This is the latest installment in the Honor Harrington series of books that Davd Weber first started publishing in the 1990s with On Basilisk Station.  He is now on book Thirteen in the main series with another ten books based in the same universe that enlarge the main story-line.  Eventually I will get around to rereading them al and reviewing them.  The books in order are:
- On Basilisk Station
- The Honor of the Queen
- The Short Victorious War
- Field of Dishonor
- Flag in Exile
- Honor Among Enemies
- In Enemy Hands
- Echoes of Honor
- Ashes of Victory
- War of Honor
- At All Costs
- Mission of Honor
- A Rising Thunder
The other ten books I will list in another post because I will eventualy review them as well. A Rising Thunder is just the latest installment in what promises to be a  much longer running series.  It details the second act of the opening stages of what looks to be a war between the Star Empire of Manticore and the Solarian League.  There is plenty of intrigue and double dealing in the book and the constant subtext is the behind the scenes machinations of the Genetic Slavers of Mesa that have some vaguely explained plan that ostensibly involves the Mesans gaining control of all of human space.
As with all Weber books it is well written and flows well from one part to the other.  The plot for this book is very complex which makes it sometimes hard to remember where you are at in the story but Weber always manages to bring the reader back on track.
The only complaint I have with this book is the lack of space combat.  It is good but it mostly concerns the political machinations of the various human power blocks and how they maneuver for position, this part would make Machiavelli proud.  There is very little of the massed space fleets maneuvering for battle that got me to love reading Weber’s books in the first place.  I don’t read the Honor books for politics, I read them for space combat and lots of it, which I did not get in this book.
I guess I will have to wait for the next installment. But at least in the meantime I can reread the Honor series, they are all worth rereading when none of my favorite authors has anything on the horizon.