David Weber is increasingly an author who seems absolutely incapable of concision. When given the brief to write a short story, it is pretty much destined to over-run the nominal word limit for such things; and even then, his short stories inevitably become larger novels (see: The Excalibur Alternative and Out of the Dark). In this case, In Fire Forged was perhaps intended as another collaborative short story anthology in which his popular and long-lasting Honor Harrington series could be extended by himself and other handpicked authors; instead, it features two short stories by Weber favorites Jane Lindskold and Timothy Zahn, a scholarly examination of the dense Weberian space hardware, and a more than 50 000 word Honor Harrington prequel by Weber himself, entitled “Let’s Dance!”.

No doubt, if he were Stephenie Meyer, this book would have been called Let’s Dance!: An Honor Harrington Novella, with Lindskold and Zahn left to their own fanfiction-y devices. And that would have been a shame. Lindskold returns to her previously explored character of former captive Judith and gives us more insight into her romance with the Crown Prince of Manticore, which is always a good time, and Zahn gives us another adventure of the mysterious Charles (of various last names), a Manticoran sympathizer from the Solarian League -- we think -- whose new story is a morass of conflicting motivations and confusing machinations that makes it fascinating from beginning to end.

But it is really the Honor story, set as it is in the days before our heroine really begins to make a name for herself, that is the main draw of this book. We have long known that Honor spent some time on an earlier deployment or two in the corrupt, pirate-ridden spaceways of the Silesian Confederacy, but here we see her in fine, damn-the-consequences action as she takes part in a joint raid on a Manpower stronghold with a bunch of terrorists in order to liberate near to a thousand slaves -- and it is really, really great. It's Honor Harrington, old school.

One of the pitfalls of Honor’s distinguished success in her star nation’s navy is that she is always getting herself promoted. She’s essentially Manticore’s highest ranking Admiral in her latest books, and has been her other nation of Grayson’s most exalted military personage for some time, which has meant her action stations brilliance has been more meta than in fire forged of late. This being the case, seeing her back in action with just her single destroyer and a fiercely loyal crew is like a refreshing trip down memory lane. We get some answers to some long-hanging questions -- like why, exactly, did Honor end up with an entirely new crew when she took command of the first Fearless at the start of On Basilisk Station? – and in addition to filling in some gaps, also gives us some likeable new characters that it is to be hoped Honor will encounter again somewhere down the line.

The anthology concludes with the aforementioned scholarly treatise on starship development and hull armor in the Royal Manticoran Navy and all I really have to say about that is… well, I’m sure there are those out there who will greatly appreciate the insights into Weber’s fictional tech. For me, it was about as entertaining as reading that weighty instruction book that came with my cell phone. Oh, I’m sure that reading it would probably be worthwhile and teach me about all kinds of arcane capabilities of which I am not currently aware, but at present I get along fine without knowing about those functions. Which is exactly how I feel about Manticoran ship design; I don’t need to know how it works, I’m just happy that it does.

All in all, and despite my lack of interest in one of its entries, this is a terrific addition to the Honorverse and one that is bound to see more than one reread in my part of the world. Not only does Honor in Silesia hearkens back to one of my favorite of Weber’s novels, Honor Among Enemies, but it also shows us more about the freedom fighting ex-slaves of Audubon Ballroom and generally furthers the overarching plot of the continuing series while also giving us a thrilling chapter out of Honor’s illustrious past. There can be no doubt that David Weber is among the most consistent and clever of space opera’s modern day exponents, and I cannot wait to see what he does with his mythic creation next.

Even if -- or perhaps especially if -- he does take a lot of words to do it.

   -- Rachel Hyland