Book 6 is the topic of our discussion today as we continue our journey through the Honorverse!
“Honor Among Enemies” is a robust 544 pages, published by Baen Books in June 1996. In some ways we return to some of the events that happened in “On Basilisk Station”, specifically Honor’s actions against an enemy Q-ship. What’s a Q-ship, you ask? Well, if you want to know more, this is your episode! The purpose and use of Q-ships in combat abounds in this novel.
Two things come into play at the same time in this story. First, the war with Haven has gone on long enough that as Manticore shifts resources to account for Haven’s evolving war plans, sections of space are left under-protected by the RMN. This results in an increase of pirates and a significant increase in commercial freight losses. Second, the Manticoran government realizes they need Honor back in uniform to help deal with the problem. This isn’t just fueled by military necessity. Two of Honor’s enemies, complaining to the Navy over the lack of protection, find this a good opportunity to advocate for her return to uniform and to command a special squadron of ships to help patrol the areas where piracy is causing the most harm. These opponents view this as a win for them either way: Harrington succeeds and quells the piracy, allowing for freer commercial navigation and trade; or Harrington dies in the process of doing her duty, viewed as a sufficient payback for the frustration she’s caused to these individuals. Due to her personal growth over the past several years, she accepts the offer with full awareness of the politics and ill intentions woven throughout the problem.
The squadron Honor commands is composed entirely of armed merchant vessels, also known as Q-ships. While heavily armed and deceptive in appearance (because they don’t look like warships), they’re also very lightly armored (because they’re not standard military vessels). The squadron is assembled and sorties out to begin their mission to escort and defend merchant shipping.
We see an assembly of familiar faces, as well as some new ones. Among the new faces are a few troublemakers who aren’t mere annoyances. One problem sailor has criminal intentions in terms of how he conducts himself as a member of the crew, but also has larger, bad intentions that show themselves as the story unfolds. All of this happens, of course, in the midst of some more amazing naval combat. Don’t worry, this isn’t more of what you’ve already seen. War conducted by these Q-ships in the context of more traditional naval operations is what David Weber delivers to us.
In this novel we also see more detail about a different facet of leadership as Honor is commanding other commanders—a higher level of responsibility as she continues to grow and mature as a senior naval officer. We also get to see how she handles the very internal and initially “tactical” disciplinary problem within her assembled squadron as the problem is also one that falls within the purview of one of Honor’s subordinate commanders.
The title of the book is reflected throughout the book, but primarily when the battle against piracy includes both Manticoran and Havenite naval resources. While enemies at war, Weber does a great job of showing how there can be a shared sense of honor and professional duty between the military officers of opposing forces. Moreover, when those officers find themselves in the hands of the other side, honorable conduct based on shared values and ideals across the profession of arms, we see what honor among enemies looks like. In a final note, we also get a very good glimpse into the authority a ship’s captain possesses while “at sea” and especially while in combat.
Since they play a significant part of the telling of the story in this novel, during the show we referenced a few links to more information about the historic development and use of Q-ships in the real world, as well as information on Privateers. If you’re interested, these are a good place to start your own research:
- The book “Q-ships and Their Story” by E. Keble Chatterton (1922), available for free through the Gutenberg Press at: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/54338/54338-h/54338-h.htm
- If you want a non-html copy of Chatterton’s book for your shelves, it’s available through Amazon as a hardback, paperback or for the Kindle.
- Naval History and Heritage Command has a good paper covering Q-ships and their use during WW2, found here: https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/q/q-ships-during-w orld-war-ii.html
- Regarding Privateers, the U.S. Naval Institute has a good article to get you started on this topic: https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2020/april/us-priva teering-legal
We rated “Honor Among Enemies” with a 4, a 4.5, and another 4.5 (out of 5), for an overall rating of 4.33 from your hosts.
Next up: “In Enemy Hands”. As always, we look forward to having you join in the conversation and the adventure!
You can find us, and all our episodes at http://honorverse.net, and email us at honorverse@tpenetwork.com. We look forward to hearing from you.
Now, let’s be about it!