"Your Grace," she said, "I have only one question. Do you wish this man crippled, or dead?"This may be the best so far of Weber's Honor Harrington space buckle-and-swash series. Exiled in disgrace, Honor takes up her post as Steadholder of Grayson, but a Woman In Charge is a very new thing on her adopted planet and not everyone thinks her presence there is a good idea. The covert battle between new and old culminates in a face-off between Honor and the bad guy with big-ass swords. And then she h...

I found this difficult to read in parts. There were large parts of the book that dealt with sickeningly bigoted misogynistic villains, and their rhetoric, reasoning and *actions* shocked me to my core. However, the action started out slowly, which was understandable given the actions of the fourth book of the series, but very soon picked up. It also seemed like we had two climaxes, one of which felt rushed, but was rather more satisfying. There was no real resolution to speak of, which was disap...

This is really enjoyable space opera. There's never any doubt that Honor will win the battle and destroy her enemies, but the climax is no less enjoyable for that certainty. The body count is always high and the author isn't afraid to kill off characters you've become attached to, so there is a nice amount of tension concerning who will survive each round.The Honor-worship does get a little thick sometimes, particularly in the early part of this book. While she is not as morose as Horatio Hornbl...

Another brilliant instalment of the Honor Harrington series. I was a bit sceptical about Honor being stuck on Greyson after the events of the previous book, mostly because of the misogynistic views of Grayson's population. These religious views and the deep rooted fear of change are the main drive behind the opposition Honor faces. This is an older book written in the times when we still thought that we have a bright future ahead of us - one free of bigotry, religious persecutions and sexism. I

This fifth book felt like a return to to the promise of the early series for David Weber. With her lover murdered in the previous novel, and her own exile from Manticore as a direct response to the resulting duel, Flag in Exile leaves Honor heartbroken and moping about on her steading on Grayson. With the rising of hostilities between Manticore and Haven, it's only a matter of time before the ships protecting Grayson have to be redeployed. Grayson will no doubt need a new leader for their ow...

First read September 7, 2010

While Weber has always been too detailed in his explanations, the data dumps rehashing the previous books history in this one was positively awful. It wasn't nearly as bad in the last few books, but he pulled out all the stops on this one. I suppose that means a person could start with this book & still be up to speed on the story to this point, but it is painful for anyone who has read this far & has to listen to it as an audiobook. It's probably worth reading these in text so that such long wi...

This series has always had it's faults, but to me it's getting to a point where the bad outweighs the good. My biggest complaint is the amount of time devoted to the backstories and viewpoints of minor, mostly irrelevant characters. It really bogs down the narrative and ruins the pace. A good editor could solve this problem pretty easily because so much of it really is superfluous information. (Plus it gets melodramatic very quickly.) Another big problem lies in the character of Honor. The first...

There are two things happening in this story, and both of them are taking a long time to build up. First of all, Honor goes into exile, starts a new business building domes on Grayson, and everyone hates her for that except the people. At the same time, the French... I mean Haven attack two different systems so that they can attack Grayson without scouting first.Since some religious nuts want to discredit and kill Harrington and they are fine with killing a ton of people, including some children...

2018 re-read. A really good blend of planetside and space adventures.

DNF at 50%. Haven't been reading this in two weeks now and there's no way in hell I'm going too go back to it. This book has everything I hate about the series: politics, religious fanaticism, no action and Honor who's gotten even less personality than before. There's not one thing I liked about "Flag in Exile", not one thing I was looking forward to story-wise, and I'm furious that I wasted my time on it. I'd rather read a summary and then we'll see if I ever go back to the series as a whole :/...

I have a love/hate relationship with the Honor Harrington books. Why do I like them? Massive space battles and lots of action. Why do I want to throw them across the room? Almost everything else. OK. Maybe that's a little harsh, but still ... Flag in Exile is more of the same.Honor Harrington is left to cool her heels on Grayson. She is exiled from Manticore and reduced to half pay. For her, the war is over. But events conspire to keep her busy. Reactionary conservatives on Grayson who can't ima...

This is the fifth in the series. I read these 5 back to back and do plan to follow up with the next...though not right away.I had some gripes with this one, as I did with the last (Field of Dishonor). The plots are quite similar and the flaws I noted in the last (or what I found to be flaws) are present here to.I think that some of the reactions we get from Honor in this volume don't ring true to the character as established. This is of course one of those cases where you'll want to read the boo...

Flag in Exile is the fifth book in the popular, Honor Harrington series, by David Weber. This is the second book of the series set primarily on the planet Grayson. Unlike The Honor of the Queen, Honor is not a stranger to the planet. She is one of its nobles and has been accepted whole-heartedly by her subjects.Unfortunately, not everyone on the planet accepts her. Grayson is a patriarchal society; women are viewed as less than capable to perform tasks that are solely the domain of men such as m...

At this point in the Honor Harrington franchise, the question for readers is: “Can Weber maintain the momentum of his previous novels, or is this the start of a spiral down to formulae and predictability?”If the following is what has kept you a reader, then you will find more of it in Flag in Exile:“The two formations slid broadside towards one another at just under forth thousand kilometers per second while the missiles went out with an acceleration of eighty-five thousand gravities. At their c...

The proportion of historic data dump to new material is growing, but his book actually had a story . . . and a good one. Giving Weber the benefit of my previous downgrade.Written as it was, just prior to the Oklahoma City bombing, this tale's tragedy is all the more poignant.

At this rate, I may actually finish the Honor Harrington series before the heat death of the universe. Having just finished Flag in Exile by David Weber only fifteen years late, I think I'm getting the hang of this series.Though a friend at work recommended the series, and due to the length, I was suspicious it would be throw-away pulp; I'm willing to admit now that that my fears were mostly unwarranted. Weber clearly enjoys the universe he constructed, and has spent significant time developing

3.5 stars, but with a Great space battle at the end. Weber does do these amazingly well.The book starts well, but quickly slides into dull, idiotic religious politics. Some threadbare technical sabotage in the middle of the book is very long-winded.But the final scene with Honor on planet, and then the battle in space is superb.

Flag in Exile is the fifth book in the Honor Harrington series. It takes a different approach than the earlier books, and it makes me wonder what direction the series aims to travel.Honor is essentially exiled from Manticore. Although she is still an officer in the Royal Manticoran Navy, based on outcomes of previous events, she has been forced to give up her post. She returns to Grayson and begins earnestly carrying out her duties as Steadholder.Steadholders appear to be something akin to a hig...