History Literature / HonorHarrington

** In ''Mission of Honor'', some Solarian analysts are discussing the implications of [[spoiler:Spindle and Oyster Bay]], and their reaction is "OhCrap, whoever did ''that'' is going to be coming after ''us''."

** In ''Mission of Honor'', some Solarian analysts are discussing the implications of [[spoiler:Spindle and Oyster Bay]], and their reaction is "OhCrap, we're way behind the curve."

** In ''Mission of Honor'', some Solarian analysts are discussing the implications of [[spoiler:Spindle and Oyster Bay]], and their reaction is "OhCrap, whoever did ''that'' is going to be coming after ''us''."

** In ''Mission of Honor'', some Solarian analysts are discussing the implications of [[spoiler:Spindle and Oyster Bay]], and their reaction is "OhCrap, we're way behind the curve."

* OhCrap/ThisIsGonnaSuck: There are many instances where characters realize how monumentally screwed they are, usually right before dying:

* OhCrap: There are many instances where characters realize how monumentally screwed they are, usually right before dying:

* OhCrap/ThisIsGonnaSuck:: There are many instances where characters realize how monumentally screwed they are, usually right before dying:

* OhCrap: There are many instances where characters realize how monumentally screwed they are, usually right before dying:

** [[LiteratureLordDarcy Darcy Lord's]] "[[RandallGarrett Garrett Randall]]" psychic detective stories.

** [[LordDarcy Darcy Lord's]] "Garrett Randall" psychic detective stories.

* OhCrap/ThisIsGonnaSuck: There are many instances where characters realize how monumentally screwed they are, usually right before dying:

* OhCrap: There are more than a few instances where certain characters realize how monumentally screwed they are:

** Competent professionals on the wrong side of such situations tend have reactions closer to ThisIsGonnaSuck. Sometimes at the same time that their less-competent superiors are giving the standard OhCrap response. [[spoiler: Example: the captain of the ''Jean Bart'' at New Tuscany, while his [[TooDumbToLive commanding admiral]] was in a total panic, was basically pondering how unfair it was that he was going to be collateral damage to a well-deserved DarwinAward.]]
** In ''Mission of Honor'', some Solarian analysts are discussing the implications of [[spoiler:Spindle and Oyster Bay]], and their reaction is "OhCrap, we're third."

* ''A Rising Thunder'': The Solarian League Conflict continues to grow while the Grand Alliance is formed.

* DoomMagnet: Honor repeatedly laments every death that she's caused in the course of her duties, even when they're all justified and may have prevented even more deaths down the line. Nevertheless, due to her tendency to be in the right place at the right time, her causalty count is higher than it is for officers who are even more ruthless than she. Lampshaded in ''Honor Among Enemies'', when a couple of the wash-outs hastily assigned to her Q-ship are overheard complaining about their chances of surviving their mission.

* MasterOfNone: The given reason why Manticore does not build or use battleships: Not strong or survivable enough to fight full wallers, not fast enough to match battlecruisers or below. Eventually, the Havenites manage to turn them into JackOfAllStats by using them in deep raiding, where being stronger than battlecruisers allows them to blow away pickets using said class while outrunning full wallers, and every Manty waller stuck guarding a backwater is one fewer at the frontlines. The ability to tow a LOT of pods helps, too.

* MasterOfNone: The given reason why Manticore does not build or use battleships: Not strong or survivable enough to fight full wallers, not fast enough to match battlecruisers or below. Eventually, the Havenites manage to turn them into JackOfAllStats by using them in deep raiding, where being stronger than battlecruisers allows them to blow away pickets using said class while outrunning full wallers, and every Manty waller stuck guarding a backwater is one fewer at the frontlines.

* DramaticIrony: ''On Basilisk Station'' ends with [[spoiler:Honor chasing a ship that is trying to ''call off'' a Havenite invasion. Honor thinks they are trying to summon said invasion. The captain of the opposing ship even lampshades it.]]

* TractorBeam: Gravity control technology is used to help spacecraft maneuver during docking. It is too short-ranged to use as a weapon, however, and probably wouldn't interact with an object inside an impeller wedge anyway.

* FantasticSlur: Genie in the young adult series is treated as one of the ugliest slurs possible.

* IntrepidReporter: Subverted by [[Audrey O'Hanrahan]] who is actually a spy taking advantage of her well-earned reputation for hard-hitting journalism to [[spoiler:agitate a war between Manticore and the Solarian League]].

** The title character herself is subjected to a sham trial ''in absentia'' at the end of her first book, where the People's Republic of Haven accused her of the murder of the crew of the unarmed merchant freighter ''Sirius''. ''Sirius'' itself had actually been a disguised military vessel in Manticore space as part of a complicated scheme to steal the system from Manticore, but to admit that would have been to admit the entire plot, and as such the Legislaturalists were forced to label its destruction a war-crime against civilians, accuse Honor of the crew's murder, then try her ''in absentia'' and sentence her to death. The entire sequence of events was viewed as little more than irritating (and sometimes hilarious) by people on both sides of the conflict, as none of the participants viewed the trial and verdict as anything other than a joke, until Honor was later captured as a prisoner of war and the new bloodthirsty regime of Haven used the verdict as a rationale for her execution.

** 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, [[UsefulNotes/{{Relativity}} 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.