In Enemy Hands, is the sixth book in the Honor Harrington series.
I almost want to call this book On Basilisk Station part 2 because there are a lot of parallels to be drawn between the two books, I will get into that later.
In this book Honor is offered a new command in her native Manticore Navy.
Currently, she is a full admiral in the Grayson navy, in fact she is its second ranking officer.
The new command she is offered in the Manticoran navy is vastly inferior, she is to command a squadron of armed merchant ships, not even real warships! Of course she accepts, mostly to get back into Manticoran uniform and to start her rehabilitation.
This post was mostly offered as a political move.
The opposition to the current government suggested her for this post, partly in fact because it is so dangerous that she has a good chance of not surviving it.
But, even they realize how effective of a combat commander she is.
Manticore is losing more and more merchant ships in the wild Silesian sector, and something must be done.
There is not as much politics in this book as there was in the previous books, which is a nice refresher.
We are also introduced to the Andermani empire as well as one of their highest ranking admirals.
The book also spends a large amount of time in the perspective of some Havenite officers (some we saw in Flag in Exile) and we see that they are normal people and overall quite decent.
Seeing the Havenite officers as real people and not monsters is quite important at this part of the storyline.
They just went through a major coup and the new regime seems obsessed with killing its own people to keep them in line.
In the previous book that is mostly what we hear about, the excessive in-fighting and killing and the reign of terror.
Seeing that Haven still has good people in it helps us realize that this war is not the Good vs Evil fight it was first seen as.
There are a number of parallels to draw between 'In Enemy Hands,' and 'On Basilisk Station,' the first book in the series.
The ships Honor is given to command are similar in that they are both armed in ways that break from the traditional warship model.
In the first book, she was given a light cruiser with vastly underpowered armaments to prove a point.
In this book, her merchant cruiser is not a real warship, and as such is not expected to stand up to more than one or two warships.
However, its unconventional weapons are very powerful and mark a new direction in Manticore's ship technology.
Also, her main task is not to provide wartime support but to act as a policewoman.
In Basilisk Station she was to act as customs patrol for the Basilisk system.
In this book she is to help protect merchantmen from pirates.
In both, she uncovers plots by Haven while doing her police duties and stops them cold, thus sparking some diplomatic sanctions against Haven that go on behind the scenes.
Overall, this is a great addition to the Honor Harrington series.
It is full of action, both space combat and hand to hand combat.
The Havenite point of view is valuable to help put some of the series into perspective and is wonderfully portrayed.
Some future story threads have their beginnings in this book too so it is a very important piece of the entire puzzle.
It's Geektime gives In Enemy Hands a prestigious 10 on the d10 of enjoyment.
I almost want to call this book On Basilisk Station part 2 because there are a lot of parallels to be drawn between the two books, I will get into that later.
In this book Honor is offered a new command in her native Manticore Navy.
Currently, she is a full admiral in the Grayson navy, in fact she is its second ranking officer.
The new command she is offered in the Manticoran navy is vastly inferior, she is to command a squadron of armed merchant ships, not even real warships! Of course she accepts, mostly to get back into Manticoran uniform and to start her rehabilitation.
This post was mostly offered as a political move.
The opposition to the current government suggested her for this post, partly in fact because it is so dangerous that she has a good chance of not surviving it.
But, even they realize how effective of a combat commander she is.
Manticore is losing more and more merchant ships in the wild Silesian sector, and something must be done.
There is not as much politics in this book as there was in the previous books, which is a nice refresher.
We are also introduced to the Andermani empire as well as one of their highest ranking admirals.
The book also spends a large amount of time in the perspective of some Havenite officers (some we saw in Flag in Exile) and we see that they are normal people and overall quite decent.
Seeing the Havenite officers as real people and not monsters is quite important at this part of the storyline.
They just went through a major coup and the new regime seems obsessed with killing its own people to keep them in line.
In the previous book that is mostly what we hear about, the excessive in-fighting and killing and the reign of terror.
Seeing that Haven still has good people in it helps us realize that this war is not the Good vs Evil fight it was first seen as.
There are a number of parallels to draw between 'In Enemy Hands,' and 'On Basilisk Station,' the first book in the series.
The ships Honor is given to command are similar in that they are both armed in ways that break from the traditional warship model.
In the first book, she was given a light cruiser with vastly underpowered armaments to prove a point.
In this book, her merchant cruiser is not a real warship, and as such is not expected to stand up to more than one or two warships.
However, its unconventional weapons are very powerful and mark a new direction in Manticore's ship technology.
Also, her main task is not to provide wartime support but to act as a policewoman.
In Basilisk Station she was to act as customs patrol for the Basilisk system.
In this book she is to help protect merchantmen from pirates.
In both, she uncovers plots by Haven while doing her police duties and stops them cold, thus sparking some diplomatic sanctions against Haven that go on behind the scenes.
Overall, this is a great addition to the Honor Harrington series.
It is full of action, both space combat and hand to hand combat.
The Havenite point of view is valuable to help put some of the series into perspective and is wonderfully portrayed.
Some future story threads have their beginnings in this book too so it is a very important piece of the entire puzzle.
It's Geektime gives In Enemy Hands a prestigious 10 on the d10 of enjoyment.
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