July 17, 2000 note: This was originally posted in December 1997. I have included the spoilers for the story by S. M. Stirling that weren't in the original post.

Honor Harrington has doled out several fragments of the story of the first Harrington encounter with tree cats. In "A Beautiful Friendship," David Weber presents the WHOLE story. This includes the treecat side which Honor doesn't know. I wonder how much of the Harrington side Nimitz knows? He certainly knows the treecat side.

In David Drake's "A Grand Tour," a Manticore noble visits a world in a backwater of human settlement. It is unlikely that Honor will ever visit the area (however, if the 7th Manticore Junction terminii is in the area, all bets are off). I don't believe that Drake used Weber's tech properly and I don't understand the resolution. There is a note by Drake that he used a historical incident, but I don't recognize the reference. Does anybody have an idea?

S. M. Stirling's "A Whiff of Grapeshot" presents Citizen Admiral McQueen's suppression of the Leveler revolt as mentioned in the prologue of In Enemy Hands.

(and yes, the title is a spoiler). IIRC, it is a Napoleon Bonaparte quote.

The fourth item in More than Honor comprises of 80+ pages of background notes by Weber, "The Universe of Honor Harrington." The notes are chiefly about interstellar colonization, hyperdrive (some overlap to the appendix to The Short Victorious War), impeller drive, inertia compensator effectiveness, some Manticore history (including a monarch list), the major political parties on Manticore, the Junction, the Solarian League, and the history of the Republic of Haven (its glorious rise and its decline).

However, there was an ominous note right at the beginning of Weber's notes. In fact, "Here be Spoilers..."

I believe that Weber is going to spring a horrible surprise on the Star Kingdom. Everybody who has a copy of More than Honor should read the paragraph that ends on the top of page 292 and think about it.

The sentence in question ends with "...war which would , before it ended, see virtually the entire human-occupied galaxy choosing up sides, with military operations on a scale that no one had ever previously contemplated."

The Solarian League TOO?!! Now, I might be jumping to conclusions. After all, in September 1941, even though the USA hadn't gone active in WWII, it had obviously chosen its favored side in both Europe and Asia (what with Lend-Lease, the occupation of Iceland, and convoy escorts, saying it wasn't active in Europe might be a stretch). Only a madman or a totally delusional military establishment would voluntarily draw the 30%+ of the world's industry capacity into war against themselves. The Solarian League's fraction of the entire human occupied space industrial capacity is greater than 30%. On the other hand, the comment on the size of military operations almost requires the Solarian League's industrial capacity to build the fleets. The operations would have to be on a scale larger than the battle of Farley's Crossing mentioned in In Enemy Hands (p 449 HC), involving a total of 600 ships, or the battle of 3rd Yeltsin (which I guess to be about 170 ships of the wall, plus an unknown number of cruisers and destroyers). There a number of other Haven battlefleets in motion as well in the initial moves in the Manticore-Haven war.

As I see it, if the Solarian League enters as a unit, the war ends quickly. No coalition short of an alliance of all other powers (Manticore and Haven included) has a chance to stand against them (and this could be optimistic). Thus, my interpretation is that the Solarian League is going to have a civil war. Perhaps some imperialist faction is going to try conquer the rest (and unify all humanity too while they are at it).