The Service of the Sword Review

Booklist

In the fourth World of Honor volume, other military sf specialists visit the universe Weber created for female astronaut Honor Harrington. In the title story, Weber places Honor, the first midshipwoman graduated from Grayson, the astronautical academy, aboard her first Manticoran warship and has her win out in a situation for which she wasn't trained. Jane Lindskjold's contribution confronts Manticoran royalty with female refugees from a planet whose sexism beggars the word barbaric. In Timothy Zahn's "With One Stone," the kind of futuristic thriller of which he is a master, Honor isn't the only one who can detect a booby trap and detonate it safely. John Ringo contributes twice, collaboratively with Victor Mitchell in "A Ship Named Francis" and solo in "Let's Go to Prague"; light but not frivolous, these stories show his flair for military absurdity. Finally, in "The Fanatic," the semi-ubiquitous Eric Flint thinks and writes well about secret policemen and their possibilities. If Honor's audience hasn't yet expanded beyond its military sf core, this book should make it do so. Roland GreennCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved n