H. Paul Honsinger’s “Man of War” series is a Military Science Fiction saga set in the year 2315. Young Lieutenant Commander Max Robichaux is given command of the Union Space Navy Destroyer USS Cumberland, a state of the art vessel with a crew possessing a fleet-wide reputation for cowardice and incompetence. These novels follow the daring and tactically brilliant but green skipper as he tries to whip the crew into fighting shape while dealing with a series of dangerous missions that could change the course of mankind’s 30 year old war against the Krag, implacable foes who seek nothing less than the eradication of every human in the galaxy. Max is aided in his efforts by his Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Ibrahim Sahin, a brilliant and insightful physician, linguist, naturalist, and budding diplomat who, despite his conspicuous intelligence, is woefully ignorant of naval ways and handicapped in his interpersonal relationships by a cool, aloof, and sarcastic personality. The series is written with a tone reminiscent of classics from the Golden Age of Science Fiction, drawing elements from the Age of Sail novels of Patrick O’Brian and C. S. Forester, the techno/military thrillers of Tom Clancy, and the modern naval fiction of Patrick Robinson.
The two volumes now in print have sold more than 13,000 copies (which is considered quite successful for an independently-published author) and received more than 350 customer reviews on Amazon.com, more than 250 of which are five star (on a five star scale). In terms of customer reviews in Amazon’s Kindle Store, both books rank in the top 30 Hard Science Fiction books ever published. In the Military Science Fiction, Space Fleet category, For Honor We Stand is (as of this writing) rated #3 by Amazon readers (it was #1 for nearly six months) and To Honor You Call Us is rated #8.
The first two volumes of the series were originally issued as self-published eBooks and print on demand paperbacks. The entire series has been picked up by 47North Publications, an imprint of Amazon Books. As a result, those volumes will be re-issued in newly edited and revised 47North editions with new cover art, new scenes, and various other revisions, on the schedule below, with the earlier editions being withdrawn from availability in early 2014. The all new third volume of the series, Brothers in Valor is expected to be available in Summer-Fall 2014 time frame.
Publication History and Schedule:
To Honor You Call Us (Man of War Book 1), Self-Published Edition, 4 November 2012
For Honor We Stand (Man of War Book 2), Self-Published Edition, 12 February 2013
To Honor You Call Us (Man of War Book 1, Revised), 47North Edition, 18 February 2014
For Honor We Stand (Man of War Book 2, Revised), 47North Edition, Planned Release 11 March 2014
Brothers in Valor (Man of War Book 3), 47North Publishers, Planned Release Summer-Fall 2014–Current target is Winter 2014-2015.
Future novels featuring the adventures of Max Robichaux and Ibrahim Sahin are planned in an indefinite series after Brothers in Valor. The author hopes to release further books at the rate of approximately one or two a year.
Praise for the Man of War books:
This novel is the best independently published military sci-fi book that I have read and ranks, frankly, among the best professionally published ones as well. (Amazon Customer, November 21, 2012).
Clever, well thought out and captivating. (Amazon Customer, November 25, 2012).
I gave this five stars because in five decades of reading military SciFi I have not enjoyed a book as much as this and the previous volume. I am ex military and agree that the authors have captured the military culture to perfection. (Amazon Customer, October 5, 2013).
This book reads like Master and Commander on the Far side of the World in space, with a mix of Red October. The Cumberland is like a age of sail space ship crossed with an attack sub. The Characters in the book are well written and the space combat is fun too! I highly recommend reading this book and the next one also. (Amazon Customer, September 9, 2013).
H. Paul Honsinger 
To Honor You Call Us is by far one of the best books I’ve read in years. For Honor We Stand and Brothers in Valor are also quite good, though as is so often the case, the original is the best. The fact that the original had the most Star Trek references might be swaying my opinion a little.
Any chance that Dr. Sahin will have a larger role in Book 4? He was great in Book 1, but in Books 2 and 3 he seemed to be more of an audience surrogate than a piece of the plot.
Also, in keeping with the Star Trek references, is it safe to assume Book 4 will end with a daring escape in a Krag cruiser full of whales (excuse me, I mean Pfelung), a court martial for [Book 3 spoiler redacted], and then wrap up with Robichaux’s boots on a Khyber-class refit newly christened as USS Cumberland under registry number DPA-0004-A?
Thanks for the kind words. Though, I wouldn’t count on Book 4 following your plot outline very closely. Actually not at all. Sounds entertaining, though. I’m certainly not going to do the “reuse the registry number” thing, as it’s silly and no Navy would ever do it.
I do hope you are working on a sequel to “Brothers in Valor.” I’d really like to find out what happens to Max and his crew of the Cumberland. Thanks.
Hi there really hope you are on the road to recovery. Really enjoyed the series so far, the blend of futuristic and historic is brilliant. Looking forward to many more adventures with those that mind the gap.
HI Paul, what happened to that announcement? I, we all here i can speak for, hope you are well. Please let us know what that mysterious update was/is! Best to you and yours, and IMO you are right up there in quality to P. O’Brien- just amazing draw you in characters and great plots; cannot wait for the next novel!
Hi there. Just to say I hope you are recovering (recovered?) and life is treating you well. I truly enjoyed the series of books, and would love to read more adventures in the man of war (man o’war? ) series!! Best wishes, Paul Hastings (I was going to say “Paul H.”, but thought that might be confusing 😀😁)