Flag in Exile by David Weber

Flag in Exile is the fifth book in the popular, Honor Harrington series, by David Weber. This is the second book of the series set primarily on the planet Grayson. Unlike The Honor of the Queen, Honor is not a stranger to the planet. She is one of its nobles and has been accepted wholeheartedly by her subjects.

Unfortunately, not everyone on the planet accepts her. Grayson is a patriarchal society; women are viewed as less than capable to perform tasks that are solely the domain of men such as military service and politics. Honor is a direct challenge to this view and many people on the planet feel threatened by her. Not only are they threatened by her, they view her ascension to Steadholder as an affront to God and she must be purged.

In this book, Honor has to fight many internal and emotional demons. She is still healing from the loss of her lover in the previous book and the punishment from her native navy that came with her actions. Even so, the Grayson navy has expanded many times and has a severe shortage of experienced personnel. Not only that, but she must face the man responsible for the death of her beloved mentor whom everyone else around her has forgiven. Can she forgive him too?

The High Admiral dragoons her into service to pick her brain and have her impart her deep combat experience to his navy so that it may grow into the modern military world. Unlike the previous books, she is not given a single ship, but a squadron of the largest military ships in space and made second in command of the entire Grayson navy.

Even though there is a lot of politics in this book, there is plenty of action for those craving it. Not only are there space battles, but also some ground action to go with it. It creates a nice blend that does not get stale.

Grayson is a very powerful emotional vehicle throughout the entire Honorverse series. The people illicit strong emotional responses whenever they appear. This book is full of powerful emotional scenes, it is not as hauntingly beautiful as The Honor of the Queen, but it is more raw and dark. We are shown more of the history of Grayson and it helps us learn more about its people and understand them better, and understand why Honor is such a threat to their way of life.

This is a solid addition to the series and its focus upon Grayson really gives depth to the planet that features so prominently in the series. Honor’s personal and professional growth in this book is quite remarkable and as with each previous and future book, you learn to respect and admire her immensely. It’s Geektime gives this a respectable 9 on the d10 of evaluation.

Flag in Exile by David Weber