I have to read all the everythings

So the Honorverse is about the most immersive universe I have ever dived into, but the further I get into the main series, the more I feel like there are peripheral pieces that I am missing. I am about halfway through Mission of Honor, but I am still waiting to find out where the ballroom entered the picture, or the Aprilists, or the Mesans.
Am I missing something? Is there some kind of a guide for people like me who aren't able to use google to track down all the bits and pieces?

Or is there some kind of helpful timeline that shows how you should proceed if you want to read all the things, in some kind of chronological order, for all the bits and pieces of the universe?

I'm sure there is some veteran, who has been reading these books for the last 20 years (and not just the last 6 months), who has already been through this who can point me in the right direction.

If you're out there, please help.

tiber1978 wrote:So the Honorverse is about the most immersive universe I have ever dived into, but the further I get into the main series, the more I feel like there are peripheral pieces that I am missing. I am about halfway through Mission of Honor, but I am still waiting to find out where the ballroom entered the picture, or the Aprilists, or the Mesans.
Am I missing something? Is there some kind of a guide for people like me who aren't able to use google to track down all the bits and pieces?

Or is there some kind of helpful timeline that shows how you should proceed if you want to read all the things, in some kind of chronological order, for all the bits and pieces of the universe?

I'm sure there is some veteran, who has been reading these books for the last 20 years (and not just the last 6 months), who has already been through this who can point me in the right direction.

If you're out there, please help.

Hi Tiber, welcome to the forums, side up to the bar and have your favorite virtual beverage on us.

The recommendation is to read all the books , anthologies and errata in published order. This includes the Shaddow and Torch side series (because they really are not.)

David has discussed much (oh, so much) of the larger universe here on the Forum and earlier on the Baen Bar that we could double the wordcount of the series with all the side conversations. However, many of the important conversations have been recorded and available by Joe Buckley himself. We call these the Pearls.

http://infodump.thefifthimperium.com/series/Harrington/

And he has captured <1% of what David has written 'offline' about the Honorverse, but it is the most important portion, overall.

You can also find more at the FAQ on Baen's website.

SAWA has built a very good map and glossery website, which moved recently.

http://gotshifted.com/honorverseglossary/MAPS.html

Several other sites have come and gone - they have had some nuggets missed by Joe.

There is also a Wiki for the Honorverse, but I find it lacking, many of the entries are outdated or do not reflect the conversations David has had on the Bar fully describing things.

In addition, there have been 5 publications by Ad Astra Games which are... semi-Canonical - 2 of which are the Jayne's intelligence reviews on Manticore and Haven, and the SITS game itself and it's 2 shipbooks. This work by Ad Astra is based closely on the books and is the base of the "House of Steel" Compendium and the upcoming "House of Lies" and House of Shaddows" compendiums.

A couple dozen or so of us have been here or on Baen's Bar for more than 10 years, and thus have picked up a lot of "side" items which have not been fully explained in the books.

The Aprilists were Legislaturilist era "popular" terrorists - they were well respected for their revolutionary ideals as well as their interest in limiting civilian casualties in their ops. All the Aprilists were either included in the mid levels of the Havenite revolutionary government or disappeared during the subsequent purges. Eloise Prichard and Kevin Usher are the only 2 Aprilists we have met. I believe this was best described in "Short Victorious War" and the short story "From the Highlands." The Ballroom and Mesa are spread throughout the series, but mostly in the "torch" books, and Eric Flint's short stories in the anthologies.

A lot of it gets mentioned in passing in a couple of paragraphs, or in a short story. IIRC, the Aprilists are portrayed briefly in the same book where the peep government got assassinated, and most of the Aprilists show back up again many books later.

Theemile,

I think you forgot Yuri Radamacher was also an aprilist; finding out Cachat was another is, I think, one of the reasons he won't forgive him.

Also, one of the negotiators for Haven during Mission was another (female, also in Prichart's politcal party, iirc; her name escapes me at the moment.

Rob

kzt wrote:A lot of it gets mentioned in passing in a couple of paragraphs, or in a short story. IIRC, the Aprilists are portrayed briefly in the same book where the peep government got assassinated, and most of the Aprilists show back up again many books later.

As KZT said, we've seen details about the Ballroom and Mesa in almost every book.

Mesa, is the home of Manpower - the company which produces the vast majority of the universe's genetic slaves. The Planet was colonized by Leonard Detweiler, Manpower's 1st chairman, after he was kicked off Beowulf for his stance of tinkering with the human genome. The planet, while inside the boundaries of the Solarian League is not a member, and is home to most of the Galaxy's least reputable companies. A recently discovered (tot he readers at least) shadow government on Mesa is planning the universe's overthrow and is behind many atrocities over the centuries.

The Ballroom, is an organization mainly of former genetic slaves dedicated at the destruction of the practice of genetic slavery. Named after the "Ballroom" of the former Chicago Natural History museum in which their headquarters is based (it is buried and "lost' in Chicago's basement at this point), their operatives work across the galaxy to free slaves, attack slavers and Manpower.

Armed Neo-Bob wrote:Theemile,

I think you forgot Yuri Radamacher was also an aprilist; finding out Cachat was another is, I think, one of the reasons he won't forgive him.

Also, one of the negotiators for Haven during Mission was another (female, also in Prichart's politcal party, iirc; her name escapes me at the moment.

Rob

Chachet was too young to be an Aprilist, though he was imbued in Aprilist values by Usher after his State Sec posting on Earth.

Armed Neo-Bob wrote:Theemile,

I think you forgot Yuri Radamacher was also an aprilist; finding out Cachat was another is, I think, one of the reasons he won't forgive him.

Also, one of the negotiators for Haven during Mission was another (female, also in Prichart's politcal party, iirc; her name escapes me at the moment.

Rob

You're probably thinking of Leslie Montreau, Giancola's (may he burn in eternal hellfire) successor as Secretary of State. I don't recall any mention of her being an Aprilist, but I may have been crying too hard to notice it at the time.

Armed Neo-Bob wrote:Theemile,

I think you forgot Yuri Radamacher was also an aprilist; finding out Cachat was another is, I think, one of the reasons he won't forgive him.

Also, one of the negotiators for Haven during Mission was another (female, also in Prichart's politcal party, iirc; her name escapes me at the moment.

Rob

I don't think Victor was an Aprilist, he attended the CPS training school set up after the coup, also I think he was not that old as he is described as being quite young in From the Highlands.

To be a little more specific, the Audubon Ballroom was the place where the campaigner for black rights Malcolm X (some call him an agitator, others a terrorist leader, I have no opinion) was shot. Jeremy X seems to have taken his name from Malcolm X and named his organisation accordingly.
Cheers
John

Theemile wrote:

kzt wrote:A lot of it gets mentioned in passing in a couple of paragraphs, or in a short story. IIRC, the Aprilists are portrayed briefly in the same book where the peep government got assassinated, and most of the Aprilists show back up again many books later.

As KZT said, we've seen details about the Ballroom and Mesa in almost every book.

Mesa, is the home of Manpower - the company which produces the vast majority of the universe's genetic slaves. The Planet was colonized by Leonard Detweiler, Manpower's 1st chairman, after he was kicked off Beowulf for his stance of tinkering with the human genome. The planet, while inside the boundaries of the Solarian League is not a member, and is home to most of the Galaxy's least reputable companies. A recently discovered (tot he readers at least) shadow government on Mesa is planning the universe's overthrow and is behind many atrocities over the centuries.

The Ballroom, is an organization mainly of former genetic slaves dedicated at the destruction of the practice of genetic slavery. Named after the "Ballroom" of the former Chicago Natural History museum in which their headquarters is based (it is buried and "lost' in Chicago's basement at this point), their operatives work across the galaxy to free slaves, attack slavers and Manpower.

Okay, this is all a great start.

However, is there a place that has a timeline for the Honorverse that shows where ALLL the things fall into it?

Recently having come over from Star Wars EU, maybe I'm a bit spoiled in that you can find a "since so many people contribute, here's a guide to chronologically digesting all this to decrease your chances of missing something" map

O.o is there no "Reading All the everythings that have anything to do with the universe that the tree cats live, For Dummies" guide?

There must be an easier way that just looking through Goodreads trying to find everything published in English. Or navigating the Wiki (which is also a little painful...)