By Schism Rent Asunder

This is a solid book continuing the series and is a worthy sequel to the last book. This one has less action but still moves at a good pace and the writing is even stronger. I think you would miss a lot of nuance and storylines if reading this book as a stand alone rather than as part of the series so I highly recommend reading the prior books first.

David Weber is one of the brighter stars writing today. He does a great job creating interesting characters and getting the reader to care about them.

It was tough working through the many unpronouncable names of characters who seemed to have 3 or 4 names and titles that were used interchangably discussing their inner thoughts and political mechinations... But.... The Weber of Honor Harrington comes through with a thouroughly engaging story that leaves me eager for the next installment.

This book is weaker than the first in the series mainly because Merlin, the chief character, has gotten lost in the crowd.

And they screwed up the maps: Delferahk, a key site of the action, isn't on the world map. (It's hard to see even where it could be.) And the maps of Chisolm and Corisande aren't needed at all -- the action hasn't reached there yet.

Still, it's a good story.

I've been a fan of David Weber's for some time now and was excited to start this new series. Unfortunately, the second book fails to live up the first book's promise. Where the first book had it's fair share of action and intrigue, this one fails on both levels. It doesn't advance the plot much, but instead focuses on the political fallout resulting from Charis' overwhelming naval victory.

More annoying than anything is the sudden dearth of nefarious, scheming characters. Kings and princes who in the last book were eager to lend a hand in the destruction of Charis are suddenly remorseful and contemplating the morality of it all. Add the fairly-tale wedding of two ruling houses and the secret society struggling to preserve forbidden knowledge (including the obligatory reference to the U.S. Declaration of Independence) and I fear the series is in grave danger of becoming cliched.

Awesome story, great story line. The action is intensive, I cant wait to see what happens next.