Honor Harrington

Honor Harrington is a fictional character, the eponymous heroine of a series of science fiction books set in the "Honorverse", written by David Weber and published by Baen Books. An officer in a star fleet known as the Royal Manticoran Navy, Harrington bears a striking professional resemblance to both the real life Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson and the composite character Horatio Hornblower. Like Nelson, she loses an eye and an arm in combat; her initials are the same as Hornblower's; and like both officers, she has a genius for command and becomes a living legend. These are fitting parallels in that during much of Harrington's career her native Star Kingdom of Manticore is at war with the neighboring People's Republic of Haven, a conflict that bears more than passing resemblance to the antagonism between the British Empire and France during the Napoleonic Wars.

Contents

1 Early life

2 Career

3 Character trademarks

4 Honor Harrington in other media

5 External links

Early life

Honor was born on October 1, 3961 AD on Sphinx, the third inhabited planet of the Star Kingdom of Manticore. She is the daughter of neurosurgeon Arthur Harrington and genetic engineer Allison Chou Harrington. She is a yeoman; i.e., not descended from one of the very first Manticoran colonists who became the star kingdom's nobility. Her paternal ancestors were "genies," people genetically engineered to survive in Sphinx's higher gravity and differing environment. She was raised in the Third Stellar Missionary Communion (Reformed), but is not significantly religious.

Honor is one of the few people adopted by a Sphinxian treecat (whom she has named Nimitz), and she has devoted considerable research to them. She has become one of the foremost experts on treecats as a result.

Career

Harrington attended the Royal Manticoran Naval Academy on Manticore's Saganami Island, and became an officer in the Royal Manticoran Navy. She is one of the RMN's best tactical officers, and while she can solve complex navigational problems brilliantly, quickly, and intuitively, her on-paper mathematical skills are dismal; the latter trait caused her much irritation and some problems while at the Academy. At Saganami Island, her roommate was Michelle Henke, cousin of Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore. Shy and lacking in self-confidence, Harrington learned much from "Mike" Henke during those years about how to comport herself in the service.

Harrington has a seventh-degree black belt in the martial art of coup de vitesse, and set a sailplane record at the Naval Academy (for combined altitude, time spent aloft, and acrobatics) which (as of the latest book) seems to have remained unbroken.

During her time at the Academy, Harrington unwittingly became the target of a perverse, boorish midshipman, Lord Pavel Young, heir to the earldom of North Hollow. When Young attempted to rape her, she defended herself and gave him a severe beating. Academy administrators were sure that Young had tried to assault Harrington, but her own misplaced sense of shame kept her from reporting the real truth behind Young's injuries. Young thus escaped with a reprimand rather than dismissal from the Academy, and in the following decades he did his best to sabotage Harrington's career. Despite his efforts, Harrington advanced in the service because of her outstanding abilities, which had been early recognized by Captain (later Admiral) Raoul Courvoisier, who became her mentor.

While a commander, Harrington became a graduate of the Academy's celebrated Advanced Tactical Course, and immediately thereafter assumed command of the light cruiser HMS Fearless. Her exploits in Fearless while posted at Basilisk Station brought her widespread fame in the service and placed her firmly on the fast track to senior rank and more risky missions, which offered many chances for both spectacular successes and perilous risks. During these missions she proved to have the Nelson touch, earning widespread fame for her exploits. Utterly dedicated to duty, she invariably earned the devoted following of her junior officers and enlisted personnel, as well as the high regard of both Manticore's allies (especially the citizens of the planet Grayson, which she saved from conquest more than once) and her military opponents. But despite her best efforts she also made new political enemies and often suffered devastating personal losses at their hands.

In the course of her career, Honor Harrington has become a Duchess of the Star Kingdom of Manticore, a Grayson Steadholder, and an admiral in both the Grayson Navy and the Royal Manticoran Navy. She has also earned several medals for bravery and ability, including the Manticoran Parliamentary Medal of Valor, and received the Monarch's Thanks for lifesaving aboard HMS Manticore early in her career.

Honor Harrington is regarded as a military genius and has been given the nickname "The Salamander" for always being in the "heat of the action."

The People's Republic of Haven once tried Harrington in absentia on trumped-up charges of murder, convicted her, and sentenced her to death. She did not take this seriously for many years, until she was captured by the Havenites. Havenite propaganda secretary, Cordelia Ransom, planned to carry out the long-overdue sentence. Honor escaped, Ransom was killed, and her subordinates covered up for the public by faking Honor's execution. A state funeral was held for her on Manticore; her empty coffin was buried next to the similarly empty graves of Ellen D'Orville and Edward Saganami. The Grayson Space Navy named a starship after her while she was believed dead, but proudly refused to rename it when she was discovered alive — much to Honor's embarrassment.

As of The Shadow of Saganami, Honor is commanding officer of the starship Unconquered.

Character trademarks

She owns and practices with a replica Colt M1911 .45 calibre semiautomatic pistol, a weapon considered to be an anachronistic "hand cannon" by her contemporaries who prefer pulsers, which fire smaller and much faster "pulser darts". She was taught how to fire Colt .45s by her uncle, Jacques Chou, who is an active member of the Society for Creative Anachronism.

She also wears an eyepatch from time to time, due to the loss of her left eye while defending Protector Mayhew (the ruler of Grayson) from an assassination attempt. Normally she uses a cyberprosthetic eye, though on occasion it is rendered disfunctional in later books.

Honor practices a fictional martial art knows as Coup de vitesse (French: blow of speed). It is a fusion of several western and oriental martial arts, developed primarily as a hard style where emphasis is placed on offense sometimes at the expense of defense, resulting in a very brutal and effective style. Coup de vitesse lacks the elegance of judo or aikido. As of War of Honor, Honor is ranked eighth level black belt.