A Call to Duty (Manticore Ascendant #1) by David Weber & Timothy Zahn is a new book in a new series set in Weber’s expansive Honorverse. Many people will know this setting from the Honor Harrington novels, starting with On Basilisk Station, of which there are now over twenty from differing series. I’ve read the first ten of these, up to War of Honor, but left it there when it all seemed to get a bit, well, confusing. I enjoyed them, but after War of Honor two new series – Wages of Sin and Saganami – were introduced that added backstory and further detail to the universe. Plus there are all of the short stories that take place in the setting. When these novels are added to all of the short stories that take place in the setting, keeping up started to feel like hard work rather than for enjoyment.
A few years back Weber started a YA prequel series, the Star Kingdom novels, with Jane Lindskold that focused on a teenage Stephanie Harrington, an ancestor of Honor, and looked at the first meeting and bonding between human and treecat. I thoroughly enjoyed these books for what they were and once again felt comfortable stepping into the Honorverse. Now Weber is going even further back to the early days of the Manticore system with A Call to Duty, teaming up with Timothy Zahn to tell a story that is a perfect starting point for readers new to this vast, and frankly daunting, series of books.
Growing up, Travis Uriah Long yearned for order and discipline in his life . . . the two things his neglectful mother couldn’t or wouldn’t provide. So when Travis enlisted in the Royal Manticoran Navy, he thought he’d finally found the structure he’d always wanted so desperately.
But life in the RMN isn’t exactly what he expected. Boot camp is rough and frustrating; his first ship assignment lax and disorderly; and with the Star Kingdom of Manticore still recovering from a devastating plague, the Navy is possibly on the edge of extinction.
The Star Kingdom is a minor nation among the worlds of the Diaspora, its closest neighbors weeks or months away, with little in the way of resources. With only modest interstellar trade, no foreign contacts to speak of, a plague-ravaged economy to rebuild, and no enemies looming at the hyper limit, there are factions in Parliament who want nothing more than to scrap the Navy and shift its resources and manpower elsewhere.
But those factions are mistaken. The universe is not a safe place.
Travis Long is about to find that out.
Travis is one of our main protagonists in A Call to Duty. He’s got no personal aim, but thrives for discipline and order, which leads him to join up with the Royal Manticoran Navy. Eager to get away from his life and start afresh he opts to go the quicker route rather than officer academy, and from there he puts his skills and out-of-the-box thinking to good use. But he’s a stickler for rules and procedure, causing issues while in training for his superiors. Once he’s assigned things don’t go much better, but his determination proves to be is saving grace, coming to the attention of officers he works with for and being promoted to bigger and better places, not that he’s aware of everything going on above his head. He’s an interesting character, and a good point of view early on in the book, especially as a low-level tech within the Navy.
Other points of view range from those involving his brother, a low level Lord with the Manticoran parliament, to higher ranking military officers, all of which bring something different to the table. With a diverse cast of characters it’s easy to get drawn into the story of military and political intrigue, but without the feeling of being lost.
The story itself is a combination of different aspects, the aforementioned military and political. It’s easy to follow Travis’ role in the larger story, especially with plenty of political discussions and decisions layered throughout the narrative. Ultimately the story rushes along at a fair pace, but it doesn’t feel as urgent or involved as Weber’s previous Honor novels. It sets up this series well and ends on a note that anyone familiar with the Honorverse will know well, and promises that future instalments could be both bigger and better than this first novel.
Having the story set so early in the history of Manticore is a definite plus for A Call to Duty. Those not familiar with any of the Honorverse novels won’t feel lost, while there are plenty of small titbits for long time readers of the setting. Perhaps my main gripe here is the unevenness present within the story. Sometimes we get plenty of detail about events and the time that passes, while at other times many things are glossed over in order to forward the story. This difference in styles is a little frustrating, but ultimately not enough to curb enjoyment.
A Call to Duty is recommended if you’d like a decent start to a military sci-fi series, and can easily be read without any prior knowledge of the setting – a big plus when it extends to so many novels!
Publisher: http://www.baen.com/
Author: http://www.davidweber.net/
October 2014, 384 Pages
Hardcover, ISBN: 9781476736846
Review copy received from publisher
© 2014 Mark Chitty
Nice review! I read this one a few weeks back and enjoyed it quite a lot. I’ve only read On Basilisk Station and certainly didn’t have any qualms with jumping far back to the beginning with the series, especially with these authors taking the helm. I enjoyed it enough that I will certainly be looking for book two. In the meantime, I have the first two Stephanie Harrington books on my shelf and should probably get to those.
Thanks – and great to hear it didn’t give any problems for someone relatively new to the setting 🙂 I’m looking forward to the next one too, that ending could set up some interesting conflicts and developments. Hope you enjoy the Stephanie Harrington books if you get to them!
Thanks, I hope I do too. I don’t read a lot of YA/Teen fiction, but I have tended to have good luck when I do read it. Helps that David Weber is an author with whom I have had positive reading experiences.
And yes, the ending leaves the next novel with some interesting places to go.
Second book is out as an eARC and will hit the shelves in October (just ahead of a convention where all three co-authors will be present). And, book 3 has been finished (and is now in the long editorial/production process).