints can be found all over. Michelle Henke is perhaps the most major character in the story, as she puts out (and lights) fires.

Much of the action takes place in the Verge–a bunch of systems that border the Solarian League but are not officially under its jurisdiction. The League, however, has been quite used to enjoying the privileges of effectively being in charge in the Verge, and having Manticoran interference increasing across the region is most unwelcome.

Battles are fought, battles are avoided, and more political stakes are raised. Mostly, this is a story of a ton of side characters and stories–some of which aren’t really touched anywhere else.

Shadow of Freedom is a novel that rewards those who have paid extremely close attention to the rest of the Honorverse stories. Given how much of the story retreads ground already told in other novels, I think that only fans of the series who really want a deep dive into a lot of side characters and stories need apply here.

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The Great Honor Harrington Read Along– Follow along as I read through and review all the books and offshoots in this series!

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SDG.