reconciliation is a wonderful thing

loved the chance we got with Vicky and the rest of human space. its interesting to see what's been going on while the team was on the front lines. The little princess has us all wrapped around her little finger... THIS Author knows how to make peace talks fun! 14 books in and im still loving it

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A great improvement marred only by the ludicrous super-tech…

I have reviewed the three previous books in this series very harshly as part of this second listen to them in order to review them, specifically because I found the behaviour of one Kris Longknife highly out of character, I was also critical of the ending of the last Vicky Peterwald novel for the same reason - although different ‘character slips’ really marred the stories for me in both cases.

I can say that Bold is a true return to form for the author, with both characters presented authenticity and with a good balance of diplomacy, politics, character interaction and romance - there might be a little too many ‘and then they shagged’ euphemisms at the end of very recorded day, but that is the only criticism I can make of this novel here.

The actions presented are not only authentic, they represent an interesting - if somewhat predictable- ending to the Greenfeld saga up to this point, and give Kris Longknife and Vicky Peterwald an friendship that hopefully will stand them in good stead in later novels (although it has yet to be really explored).

The only drawback is, unfortunately, the ludicrous tech edge Wardhaven vessels are presented as having, which in addition to being so over the top as to make the battles essentially no challenge at all and thus completely uninteresting and essentially unnecessary, is also - as mentioned in many previous reviews - silly, stupid and feels unrealistic. 9 60’000 tonne ‘battlecruisers’ take on a fleet of over 24 battleships and uncounted accompanying vessels without a thought, and win.

There are many reasons this makes no sense that I shall not enumerate, but it feels lacklustre and made me simply ignore all of those sections to place a more dramatic, desperate battle with small vessels with a significant tech edge fighting for their lives against ancient, overconfident monster battleships backed up by a few modern ones and winning through despite the disparity in tonnage.

It’s sadly clear the author wishes the ‘frigate/battlecrusier’ style to supplant the older style of combat, which is a real shame, as while it undoubtedly has it’s place and Kris’ championing of it is an excellent plot point, it lacks the comprehensive and complex suite of approaches and ship designs that take place in day, the Honour Harrington universe. It is telling that perhaps the books move to a very different part of the universe for the so-called ‘next series’.

But if you can overlook the even more absurd tonnage and capability disparity in the earlier books and the 8 mega-ship kills (plus, what 50-250 billion people Kris has essentially personally killed?) then the problems with the last hour of the book are scant and the rest of the novel is an excellent return to what we have come to expect.

As far as the voice acting goes, I have come up with a single sentiment: I wish Dina Pearlman narrated Honour Harrington, it would make the series intensely more listenable.

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