In this second book in the Honor Harrington series, Harrington finds herself defending an important potential ally of Manticore, and once again fighting Manticore's rival (the Republic of Haven) and Haven's allies, while also facing down a threat to her effectiveness as a captain -- this time, the problem is that the potential ally is a backwards planet that treats women as chattle. The people she has to work with don't think she can do her job, and Harrington can't really understand why, since Manticore has no gender discrimination.

This book was pretty good, but I was troubled by one subplot involving sexual violence. The incident itself wasn't troubling, but combined with the sexual violence in the first novel, I am concerned that this may be a trend in the series. Given that Weber obviously tried so hard to create a strong female character, why would he continually throw rape in her path? It makes me uneasy about what the series has to say about women's role in the world -- is sexual violence a threat we have to continually face, no matter how strong or success we are? Even in fiction?

Like I said, I'm troubled.