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New Honorverse Anthology coming out Next Year

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Re: New Honorverse Anthology coming out Next Year
Post by ThinksMarkedly   » Sat Jun 11, 2022 11:34 am

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Shannon_Foraker wrote:Or Theisman, but I'd love a pair of Shannon and Lester stories.


I thought about him, but I don't think he's that interesting a character. He's probably got your fair share of outstanding achievements, enough to have caught Alfredo Yu's eye to get him as a mentor, way back in the Legislaturalist days. If Theisman wasn't a member of such a family (and all indications is that he wasn't), then his ascent would have been difficult and only possible because of his own skills.

But I think Lester and Shannon would have far more interesting backstories.

Maybe Mr.Cowboy dealing with pirates as a junior officer, getting most of them, then they come back and Shannon's sent to deal with the rest and gets them all (at least for longer than Lester did, via innovative tactics, like the spinning-the-cruiser trick from HAE)? Neither of them knows about the other's role in it until Shannon's assigned to Lester's staff, and they chat about it, after Lester tries to talk to her about the events of HAE, and the subject changes gradually to this.


Shannon was too junior before the wars for this to have happened. Lester was a bit older so we may see him as a Lt or LtCmdr, maybe between OBS and HotQ. For example, the PN might have sent him (under a more senior captain or commodore) somewhere at the same time they were trying to court Masada into their camp.

But I suspect both of their stories before joining the PN and possibly how they got to their positions could have a few surprises.
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Re: New Honorverse Anthology coming out Next Year
Post by Shannon_Foraker   » Sun Jun 12, 2022 2:59 pm

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ThinksMarkedly wrote:
Shannon_Foraker wrote:Or Theisman, but I'd love a pair of Shannon and Lester stories.


I thought about him, but I don't think he's that interesting a character. He's probably got your fair share of outstanding achievements, enough to have caught Alfredo Yu's eye to get him as a mentor, way back in the Legislaturalist days. If Theisman wasn't a member of such a family (and all indications is that he wasn't), then his ascent would have been difficult and only possible because of his own skills.

But I think Lester and Shannon would have far more interesting backstories.

Maybe Mr.Cowboy dealing with pirates as a junior officer, getting most of them, then they come back and Shannon's sent to deal with the rest and gets them all (at least for longer than Lester did, via innovative tactics, like the spinning-the-cruiser trick from HAE)? Neither of them knows about the other's role in it until Shannon's assigned to Lester's staff, and they chat about it, after Lester tries to talk to her about the events of HAE, and the subject changes gradually to this.


Shannon was too junior before the wars for this to have happened. Lester was a bit older so we may see him as a Lt or LtCmdr, maybe between OBS and HotQ. For example, the PN might have sent him (under a more senior captain or commodore) somewhere at the same time they were trying to court Masada into their camp.

But I suspect both of their stories before joining the PN and possibly how they got to their positions could have a few surprises.


I meant during the early bit of the First War, as maybe anywhere from a middie to very junior Lt, prior to Stalking Horse, where she first appears. It makes sense why she knows about baiting the pirates in HAE.

I see Shannon as on the young side for her rank, even in her early appearances (before the RoH gives her Bolthole, which was a great choice), as she sounds more immature than most other people we've seen (this can be partly caused by her being a techno nerd).
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Re: New Honorverse Anthology coming out Next Year
Post by Theemile   » Tue Jun 14, 2022 4:38 pm

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Shannon_Foraker wrote:
Or Theisman, but I'd love a pair of Shannon and Lester stories.

If we had to squish it in one story...

Maybe Mr.Cowboy dealing with pirates as a junior officer, getting most of them, then they come back and Shannon's sent to deal with the rest and gets them all (at least for longer than Lester did, via innovative tactics, like the spinning-the-cruiser trick from HAE)? Neither of them knows about the other's role in it until Shannon's assigned to Lester's staff, and they chat about it, after Lester tries to talk to her about the events of HAE, and the subject changes gradually to this.

<snip>


Haven has never had to deal with pirates, like Manticore did. They historically didn't get involved with Silesia, due to the distance, and they were more likely to be the cause of "piracy" in the lead up to an invasion (as we saw in SVW), than to be fighting it. Any experience would either be part of an invasion, (which they did many of), part of quelling a conquered system, or dealing with a liberation front - supposedly one of Haven's unhappy children somehow got a BC and caused issues for awhile, so chances are some smaller units did the same.

Theisman's experience (as was all Havenite commanders) in 1905 was more in actual warfighting than patrol and light ship combat, Where Manticorian commanders was the opposite - an actual war had not been fought by Manticore in ~150 years (and only 1 person died in that fight), while most of it's commanders had fought a 1:1 light ship combat multiple times in their careers.

Haven had taken over somewhere between 75-250 other systems in the last 200 years, some by force, some by subterfuge. Haven's philosophy was "Win on the First Salvo". They usually had some subterfuge planned to upset the political landscape, along with spec ops (assassinations, demolitions, stolen ships, trojan freighters, ambushes, etc) and when they came in, they used overwhelming force to end whatever was necessary, quickly.

Manticore was their first peer adversary - and all Haven's machinations which had worked before on smaller opponents, and should have rapidly weakened Manticore's power, actually caused the opposite to happen; 77 wallers and 1 forward operating bases was lost by Haven in the initial salvo, for almost no strategic loses on Manticore's side (2 SDs).
******
RFC said "refitting a Beowulfan SD to Manticoran standards would be just as difficult as refitting a standard SLN SD to those standards. In other words, it would be cheaper and faster to build new ships."
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Re: New Honorverse Anthology coming out Next Year
Post by Shannon_Foraker   » Tue Jun 14, 2022 11:54 pm

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Theemile wrote:
Shannon_Foraker wrote:
Or Theisman, but I'd love a pair of Shannon and Lester stories.

If we had to squish it in one story...

Maybe Mr.Cowboy dealing with pirates as a junior officer, getting most of them, then they come back and Shannon's sent to deal with the rest and gets them all (at least for longer than Lester did, via innovative tactics, like the spinning-the-cruiser trick from HAE)? Neither of them knows about the other's role in it until Shannon's assigned to Lester's staff, and they chat about it, after Lester tries to talk to her about the events of HAE, and the subject changes gradually to this.

<snip>


Haven has never had to deal with pirates, like Manticore did. They historically didn't get involved with Silesia, due to the distance, and they were more likely to be the cause of "piracy" in the lead up to an invasion (as we saw in SVW), than to be fighting it. Any experience would either be part of an invasion, (which they did many of), part of quelling a conquered system, or dealing with a liberation front - supposedly one of Haven's unhappy children somehow got a BC and caused issues for awhile, so chances are some smaller units did the same.

Theisman's experience (as was all Havenite commanders) in 1905 was more in actual warfighting than patrol and light ship combat, Where Manticorian commanders was the opposite - an actual war had not been fought by Manticore in ~150 years (and only 1 person died in that fight), while most of it's commanders had fought a 1:1 light ship combat multiple times in their careers.

Haven had taken over somewhere between 75-250 other systems in the last 200 years, some by force, some by subterfuge. Haven's philosophy was "Win on the First Salvo". They usually had some subterfuge planned to upset the political landscape, along with spec ops (assassinations, demolitions, stolen ships, trojan freighters, ambushes, etc) and when they came in, they used overwhelming force to end whatever was necessary, quickly.

Manticore was their first peer adversary - and all Haven's machinations which had worked before on smaller opponents, and should have rapidly weakened Manticore's power, actually caused the opposite to happen; 77 wallers and 1 forward operating bases was lost by Haven in the initial salvo, for almost no strategic loses on Manticore's side (2 SDs).


It could be dealing with a "defeated" system, where some of the Navy turns pirate, like one of the Hell prisoners was (Harriet (I know I misspelled that), IIRC)?

Or too many merchies get hit by something?
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Re: New Honorverse Anthology coming out Next Year
Post by Theemile   » Wed Jun 15, 2022 10:24 am

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Shannon_Foraker wrote:
Theemile wrote:
Haven has never had to deal with pirates, like Manticore did. They historically didn't get involved with Silesia, due to the distance, and they were more likely to be the cause of "piracy" in the lead up to an invasion (as we saw in SVW), than to be fighting it. Any experience would either be part of an invasion, (which they did many of), part of quelling a conquered system, or dealing with a liberation front - supposedly one of Haven's unhappy children somehow got a BC and caused issues for awhile, so chances are some smaller units did the same.

Theisman's experience (as was all Havenite commanders) in 1905 was more in actual warfighting than patrol and light ship combat, Where Manticorian commanders was the opposite - an actual war had not been fought by Manticore in ~150 years (and only 1 person died in that fight), while most of it's commanders had fought a 1:1 light ship combat multiple times in their careers.

Haven had taken over somewhere between 75-250 other systems in the last 200 years, some by force, some by subterfuge. Haven's philosophy was "Win on the First Salvo". They usually had some subterfuge planned to upset the political landscape, along with spec ops (assassinations, demolitions, stolen ships, trojan freighters, ambushes, etc) and when they came in, they used overwhelming force to end whatever was necessary, quickly.

Manticore was their first peer adversary - and all Haven's machinations which had worked before on smaller opponents, and should have rapidly weakened Manticore's power, actually caused the opposite to happen; 77 wallers and 1 forward operating bases was lost by Haven in the initial salvo, for almost no strategic loses on Manticore's side (2 SDs).


It could be dealing with a "defeated" system, where some of the Navy turns pirate, like one of the Hell prisoners was (Harriet (I know I misspelled that), IIRC)?

Or too many merchies get hit by something?


As I said, there was some small actions when conquering systems, and issues with some liberation fronts.

But for the most part, Haven has not had an internal piracy issue. They had not had to do convoying of their merchies (because most of their commerce was internal). Issues had happened, but they were the exception, rather than the rule, and were quickly dealt with using overwhelming force.

Which is not saying that no Havenite commanders had 1:1 combat experience, but very few were blooded this way, where as virtually all Manticore's did; and fleet action experience went the opposite direction. So if Theisman had such small unit experience, it would be seen as a rarity.

And don't forget - Theisman was a Commander with a Destroyer command in 1903. He might have had a command for 2-3 years prior to the events in Yeltsin, and had only 1 additional year before the pressure started being exerted on Manticore and we saw him on the staff of a cruiser division attacking Helen Zilwicki (sr)'s convoy - anything that occured under his independant command would have had to take place inside these 4 or so years - which might give time for an incident or 2 - at the most.

Harriott Benson (from Pegasus) had spent 65 years as a prisoner on Hades when Honor's coup released her - so her galavanting days were sufficiently prior to Theisman's days as a young commander.

Not that I'm encouraging fanfic, but if you are trying to be serious in your writing, I suggest getting the PRN Jayne's book from Drive Through RPG - it has some interesting PRN backstories from this time. SITS setting books 1 and 2 also have some good details not found in the books.
******
RFC said "refitting a Beowulfan SD to Manticoran standards would be just as difficult as refitting a standard SLN SD to those standards. In other words, it would be cheaper and faster to build new ships."
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Re: New Honorverse Anthology coming out Next Year
Post by Brigade XO   » Fri Jun 17, 2022 5:37 pm

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How about some RMN interaction out in the Midgard area or Matapan or Asgerd or over by Hennesy in the Phoenix cluster?
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Re: New Honorverse Anthology coming out Next Year
Post by cthia   » Fri Jun 17, 2022 7:28 pm

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How Honor got her groove? A tale of HMLAC 113?

Son, your mother says I have to hang you. Personally I don't think this is a capital offense. But if I don't hang you, she's gonna hang me and frankly, I'm not the one in trouble. —cthia's father. Incident in ? Axiom of Common Sense
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Re: New Honorverse Anthology coming out Next Year
Post by Robert_A_Woodward   » Sat Jun 18, 2022 2:03 am

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Robert_A_Woodward wrote:The Books Forthcoming list in the June 2022 issue of _Locus_ has the 7th Honorverse anthology, _What Price Victory?_ as a February 2023 release from Baen.


And it has shown up as a preorder on Amazon. A title is given for a David Weber story, "First Victory" - I wonder if it is a story of Manticore Space Navy versus the Brotherhood (this is pre-Plague, let alone pre-monarchy).
----------------------------
Beowulf was bad.
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Re: New Honorverse Anthology coming out Next Year
Post by ThinksMarkedly   » Sat Jun 18, 2022 7:33 pm

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Robert_A_Woodward wrote:And it has shown up as a preorder on Amazon. A title is given for a David Weber story, "First Victory" - I wonder if it is a story of Manticore Space Navy versus the Brotherhood (this is pre-Plague, let alone pre-monarchy).


Could be. That would be interesting to learn. But it could equally be the story by Tim Zahn and Tom Pope, as those two do write in that era too (ok, one T-century later).

I'd expect the novella by David to be closer in time to Honor. And if we get Alfred Harrington's backstory, then that would be it. But I don't think "First Victory" sounds right for him. Victory against whom? Could the man in a space suit in the book's cover be a Marine? If so, that's not Marine armour, that looks like a regular EVA suit.

Let's see if we can guess what the other authors would write about.

Joelle Presby has written two stories about women in the Grayson Navy. So if she continues this topic, her next story will be about Abigail Hearns or Rachel Mayhew. I'd guess the former, as she returns to GSN service as an XO.

Jan Kotouč (the person after whom the character was named) has never had a story in the anthologies, so it's anybody's guess. It could be anything.

Jane Lindskold has written two stories about Judith Winton ("Promised Land" and "Ruthless"), so one possibility would be something more about Princess Ruth. It couldn't be contemporary (Torch intelligence director Ruth), and I think Ruth and Judith have had enough adventures, so that may not be it. She's also written "Queen's Gambit" about Queen Elizabeth III's ascension to the throne. In my opinion that was a very strong story, but unfortunately doesn't give more leads as to the next topic.

So my totally wild guesses are:
  • Tim & Tom: Edward Saganami's story
  • Jane Lindskold: the establishment of the Monarchy (Roger I and Elizabeth I) and The Plague Years, but not the actual fighting against the Free Brotherhood
  • Joelle Presby: Abigail Hearns returns home
  • Jan Kotouč: impossible to guess
  • David: Alfred Harrington's backstory

PS: could one of them build upon the B plot of A Call to Insurrection?
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Re: New Honorverse Anthology coming out Next Year
Post by tlb   » Thu Jun 23, 2022 5:22 pm

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Alfred Harrington's back story was being talked about as a stand alone novel by RFC at one point, but maybe you are right.

Here is the cover from Amazon:
Image
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