A review by peregrineace
Beginnings by David Weber

3.0

Stories were good, even interesting but nothing that truly stood out. The best of the stories was Weber's second entry, about a young Honor Harrington and everyone's favorite treecat, with some strong overtones of the fortuitous meeting of their ancestors Stephanie Harrington and Climbs Quickly. Charles Gannon's opening story "By the Book" was remarkably well matched in tone to most of Weber's work and had some good backstory on the early diaspora period. Zahn's "A Call to Arms" was the most readable of the five stories in this collection and filled in a perspective that the early Honorverse books talked about but didn't show in any detail. Weber's first entry "Beauty and the Beast" was the most disappointing. While Weber gave some good insight into Honor's father, Alfred, and her Uncle Jacques, that same insight was entirely lacking for her mother, Alison, by far the most interesting of the Harrington clan to me. It also featured an insta-love story and I despise that trope, even with the not-subtle almost-telepathy angle, which was more plot device than good storytelling. Joelle Presby's "Obligated Service" had potential but was confusing for the varying degrees of not-well-described backwater thinking in all her characters, who didn't even all conform to the same legal system or seem to have any clue that this was the case.

Recommended for Honor Harrington fans as fun but not necessary for the larger series. Not the place to start with the expansive Honorverse; if you're curious, On Basilisk Station is your best bet.