David Weber and Eric Flint
Baen Books
Copyright: 2009
ISBN: 978-1439133057
The Amazon.com product description:
As the slavemasters of Mesa plot against the Star Empire of Manticore and the newly liberated slave planet of Torch, Anton Zilwicki and the notorious Havenite secret agent Victor Cachat set off on a dangerous mission to uncover the truth concerning a wave of mysterious assassinations that have been launched against Manticore and Torch. Most people are sure that the Republic of Haven is behind the assassinations, but Zilwicki and Cachat suspect others of being the guilty party.
Queen Berry of Torch was one of the targets of the unknown assassins. The former head of the Ballroom slave liberation organization, Jeremy X—now one of Torch's top officials, but still considered by many the most dangerous terrorist in the galaxy—calls in some past favors owed to him. In response, a security officer from Beowulf arrives in Torch to take charge of Queen Berry's security—a task made doubly difficult by the young monarch's resentment of bodyguards and the security officer's own growing attachment to her.
Meanwhile, powerful forces in the Solarian League are maneuvering against each other to gain the upper hand in what they all expect to be an explosive crisis that threatens the very existence of the League itself.
David Weber's Honorverse is starting to need a time-chart showing where the books and stories are set in the timeline. That's my honest opinion anyway. I enjoyed reading this latest installment in the story arc, but at the same time, I really felt completely lost - as though I needed to re-read the entire series first to know what was happening and who all of the characters were. In that sense, this world is getting too large.
On the other hand, this was a great story, and once I got into it, it didn't matter that I recognized names but no longer 'knew' who they were. The story itself had me sucked in, even with the occasional "who's side are they on?" questions I was asking myself.
Typical of Weber's science fiction, this is a universe which is known to be tech-heavy and also very detailed in the social structures and political systems. Torch of Freedom is no different than any of the other books in that. Of course, by now, any reader should know that. This isn't exactly the book to jump in with if you don't know the world already. But, if you do, it's a great read, overlapping with Storm From The Shadows for a good part of the storyline.
If you haven't heard of the Honorverse, it seems to be made up of three different 'threads' now. There's the Honor Harrington storyline which starts the series off, and starts with On Basilisk Station, the storyline of other members of the Manticore armed forces, which begins with The Shadow of Saganami, and the third set is begun with Crown of Slaves (amazon.com link).
Honestly, this wasn't my favorite book in this world, but I still liked it enough that I do recommend it to fans of David Weber. My favorites are the true Honor Harrington books.
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