In Fire Forged - Ed. David Weber

In Fire Forged
Ed. David Weber
Baen Books
Copyright: 2011
978-1439134146

The amazon.com product description:

Honor Harrington is arguably the most popular character in modern science fiction, but there are many other stories in the Honorverse besides those in which she has the central role. This fifth volume in the popular Worlds of Honor series explores some of those stories with the help of such top writers as best-selling author Jane LIndskjold, New York Times best-selling author Timothy Zahn, and more—including an all-new Honor Harrington adventure, set in her younger years, when a mob of space pirates made the mistake of tangling with Commander Harrington. That was a fatal mistake—for the pirates . . . 

The latest anthology of Honor Harrington short stories follows in the steps of four previous books: Changer of Worlds, Worlds of Honor, More Than Honor and one other, The Service of the Sword. As usual, there's a David Weber story, which I think is the best one of the book. The other two stories were written by Jane Lindskjold and Timothy Zahn. There's also a section on the armour and weaponry in this book as well - which I'll admit to having skimmed rather than read.

I honestly found myself getting a bit lost at times - perhaps because it's been a while since I read some of the more recent Honor Harrington books (if I've read them at all), so for example the first story, I couldn't remember anything about the situation with the Crown Prince for background. Not that that made the story impossible to understand or anything. I certainly couldn't put it down very easily.

Each of the stories is more of a novella than a short story - there's plenty of substance to go around, from the links between the Ballroom and Beowulf and so much more. I loved the touch with the sailboats for example.

I think it's obvious now that the story that really stuck with me is the one by David Weber.

Definitely a recommendation if you like the world of Honor Harrington, but if you don't know and want to give it a try, you should start with On Basilisk Station, the first book in the world.