Teaser

The Star Kingdom of Manticore has weathered the storm and survived an unprovoked attack by forces unknown. Yet the war is far from over, and Manticore will need allies if it is to survive what comes next . . .

Review

One of the strange things science fiction does is pluck real-world cultures, both historical and present, and plant them in space, often with very little alteration. One of the neatest examples of this is David Drake’s RCN series, which takes historical conflicts and changes nautical conflicts into interstellar ones with very little alteration. In my review of the previous Manticore Ascendant novel, I commented on the fact that Manticore itself is essentially the United Kingdom of the 1800s thrust into the far future, albeit with a very Americanised version of religion running alongside the monarchy. The Republic of Haven is modelled on Revolutionary France, and in this latest instalment we get to see the Andermani Empire, a thoroughly Germanic -inspired polity.

What sets the Andermani apart from its contemporaries, however, is the fact that it is not simply a case of Weber and his co-authors lifting from history. Rather, it’s the Empire’s founder doing that. The clever thing that A Call to Insurrection does is expose the flaws that come with doing so. Not to disparage the achievements of the ancient Prussians, but it is not necessarily possible to use their history as a basis when it comes to building an Empire that spans multiple star systems. Likewise, certain aspects of history like male-bias hereditary rulership really do sit at odds with what else we have seen of society in the Honorverse. The addition of a succession crisis really adds to this being our first proper look at the inner workings of the Andermani Empire, and it’s a look that more than satisfies me, even if reading all the German compound words in this book does get a bit tricky on my anglophone eyes.

Political intrigue aside, A Call to Insurrection has all the hallmarks of the Honorverse, which is both to its strength and a detriment. While the Andermani expedition is excellent, the rest of the book feels a whole lot like wheel spinning. Is suspect this could be a case of the split between author workloads leading to an uneven narrative, but I can’t say for certain. What I can say is that once again the book feels incredibly slow at times when it really can’t afford to. Chapters become bogged down in re-treads of material that we’ve seen before. Even though it’s competently written, there’s no thrill in it. The writing is heavy, but not really all that deep.

Completing A Call to Insurrection means that I am, for the first time since I started this journey four years ago, up to date with Honorverse novels. Clearly, another novel in this prequel sequence is planned, as there are multiple unresolved issues at the end of this one (though again the Andermani section must be praised for it’s self-contained and satisfying climax), but neither title nor release date is yet known. What i do know is that the next stop for the Honorverse is a standalone novel set in the time of Honor Harrington herself. While I have enjoyed my journey so far, Toll of Honor will be something of a litmus test to gauge my continued enthusiasm for this massive sprawl of a series. I’ll let you know how I feel when I get there.

Book Stats

• Manticore Ascendant (#4)
• Published by Baen
• First published in 2022
• Space Opera
• 511 pages