Author’s Note
As established Honorverse readers will have noted, this book takes another look at a critical period in Honor Harrington’s life and the history of the Star Kingdom of Manticore’s conflict with the People’s Republic of Haven. In fact, it is the first volume of what we will be calling The Expanded Honorverse series: novels dealing with earlier periods in Honor’s life and, for that matter, her parents’ lives. There are quite a few back story corners I’ve always wanted to paint in.
There were several reasons I wrote it, not least the fact that I’ve promised people for many years that they would someday see the courtship of Sir Horace Harkness, PMV, and Sergeant Major Babcock. In addition, however, I wanted to expand the story of Lieutenant Bolgeo and Captain Hendren from the novella “Travesty of Nature” and—very badly—wanted to add her father and mother to the tale. Tim Bolgeo was one of the finest men I ever knew and one of the best friends I ever had. I hope that somewhere on the other side he’s laughing hard at what I’ve done to him here.
In addition to those considerations, I wanted to revisit Honor’s assumption of her steadholder’s duties—and her loss of Paul Tankersley—from a different perspective and different viewpoints. And to underscore just how critical the months of operational time the RMN lost due to the delay of the declaration of war truly were. Without that delay, it is highly probable (I speak here as the author, you understand), that the Pierre Regime would have been toppled and the PRH defeated within the first year of fighting. To quote Clausewitz, “It is even better to act quickly and err than to hesitate until the time of action is past.” The TRMN would have been unlikely to err significantly in its operations, but it was certainly delayed until the time for quick, decisive action had passed.
And, while I was at it, I took the opportunity to correct the way the Ellington and Dreyfuss protocols were laid out in Field of Dishonor. As I’d initially constructed them, the Ellington Protocol began at forty meters’ range, the opponents advanced five paces between each exchange of shots (to a final range of twenty meters), and the duel ended only when one participant was hit or the challenger declared honor had been satisfied. That is, even dropping one’s weapon in token of surrender didn’t oblige one’s opponent to stop shooting. The Dreyfus Protocol called for all shots to be exchanged at forty meters, with either party allowed to declare honor had been satisfied at any point after the first shot. When I decided I wanted Honor to fire from the hip, rather than simply surprising Summervale by hitting him with her very first aimed shot from forty meters, I revised them—in my head and in my notes—to the ones which appear in this book. Unfortunately, I failed to execute the change cleanly in the final manuscript, so we sort of fell between stools. I’ve taken this opportunity to fix that, too.
Mostly, though, I wanted the opportunity to go back and visit some of my favorite characters from Honor’s world—most of whom, alas, are dead by the end of Uncompromising Honor—because of how much I missed them.
I hope you’ve enjoyed the chance to visit them again with me.