David Weber is a science fiction writer who specializes in military science fiction. He's best known for the Honor Harrington series, which currently numbers eleven novels, one collaborative novel, and four short-story anthologies. I have the first nine novels and the first three anthologies in paperback, and hardcover copies of a couple as well. Weber also has some stand-alone SF novels, and a collaborative series with Steve White.

The Worlds of Honor Harrington

Honor Harrington is usually described as "Horatio Hornblower in space," but I've read both series and I think that rather understates Weber's accomplishment. The Honor Harrington series is much like the Hornblower Saga in that you have two great powers waging war on each other, plus several lesser powers around the edges, not quite in the fight but not exactly out of it either. And Weber spends a lot of time on battle scenes, exploring the techniques and technology of his spaceborne warships in much the same way as C.S. Forester explored the techniques and technology of sailing-ship warfare. The main difference lies in the characters -- where Forester had one adequate main character (Hornblower himself) and many rather flat lesser ones, Weber has populated Honor's world with a rich variety of interesting three-dimensional people, not all of them human. The creatures called "treecats" are especially interesting, and become more so as the series goes on. (Some people I know think the treecats are among the most interesting aspects of the series, and I'm not sure they're wrong.)

It's best to start with the first one and read the rest in order. After about the third one you have to read them in order, because they form a true story arc in which each story builds on the last one.

1. ON BASILISK STATION
   After a disastrous performance in Fleet wargames, Commander Honor Harrington and her ship, the light cruiser HMS Fearless, have been exiled to the remote picket-station called Basilisk Station in the Medusa star system. Basilisk is known as the place where the Royal Manticoran Navy sends its screw-ups and deadbeats -- and it just so happens that the screw-up in command at the moment is Lord Pavel Young, an aristocratic captain who has a long-standing feud with Honor. Basilisk is also a haven for smugglers and other lawbreakers, as well as being a target for the enemy stellar power of Haven. Honor doesn't care about the first and considers it her duty to do something about the second, an attitude that gets her some new friends, some new enemies, and a whole lot of trouble. This is a decent military-sf yarn, but in my opinion it's also the weakest of the whole series. Weber was still working out the character of Honor Harrington, the technology of her universe, and his own writing style, and it shows.
2. THE HONOR OF THE QUEEN
   It's three years after the events of ON BASILISK STATION, and relations between the Star Kingdom of Manticore and the People's Republic of Haven are getting steadily worse. Seeking allies in the war she knows is coming, the Queen of Manticore sends a diplomatic mission to the planet Grayson in the Yeltsin system. The mission's military unit is commanded by Honor Harrington. That gets the mission off on the wrong foot right away: the Manticoran ships have many female crewmen and a female commander, but Grayson is a ferociously misogynistic culture, where women are considered little more than property and certainly not equal to men. Things get considerably worse when Grayson's sworn enemy, Masada, launches an attack with Peep help and wipes out most of the Grayson Space Navy along with the leader of the Manticoran diplomatic mission. At that point, as the senior remaining Manticoran officer, Honor finds herself cast in the role of simultaneous diplomat and warrior, pitted against enemies both on and off Grayson. This is both better written and a more complex story than ON BASILISK STATION, and begins a long, careful process of developing Honor from a simple "textbook naval officer" into a more complex and interesting personality. It also begins the building of Honor's companion treecat, Nimitz, from the seeming pet he was in ON BASILISK STATION into a truly intelligent entity and a full character in his own right.
3. THE SHORT VICTORIOUS WAR
   The People's Republic of Haven is planning a surprise attack against Manticore and its allies. Manticore knows the Peep attack is coming, but not where or when or how. Newly returned from medical leave, Honor Harrington is given command of the battlecruiser HMS Nike and assigned to the garrison at Hancock Station, a new and powerful Manticoran fleet base. While Honor learns the ways of her new command role and deals with the inevitable politics that come with it, the Peep fleet engages in a complex series of "provocations" intended to lead to a full-scale attack, and the Manticoran command tries to predict where Haven will actually attack. Meanwhile, Honor's personal situation at Hancock is made much more complex by the arrival of her old enemy Pavel Young. When Haven finally does attack, seeking the short war and quick victory they need, they find themselves facing a thoroughly warned and prepared enemy. That includes Honor and her commanding admiral, who both intend to make the war anything but short, and anything but a Peep victory. With this novel the story of Honor Harrington becomes a true arc, where you must have read the earlier books to understand everything that's going on in this one.
4. FIELD OF DISHONOR
   After the Battle of Hancock (told in the previous book), Honor Harrington returns to Manticore to get her battered ship repaired. She also must give testimony in the court-martial of Lord Pavel Young for the cowardice he displayed during the Battle of Hancock. The court-martial leads to Young being expelled from the Navy in disgrace, and he swears to get revenge on Honor. Soon she finds herself at the center of a personal and political crisis as Young lashes out at her, seeking to destroy her in revenge for her role in ending his career. Unable to defend herself by legal means, Honor has only one recourse: the field of honor, where the Manticoran laws on dueling can bring personal enemies face to face, to settle their differences once and for all. This is very different from the earlier books in the series, much more character driven and with hardly any of the action that marks the earlier (and later) books. Yet in some ways it's the strongest of the series and certainly shows Weber can write characters as well as he can write space battles.
5. FLAG IN EXILE
   Stripped of her command, her career in ruins, Honor returns to Grayson to start rebuilding her life. But events aren't content to let her do so in peace. Being a Steadholder is difficult enough, and to add further burdens, Grayson needs her expertise in its rapidly expanding Navy. While she tries to master her dual roles as Steadholder and Admiral, a new political vortex begins to form around her. Before long she finds herself at the center of another political firestorm every bit as vicious as the one she left behind on Manticore. Conservative elements on Grayson are rigidly opposed to the notion of a female Steadholder, and are determined to remove Honor from power by any means necessary. Even worse, Grayson is the primary target in a new Peep offensive designed to break the Manticoran Alliance and regain the initiative in the war. And Honor may be the only person who can save her adopted homeworld.
6. HONOR AMONG ENEMIES
   Honor is given a chance to revive her Manticoran naval career, but there's a catch: she's expected to lead four clumsy, underpowered, undermanned, almost unprotected armed merchant ships into the Silesian Confederacy, a region of space where Manticore shipping is being plagued by pirates. Just to keep things interesting, some of the "pirates" aren't what they seem, and neither is the mission. One of the weaker entries in the series; a number of cliches and recycled plot devices, and besides Honor, the best developed characters are some of the bad guys. But it serves an important role in the ongoing story arc, reviving Honor's career and getting her back into action. And it's a fairly good story in its own right.
7. IN ENEMY HANDS
   Honor gets a promotion to commodore and is given command of a Manticoran heavy cruiser squadron on a convoy-escort run. Unfortunately for her, the escort mission lands her in a system that the Peeps have just retaken, and she is captured by the enemy in a well-executed ambush. This in turn earns her a trip to a prison planet aptly named "Hell," and an appointment with the executioner there. This book ends on a major cliffhanger. Like FIELD OF DISHONOR, this is more a character-driven story than an action/combat story, and focuses on how Honor and her officers (most of whom are also her friends) react to being captured.
8. ECHOES OF HONOR
   As far as the Star Kingdom of Manticore knows, Honor Harrington is dead, murdered by the Peep security police after her capture and staged "trial" for war crimes. While mourning the dead Honor, the Manticoran commanders begin organizing a new campaign against Haven, using the new weapons they have under construction. But Haven strikes first and leaves the Star Kingdom and its allies reeling from their most severe losses of the war. Meanwhile, Honor herself is fighting to escape from the nearly impregnable prison planet called Hell. A well-written book, despite the fact that it neither starts nor cleanly finishes any of its major storylines. Weber manages the near-impossible in making Honor's escape from Hell seem plausible even when it shouldn't be.
9. ASHES OF VICTORY
   Honor Harrington returns to the Star Kingdom of Manticore in triumph, having escaped from the Peep prison planet of Hell. She faces a long period of recovery from injuries she received while a captive. Worse, her treecat Nimitz has injuries of his own to contend with, as he finds he was mentally as well as physically crippled by Havenite brutality. But they persevere, and both begin working their way back to health. At the same time, Honor is assigned as commander of the Officer Training Academy for the Manticoran navy. Meanwhile, Manticore is finally ready to launch a long-planned new offensive, using a variety of new weapons and tactics before which the Peep Navy will be almost helpless. But things never seem to go quite as expected in wartime ...
10. WAR OF HONOR
    It's been three years since Admiral White Haven's all-out attack using Manticore's new weapons and tactics brought about a coup in the Republic of Haven and forced the new leaders to request a truce. At the same time, the last-gasp stab by the old Haven leadership led to the fall of the Manticoran government. The new Manticoran government, led by the reactionary Baron High Ridge and formed of an unlikely alliance among three mutually-antagonistic political parties, is dragging out the peace negotiations while using the continuing state of "war" to maintain high taxes and push some of their own non-war-related programs forward. Honor Harrington and Earl White Haven have become leaders in the Opposition and are embroiled in a vicious political fight with the High Ridge government. To get Honor out of the way, the Government gives her command of a task force at a new picket station in the pirate-riddled Confederacy of Silesia, where she faces not only the pirates, but also increasing power plays from the neighboring Anderman Star Empire. Meanwhile, the new Haven leaders are getting increasingly impatient with the stalled peace talks, and a power-hungry Havenite politician is scheming in his own way to sabotage the peace negotiations.

There are also four short-story anthologies set in the universe of Honor Harrington. I have three of them:

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The Starfire Books

David Weber is a long-time aficionado of tabletop war-gaming systems, such as the Starfire interstellar wargame system. A couple of years ago, Weber and his fellow Starfire gamer Steve White collaborated on a series of four novels that used the Starfire system. All four of these books are pure military SF: the setting is a universe at war, most of the major characters are military, and military strategy and tactics form large chunks of the story.

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Weber's Space Opera

Earlier in his career, Weber tried his hand at straightforward space-opera, The result was a trilogy known as the Dahak novels, along with two pretty good stand-alone novels.

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