HVT-015 The Service of the Sword

Here we are, already discussing the fourth Honorverse anthology entitled The Service of the Sword.  This collection of six short stories written by six authors was originally published in April 2003 by Baen.  While we’ll call them “short” stories, two of them are novella-length (or arguably longer), so if you haven’t read this collection yet, be aware that a couple of these stories are lengthy.  The book is long, and since we’re talking about six stories, this summary is longer than usual too.

The first story in this anthology is Promised Land by Jane Lindskold, an author we’re already familiar with.  This key story within the Honorverse introduces us to the Grayson character trapped on Masada named Judith.  Along with several other ladies, she’s a part of a separatist group seeking to escape their oppressive culture.  As they execute their plan they come into contact with Michael Winton, Crown Prince and Midshipman, on his “Snotty” cruise onboard the HMS Intransigent.  The ship is on an official visit to Masada and takes place back when Manticore was weighing the pros and cons to an alliance with either Grayson or Masada.  The events in this story helped inform Manticore’s decision, especially as Michael, and the crew he’s a member of, ultimately come to the aid of Judith and her friends.  The story’s important because we’ll see more of Judith in the future.

Your hosts all gave this one a “thumbs-up”.

Next came the story With One Stone by Timothy Zahn.  We join our favorite heroine Honor Harrington, now a captain in the RMN, and the captain of the Heavy Cruiser HMS Fearless very shortly after the events in On Basilisk Station.  The story returns us to her work to address the problem of apparent piracy as ships are being attached in Silesian space.  Another old “friend,” Sonja Hemphill is also involved in the effort since it seems some sort of advanced weapon is being used in these attacks.  Due to apparent similarities to Hemphill’s past project called a “grav lance,” she and the Office of Naval Intelligence are also involved.  We watch events unfold that ultimately expose the real power behind the attacks with this new weapon:  the People’s Republic of Haven.  We also get to see a young Rafe Cardones continue his early growth as a Naval officer as he’s detailed away from Honor’s crew and onto another vessel conducting intelligence operations related to the same problem.

This one received three more “thumbs-up” from your hosts!

The third story is A Ship Named Francis, written by John Ringo and Victor Mitchell.  Our authors took a very different approach to the Honorverse in that it was essentially an outlandish story that brought a bit of comic relief to what has really been what we’ll call serious story telling so far.  In this short story, we follow the adventures of a medic (Sick Bay Attendant) Sean Tyler and see the adventures onboard the Grayson Space Navy’s Heavy Cruiser, Francis Mueller.  Nothing is quite right about this crew.  Antics and follies occur as we’re introduced to a whole host of unbelievable and larger than life characters who do their best to do everything badly.  You may or may not be amused, but regardless you’ll go on an adventure with this story!

Your hosts represented all the possible votes on this one, with a thumbs up, a neutral vote and a thumbs down.  (Be sure to let us know what you think after you read it.)

The next story was Let’s Go to Prague, by John Ringo.   This one is a solo effort by Mr. Ringo, who co-authored the previous story.  While this one has comedic moments and whit, with some similarities in the writing style and “feel”, this is truly its own story and not just more zany adventures in the spirit of the last one.  Here we join two Manticoran...