History Literature / HonorHarrington

*** The rule by Permanent Undersecretaries shows a marked resemblance to the depiction of the British Civil Service mandarins in YesMinister. Though they lack Sir Humphrey's charm.

* HitSoHardTheCalendarFeltIt: The calendar used by humanity is derived from the launching of the first human colony ship, the ''Prometheus'', in 2103CE, splitting history into Ante Diaspora and Post Diaspora eras. Grayson, however, still uses the Gregorian calendar, even though it is grossly unsuited to the orbital mechanics of their homeworld.
** While Post Diaspora dates are reckoned in T-years (Earth years), local Manticoran dates are reckoned in Manticoran years "After Landing", which occurred in 1416 Post Diaspora.

** [[spoiler: Oyster Bay. The Mesans were not using impellers, but their new spider drives. The Manties literally had no way of seeing the MAN coming, despite being alert and ready.]]
*** Actually, they did [[spoiler: detect something and sent a ship to investigate. It just couldn't ''find'' anything.]]
** The Spook Duo's survival on Mesa, [[spoiler: Jack [=McBryde=]'s HeelFaceTurn, and the subsequent alliance between [[StrangeBedfellows Manticore and Haven]], for the Mesan Alignment. While the CurbStompBattle against the Solarian Navy is JustAsPlanned, the continuing ability of their opponents' to project power afterwards very much is not; [[MacrossMissileMassacre Manticore Missile Massacres]] are ''hard'' when you don't have any missiles. Or missile factories.]]

** Fittingly for an Expy of an Expy of Horatio Nelson, she loses an arm and an eye (though unlike him, technology exists to grant her artificial replacements)

* MovingTheGoalposts: An admiral who did not care for the development of LAC-based tactics and technology managed to get himself put on charge of the evaluation board and started putting more and more restrictions on how the weapons could be used in an effort to get a test battle in which the new [=LACs=] would be decisively defeated. Captain Truman recognized the plan and sent notification letters to even ''higher'' ranking officers; not asking them to change anything or intervene on her behalf, but simply appraising them of the situation so that they would look at ''all'' the data when it came time to review the exercise.
** Though it becomes moot when an ''actual'' invasion fleet appears and it gets a full up, live fire test (which it passes spectacularly).

* IWillOnlySlowYouDown: [[spoiler: Commander Alvarez and the ''Madrigal'']] in ''Honor of the Queen''.

** Pavel Young blackmails his chief of security into having sex with him and is amazed when she returns the favour by betraying him.

** When the Treecats learn a variant of sign language, Weber will frequently thereafter describe the motions for each sign in detail as they speak, apparently to let you know he is not simply [[AWolrdwidePunomenon handwaving]] it. This leads to situations where half a page or more is dedicated to a 'cat saying something that would otherwise have taken up five words. (And due to the necessarily abbreviated and interpolatory nature of sign language, often the description involves signs for a few letters separated by other gestures, which are treated as IntelligibleUnintelligible by the character they are speaking to. In fact, compared to the number of complete sign descriptions, passages in which treecat sign language is directly translated to English are pretty rare (prior to ''Mission of Honor'', at least).)

** When the Treecats learn a variant of sign language, Weber will frequently thereafter describe the motions for each sign in detail as they speak, apparently to let you know he is not simply handwaving it. This leads to situations where half a page or more is dedicated to a 'cat saying something that would otherwise have taken up five words. (And due to the necessarily abbreviated and interpolatory nature of sign language, often the description involves signs for a few letters separated by other gestures, which are treated as IntelligibleUnintelligible by the character they are speaking to. In fact, compared to the number of complete sign descriptions, passages in which treecat sign language is directly translated to English are pretty rare (prior to ''Mission of Honor'', at least).)

* BiTheWay: Berry Zilwicki, Emily Alexander[[spoiler:-Harrington]].

-->It was a merciless something, her "monster"--something that went far beyond military talent, or skills, or even courage. Those things, he knew without conceit, he, too, possessed in plenty. But not that deeply personal something at the core of her, as unstoppable as Juggernaut, merciless and colder than space itself, that no sane human being would ever willingly rouse. In that instant her husband knew, with an icy shiver which somehow, perversely, only made him love her even more deeply, that as he gazed into those agate-hard eyes, he looked into the gates of Hell itself. And whatever anyone else might think, he knew now that there was no fire in Hell. There was only the handmaiden of death, and ice, and purpose, and a determination which would not--could not--relent or rest.

-->[[spoiler: Dear god. She doesn't know we're here.]]

--> [[spoiler:I'll miss them...but I won't forget. I'll ''never'' forget and one day--''one day''--we're going to find the people who did this, you and I. And when we do, the only thing I'll ask of God is that He let them live long enough to know who's killing them"]]

-->"Lesson number - what is it, now? - eight, I think. A ''reputation'' for being a drunk can keep you out of as much trouble as being one gets you into." [Usher] padded to his couch and sunk into it. "I've got a high capacity for alcohol, but I don't drink anywhere near as much as people think."

-->"I suppose the only thing I'm really surprised about is who seems to have arranged this entire--what's that charming military phrase? Oh, yes. This entire ''cluster fuck''."

--> "At least, Sir, the uniform of the Queen of Manticore has never been sold t' the service of whoremasters, murderers, pedophiles, sadists, and perverts. I suppose, however, that those of you who choose t' serve in the navy of Mesa feel comfortable amid such company."

-->"And honesty compels me to add that neither I nor any other Manticoran officer have conspired with genetic slavers, pirates, terrorists, and mass murderers to commit acts of war on the sovereign territories of at least two independent star nations. Your government has done precisely that. My responsibility to see to it that those unprovoked and murderous assaults end now overrides any responsibility I may have towards your personnel."

** As of last count, the title character's full name is "Admiral of the Fleet and Captain HMS ''Unconquered'' Lady Dame Honor Stephanie [[spoiler:Alexander-]]Harrington KCM MC PMV SG, Duchess and Steadholder Harrington, [[spoiler: Countess White Haven]]". The list of medals and knightly orders after her name is probably longer than that by now, too.

** [[SeriousBusiness Because this is baseball!]]

* AmericanCustomaryMeasurements: Grayson still uses them, demonstrating [[PlanetOfHats their hat]] of being stubbornly traditional to the extreme. Everyone else wonders why they do not just round everything up to the nearest meter.

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Nearly all of the characters treat Masada as such. They aren't actually ''right'', however. From the beginning, there have been more or less human and sympathetic Masadans -- though not very many of them.

* StrangeBedfellows: [[spoiler:A Haven and Manticoran alliance]] as of the end of ''Mission of Honor''.

** Duplicated by the Solarian League in ''Mission of Honor'' - their strategy appears to be throwing ships at Manticore and seeing if Manticore runs out of missiles before they run out of ships.

* StrangeBedfellows: [[spoiler:A Haven and Manticoran alliance]] as of the end of ''Mission of Honor''.

** Pavel Young, and, surprisingly, [[spoiler:Mesan Alignment]], or at least its Long-Range Planning Board. There are also a large number of incompetent officers on all sides of the conflict, and they usually get themselves or someone else killed.

** Queen Elizabeth's full name is, and I quote direct from ''Mission of Honor'' *deep breath* , Elizabeth Adrienne Samantha Annette Winton, Grand Commander of the Order of King Roger, Grand Commander of the Order of Queen Elizabeth I, Grand Commander of the Order of the Golden Lion, Baroness of Crystal Pine, Baroness of White Sand, Countess of Tannerman, Countess of High Garnet, Grand Duchess of Basilisk, Princess Protector of the Realm, and, by God's grace and the will of Parliament, Queen Elizabeth III of the Star Kingdom of Manticore, and Empress Elizabeth I of the Star Empire of Manticore.

** [[spoiler: The Mesan Alignment Navy's new ships use an entirely new type of propulsion, referred to as the "Spider Drive," instead of the more traditional and easy to detect Impeller Wedge. This makes their ships undetectable by gravitic sensors.]]

* StrangeBedfellows: [[spoiler:Haven and Manticoran alliance]] (just concluded at the end of the last book).

* TanksForNothing: Tanks have generally been phased out due to PowerArmor becoming widespread in modern militaries. One of the short stories in the ''Worlds of Honor'' {{Anthology}} series features tanks, but they are stated to only be useful becaues the planet they are on has little in the way of a modern military force. [[spoiler: One of the characters is killed using a tank in a duel against a [[DeathFromAbove Havenite shuttle]], though the shuttle is destroyed as well.]]
** 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, anyway, this being a Navy-based series we simply don't see that many tanks around.

* 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''.

* HeterosexualLifePartners: Horace Harkness, and Scotty Tremaine.
** That's [[spoiler:SIR]] Horace, please-and-thank-you.

* 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''.

* TanksForNothing: Tanks have generally been phased out due to PowerArmor becoming widespread in modern militaries. One of the short stories in the ''Worlds of Honor'' {{Anthology}} series features tanks, but they are stated to only be useful becaues the planet they are on has little in the way of a modern military force. [[spoiler: One of the characters is killed using a tank in a duel against a [[DeathFromAbove Havenite shuttle]], though the shuttle is destroyed as well.]]
** 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, anyway, this being a Navy-based series we simply don't see that many tanks around.

* FakeDefector: [[spoiler:Horace Harkness.]]
** That is [[spoiler:''Sir'' Horace Harkness]], please-and-thank-you!

** Victor Cachat has managed to rope Manticoran secret agent Anton Zilwicki, in addition to a Manticoran warship or two, into doing the Republic's dirty work on more then one occasion. In ''Mission of Honor'' Zilwicki and Cachat get proof back to their respective governments of Mesan manipulation and sabotage of the peace talks in order to keep Manticore and Haven shooting at each other. The book ends with a formal decision to ally together against the Solarian League.