House of Steel: The Honorverse Companion

The novella in this book is pretty good and does a nice job filling in the back story of King Roger. The interesting part is The Honorverse Companion which is written by a team of fans filling in the details of the Honorverse. Dave has had an incredibly active and knowledgeable fan base from the start of the series. Back in the day they congregated on a David Weber newsgroup that was fascinating both from the technical discussions and the participation of the author. More than once, David ended discussions with it's my universe and that's how it works, keep your stinkin' facts to yourself! It was also were the venerable tradition of red shirting started, (after star trek's security, beam me down, I'm here to die) where if you irritated Dave enough, a character in his next book was named after you who almost always ended up dead. For fans of the series of course this is a must read. However, if you are a writer, or a publisher it is worth your while to read this book and the Ring of Fire universe if you want to get a handle on where modern fiction is going. Both of these series are evolving into a model of what future fiction will look like in the internet age. - Ron Restorff