Before Henry Wong, before the UPSF, before the Kenmiri…Humanity’s colonies were ruled by the individual nation-states of Earth.
In a dark future, Admiral Christopher MacLeod leads the Extrasolar Squadron (ESS) of the Commonwealth Space Force. His job is to show how British military technology is the best of the best—so the colonies will pay for it. It’s a role he’s long since accepted. But as tensions rise between the United States and the Russian Novaya Imperiya, Admiral MacLeod’s honor, his bravery, and his resolve will be tested.
This is the story of the first battle of the first interstellar war that threatened humanity’s homeworld… and eventually led to the creation of the United Planets Space Force.
Honor & Renown, a Peacekeepers of Sol Universe Novella, is available now on Amazon!
*Please note as this is a novella, there is no audiobook at this time.
I loved this. I have one small niggling point. When Elizabeth II became queen some Scottish nationalists argued she should actually be Elizabeth II and I because there’d been no Elizabeth of Scotland. After much dithering the lord chancellor announced that future kings and queens would take the highest reign number that applied in either country.
It follows that King James IV and IX would actually just be James IX.
So there
This is a great book as always. It’s sad the author has to disparage his neighbor to the south though. America is a diverse nation of 330 million people, the majority of whom didn’t vote for Trump in either election. To paint America as an aggressor nation spearheaded by ships of war named after an aberration in politics is lazy writing. I hope he got his chuckle.
Hi Dbsaf,
There’s a paraphrase that comes to mind from writer and activist Rebecca Solnit: A nation is not its figurehead, and a general is not his troops. This is always true in the real world, in its big, messy complexity. And in an individual story, we usually see a slice of humanity, a glimpse of the worldbuilding that the author has done—especially in a series.
In Honor & Renown, Admiral Haley Parker-Kennedy is American. She’s also one figurehead, with a given set of strengths, an extremely hairy situation that she’s coming out of, and potentially (spoilers for the book) a conspiracy that might be feeding her very specific information. Would the book have gone differently if her circumstances were slightly different, or if American Admiral Chester Nimitz had been there instead?
You mentioned one of the presidents whose names appeared on the ships. Was that the only one? If the name was a deliberate indictment, is it completely clear which entity or traits are being criticized?
– Jack, Faolan’s Pen
It wasn’t the only president’s name to appear, but the other was also one of the worst villains to be elected to the office. It was chosen as a shorthand to definitively evoke a particular view of the United States without putting in any real work. Just the assumption that any vessels will be named for Trump in the future paints an unflattering picture of Americans and our knowledge of our own history. It was lazy writing. I am also still a fan, but it felt like a cheap shot, especially considering the atrocities committed by Britain and China in the name of colonialist expansionism in their history that went without mention.