HVT-016 Crown of Slaves (Wages of Sin #1)

Honorverse Today

With this series and novel, our adventure shifts away from the story featuring Honor Harrington as the main character or even seeing her as the focal point. Even so, she’s not gone and appears in the periphery quite often. Remember, this “related” storyline doesn’t mean we’re shifting away from the “main” storyline. As you’ll see, we are not. The Wages of Sin series, and this first novel in it, are absolutely a part of the core narrative that is The Honorverse. We’ve seen the stories in this series foreshadowed and now we’re going to see why the Wages of Sin set of books are essential to the main story. By the way, you’ll often hear people refer to this series as the Crown of Slaves series rather than Wages of Sin. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that at all. In fact, the series is probably more commonly referred to as the Crown of Slaves series.

If you like placing each story into a chronological timeline, the events in Crown of Slaves happen while the High Ridge government is still in power, just before the main events captured in the novel War of Honor. While there isn’t a lot of emphasis placed on High Ridge and others in the cabinet, Queen Elizabeth and some of the actions revolving around her play a little more of a prominent (but a relatively minor) role. Crown of Slaves was first published by Baen Books in August 2003. This is the series we have previously mentioned was written by the dynamic duo of David Weber and Eric Flint.

As we saw mentioned in earlier parts of the story, the Star Kingdom’s ally Erewhon has been grieved by the actions and attitudes of High Ridge and the cabinet. Perhaps outside of Grayson, Erewhon may be the most neglected and offended of all of Manticore’s primary allies. In an effort to quietly address the problem, and perhaps prevent the loss of a key ally, Queen Elizabeth sends a delegation led by Captain Zilwicki, along with his daughter Berry, and her niece, Princess Judith Winton, to Erewhon. You’re going to see a small cast of other familiar characters as well. Within this atmosphere of tension, and significantly amplified by competing agendas outside of the Queen’s control, nothing goes smoothly.

As suggested by the title of the series, and especially this novel, the focus of the events that unfold relate directly to Mesa and Manpower, Inc., and broadly to the ugly issue of slavery. It shouldn’t be a surprise, but the theme is certainly heavy, and the events and language are not “kid friendly”.

We rated Crown of Slaves with a 3, a 4 and another 4 (out of 5), for an overall rating of 3.7 from your hosts.

We absolutely appreciate the support of everyone who takes the time to listen to our thoughts as we wander through the Honorverse. Thank you! And as always, thanks for those of you who like and/or comment on our posts. Whether you agree with our thoughts, or hold differing viewpoints, your comments are genuinely appreciated and warmly received. We truly enjoy hearing your thoughts on the Honorverse and the show.

Next up: we’re making a visit to another related storyline as we jump into the first novel in the Saganami Island series: The Shadow of Saganami. Grab your copy and join us again next time!

You can find us, and all our episodes at http://honorverse.net, and email us at [e-mail]. We look forward to hearing from you.

Now, let’s be about it!