Classic book review: "At all costs" by David Weber (Honorverse 11)

"At All Costs" by David Weber is a massive doorstep of a novel which basically finishes the original "Ms Hornblower in Space" story arc with which the Honor Harrington series of novels started off.

Just as Nelson died at Trafalgar at the moment of his greatest victory, David Weber has written that he planned all along for Honor Harrington to die in the battle which forms the climax of this book. No spoilers here - you'll have to read it if you want to find out whether he stuck with that plan and whether she does.

A lot of this book is a story about military victory and how it might be achieved but there is more to it than that.

The Honor Harrington stories are set a few decades after the invention of "Prolong," a technology which massively extends the lifespan of those who receive it early enough in their life. A lot of the major characters in the stories have received it: and a lot of others were already past the age of being able to benefit from it when it became available on their respective planets. Some powerful passages about what that means for people who are going to lie to about 300 and see their friends aging at fifty and dying of old age before or shortly after turning a hundred.    

Weber is also laying the ground for the next story arc: one or two little hints in the previous book, "War of Honor" and a lot more in this one.

One minor weakness: Weber got into this kind of worldbuilding as a game designer, he was the co-creator with Steve White of the space warfare boardgame "Starfire." It's no accident that both of them in their own right went on to be successful science fiction writers.

He's a bit in love with designing more and more advanced weapons and more and more enormous ships and fleets as platforms for them. That's been apparent in a lot of his books, and just occasionally he gets a bit carried away with it. Though of course in real wars, as happened in World War II and is happening now in Ukraine, there really is a huge increase in technology and improvements in tactics. War is a Darwinian process and those who don't learn, evolve, and adapt, end up dead.

Overall comment: like the rest of the Honorverse series, "At all costs" is highly entertaining, and although it is a massive read, it does reward the reader with some very insightful and very powerful and moving scenes.

You can buy "At all costs" from Amazon at

At All Costs (Honor Harrington Book 11) eBook : Weber, David: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

More details of the series as a whole are given on this site at

Book Series overview: David Weber's "Honor Harrington" universe book reviews.

NB Spoiler warning however that reading that overview page might possibly 

I can strongly recommend "At all costs" and indeed the whole series.

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