History Literature / HonorHarrington

* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: When we meet Honor's mother, the first words out of her mouth are an observation of how nice a butt Honor's executive officer has, and telling Honor she needs to tap that. And she does that kind of thing ''all the time''. Ironically, she is considered a bit of a prude on her home planet.
** Due to her being [[HappilyMarried decidedly]] ''monogamous''.

** On the other hand securing a tank bay during the assault on Camp Inferno in ''Echoes of Honor'' was a crucial step that allowed the liberated [=POWs=] take the whole compound and deny StateSec goons movement and access to the PowerArmor storage. So it's probably changes DependingOnTheAuthor and, anywas, this being a Navy-based series we simply don't see that many tanks around.

** At one point in ''Flag in Exile'', the Peep missiles being used are said to be able to accelerate to a maximum velocity of about 60,000 kps relative to the ship that launched it, at which point their drives will burn out. That's a delta-v budget of 0.2''c''. Yet at another point in this same engagement, the claim is made that if the launching ships are incoming at 0.8''c'', their missiles will have a burnout speed of 0.99''c''. Unfortunately, that close to the speed of light, speeds don't add together in such a straightforward fashion. A missile going 0.8''c'' would, if it accelerated by another 0.2''c'' in its own reference frame, have a final speed of 0.862''c'', not 0.99''c''. (TimeDilation is a factor from one perspective; relativistic mass is a factor from another.) In order to accelerate from 0.8''c'' to 0.99''c'', a missile would have to accelerate to 0.913''c'' relative to the launching ship, which represents a delta-v of over '''673,000''' kps as viewed from its own reference frame.

* GreyAndGrayMorality: Although it is not evident in the first book, by the second book we get the first sympathetic Havenite characters, and the series has been trending this way since then, with Manticore as the LighterShadeOfGrey. By the beginning of ''War of Honor'', the two sides are both in about the same place in terms of morality, and it looks as though they will be teaming up in the future against Mesa.

** At one point in ''HonorAmongEnemies'', Honor enjoys a Horatio Hornblower novel.

* {{Realpolitik}}: The dominant foreign policy of the Andermani Empire.

** At one point, Honor enjoys a Horatio Hornblower novel.

* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: An antagonist's chances of survival are directly proportional to how he or she feels about Honor personally. If you are looking at a Havenite officer that respects her as a fellow officer, rest assured they will survive to see the next novel. If you are looking at a Havenite officer, or even Manticoran Alliance member, that derides her [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain gender, motives, or commoner origins]], they are going down via LaserGuidedKarma. [[spoiler:Except Javier Giscard, which was just a low blow to not only the Havenite Navy but Eloise Pritchart as well.]]

* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: An antagonist's chances of survival are directly proportional to how he or she feels about Honor personally. If you are looking at a Havenite officer that respects her as a fellow officer, rest assured they will survive to see the next novel. If you are looking at a Havenite officer, or even Manticoran Alliance member, that derides her [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain gender, motives, or commoner origins]], they are going down via LaserGuidedKarma.

* BewareTheSuperman: Earth's devastating Final War was fought by SuperSoldiers with intelligence boosts that all too frequently had the side-effect of increased aggression and sociopathic tendencies. As explained in ''Ashes of Victory'', it's difficult to tinker with one aspect of intelligence without trading off in other areas. The aftermath of that war is the main reason in the series for Luddism and prejudice against genetic engineering.
** The Harrington family's Meyerdahl Beta line is a rare exception, and so is the Winton line, probably. However, Honor, her father, and Queen Elizabeth all have terrible tempers. The former two are just far harder to push over the line, but Honor suspects her own killer instinct is linked to her modifications.

* {{Realpolitik}}: The dominant foreign policy of the Andermani Empire, a lingering effect of their founder's obsession with Prussia.

** When Honor is captured by [=StateSec=] in ''In Enemy Hands'' she is placed through psychological torture (With isolation, malnurishment, full-body searches and lack of sleep) that eventually ''does'' defeat her sense of duty to the Navy and Queen. However, she does not give up becuase she realizes that, even if she cannot rely on her external duty at this point, she has a duty to ''herself'' to resist [=StateSec=], even if nobody outside her own cell ever learns of it.
** [[spoiler:Albrecht Detweiler]] is unknown to the galaxy at large, his enemies and even most of his ''allies''. His plans will not come to fruition until long after he is dead, at which point he wll ''still'' be unknown as figureheads make all the public moves. However, despite the fact that he will never even be acknowledged as existing, he follows through on his plans because he believes they are the right thing to do. [[EvilVirtues Too bad he is the villain]].

* {{Realpolitik}}: The dominant foreign policy of the Andermani Empire.

* BewareTheSuperman: Earth's devastating Final War was fought by SuperSoldiers with physical boosts that all too frequently had the side-effect of increased aggression and sociopathic tendencies. This was one of the main reason for the prejudice against genetic engineering in the Honorverse.

David Weber [[http://forums.davidweber.net/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2255 recently announced]] that a [[TheFilmOfTheBook movie]] deal has been closed.

** May planetary systems have themes: the Lovat system's planets Forge, Furnace, Anvil; the Spindle system's planet Flax and capital city Thimble; etc.

--> "Sweet Tester [...] each of them thinks no one in the world -- ''including each other'' -- can tell what's going on. They actually believe that.

** A few other planetary systems have themes: the Lovat system's planets Forge, Furnace, Anvil and Spindle's planet Flax and capital city Thimble for example.

** All of Manticore's system planets (and each of their first-gen [=CLACs=]) are named after mythological monsters. Their primary shipyards are named after various smithing gods.

** [[spoiler:Albrecht Detweiler]] is unknown to the galaxy at large, his enemies and even most of his ''allies''. His plans will not come to fruition until long after he is dead, at which point he wll ''still'' be unknown as figureheads make all the public moves. However, despite the fact that he will never even be acknolwedged as existing, he follows through on his plans because he believes they are the right thing to do. [[EvilVirtues Too bad he is the villain]].

* TheWindyCity: Chicago is the capital of the [[TheFederation Solarian League]], and is the setting for the novella ''From The Highlands'', which introduced not only Victor Cachat, but quite a few of the major players in the novel ''Crown of Slaves''.

** In ''On Basilisk Station'', [[spoiler: the drug-crazed Medusan natives try to do this. It does not work for them thanks to Manticoran air support, but they manage to horribly kill some {{Mauve Shirt}}s first.]]

* BewareTheSuperman: Earth's devastating Final War was fought by SuperSoldiers with intelligence boosts that all too frequently had the side-effect of increased aggression and sociopathic tendencies. This is the main reason for Luddism and prejudice against genetic engineering. The Harrington family's Meyerdahl Beta line is one of the few successful lines to boost intelligence without creating amoral monsters, but even Honor is aware that her own killer instinct may be linked to it. It's worth noting also that the Winton family line are genies who probably have intelligence boosts, and Elizabeth is infamous for a volcanic and implacable temper.

* {{Realpolitik}}: The dominant foreign policy of the Andermani Empire. Unsurprising since they've modeled themselves after Prussia, the state which made the term famous during the unification of Germany.

* InSeriesNickname: All of the star nations are given nicknames for their peoples. Star Kingdom of Manticore = Manties, People's Republic of Haven = Peeps, Andermani Empire = Andies, Solarian League = Sollies, and the poor members of the Silesian Confederacy get called Sillies.