This appendix sketches in some of the salient points of the galaxy into which Honor was born… and which she, willingly or not, was to play a major part in changing forever

Peril and strife strike on a double front for Honor Harrington and company. After a brutal attack on the Manticoran home system, Honor Harrington and the Star Kingdom she serves battle back against a new, technologically powerful, and utterly nefarious enemy. And as if that weren’t task enough, Honor must also face down a centuries-old old nemesis in the crumbling, but still mighty, Solarian League. The war between the People’s Republic of Haven and the Star Kingdom is finally won and peace established, but grave danger looms — for there is a plan well on its way to completion designed to enslave the entire human species. Behind that plan lies the shadowy organization known as the Mesan Alignment. Task number one for Honor is to defend against another devastating Mesan strike — a strike that may well spell the doom of the Star Kingdom in one fell blow. It is time to shut down and secure the wormhole network that is the source of the Star Kingdom’s wealth and power — but also its greatest vulnerability. Yet this is an act that the ancient and corrupt Earth-based Solarian League inevitably will take as a declaration of war. The thunder of battle rolls as the Solarian League directs its massive power against the Star Kingdom. And once again, Honor Harrington is thrust into a desperate battle that she must win if she is to survive to take the fight to the real enemy of galactic freedom — the insidious puppetmasters of war who lurk behind the Mesan Alignment!

“Bolos. For a millennium and a half, they have been humanity’s warriors. They have fought Man’s battles, died in Man’s wars, battled to save Man’s children, even from his own kind. They have guarded Man’s worlds … and avenged Man’s defeats.” “Tireless, infinitely patient, infinitely deadly, Bolos are the most fearsome fighting machines ever developed. The most lethal artificial intelligences in history. Yet they are more than that. They are not merely the weapons of their Human commanders, but their comrades. Brothers and sisters in arms, who all too often die together.” But Bolos and their commanders do not die easily. Mankind’s enemies have learned the price of a Bolo’s death. And if Bolos and their commanders do not always die in victory, this much has always been true. They do not surrender. And they never-ever-quit

Lady Dame Honor Harrington—starship captain, admiral, Steadholder, and Duchess—has spent decades defending the Star Kingdom of Manticore against all comers. Along the way, she has become the legend known as "the Salamander" from her habit of always being where the fire is hottest . . . and also a national bestseller (Ashes of Victory: #7, The Wall Street Journal). But it’s a big universe, and Honor’s actions affect a lot of lives, not all of them human. And their actions affect her —a lesson "Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington" learns years before rising to command rank when a desperate battle against "pirates" who aren’t quite what they seem begins her brilliant career. Closer to home, in "Changer of Worlds," a secret that the alien treecats have kept from their human friends for hundreds of years is about to come out . . . and completely change the relationship between the two species forever. Meanwhile, Eric Flint weighs in with "From the Highlands." Honor can’t be everywhere, so when the People’s Republic of Haven tries to stage a political assassination on Earth, Anton Zilwicki—husband of one of the Star Kingdom’s most revered military martyrs, and father of a young woman who is clearly a chip off the old block—steps into the breach . . . and takes the opportunity to settle some old scores along the way. And finally, Esther McQueen and Oscar Saint-Just square off for their final confrontation in Noveau Paris in "Nightfall."

The Star Kingdom's ally Erewhon is growing increasingly restive in the alliance because the new High Ridge regime ignores its needs. Added to the longstanding problem of a slave labor planet controlled by hostile Mesans in Erewhon's stellar backyard, which High Ridge refuses to deal with, the recent assassination of the Solarian League's most prominent voice of public conscience indicates the growing danger of political instability in the Solarian League-which is also close to Erewhon.In desperation, Queen Elizabeth tries to defuse the situation by sending a private mission to Erewhon led by Captain Zilwicki, accompanied by one of her nieces. When they arrive on Erewhon, however, Manticore's envoys find themselves in a mess. Not only do they encounter one of the Republic of Haven's most capable agents-Victor Cachat-but they also discover that the Solarian League's military delegation seems up to its neck in skullduggery.And, just to put the icing on the cake, the radical freed slave organization, the Audubon Ballroom, is also on the scene-led by its notorious and ruthless assassin, Jeremy X

Spacers call the warp point Charon's Ferry.No star ship has ever entered it and returned since a vengeful Orion task force pursued a doomed Terran colonization fleet into it in 2206.Almost a century has passed. The fiery hatreds of a quarter-century of warfare between the Terran Federation and the Zheeerlikou'valkhannaieeee, the cat-like species humans called the "Orions," have eased at least a little. The "Grand Alliance" forged by the need to fight side-by-side against the genocidal Rigelians remains, but there are those on either side who continue to hate, continue to distrust.Now the strength of that war-forged alliance is about to be tested. For Charon's Ferry is about to give up the secret of its dead. A ship has emerged from the deadly warp point at last. A ship which responds to the challenge of an Orion star ship using ancient human communications codes . . . then opens fire.The holocaust of interstellar warfare has been ignited anew, in a bloody crusade to free Holy Mother Terra

For eight years, Commodore Honor Harrington has been in the forefront of the battle between the Star Kingdom of Manticore and the vastly more powerful People's Republic of Haven. Now Honor has fallen, captured by the Peep Navy

The surprise attack of the Republic of Haven on Manticore has failed. The Peeps are in disarray, their leaders fighting for power in a bloody revolution, and the Royal Manitcoran Navy stands victorious. But success can be more treacherous than defeat for Honor Harrington

Hounded by political enemies and cut to the heart by the death of the man she loved, Honor Harrington has retreated to Grayson to take up her role as Steadholder while her wounds heal. But the Republic of Haven is rising from defeat to threaten Grayson, and the new Grayson Navy needs her

IT ALL STARTED AS A MISTAKE!Both Arcana and Sharona had explored scores of universes, each a duplicate of its own, without ever encountering another human civilization.Then that changed.Two survey expeditions met in the cool shadows of an autumn forest. No one knows who shot first, but both sides have suffered heavy casualties, and each blames the other. Now both sides want possession of Hell's Gate, the cluster of inter-universal portals and their survey forces met in blood . . . and neither is prepared to let the other have it..Arcana's wizards, dragons, and gryphons are about to meet Sharona's bolt-action rifles, machine guns, and mortars. Transport dragons are about to meet steam locomotives. And all that either side really knows is that neither of them has ever seen a war like the one about to begin

They Thought They Knew How The Universes Worked-THEY WERE WRONG. In the almost two centuries since the discovery of the first inter-universal portal, Arcana has explored scores of other worlds . . . all of them duplicates of their own. Multiple Earths, virgin planets with a twist, because the "explorers" already know where to find all of their vast, untapped natural resources. Worlds beyond worlds, effectively infinite living space and mineral wealth.And in all that time, they have never encountered another intelligent species. No cities, no vast empires, no civilizations and no equivalent of their own dragons, gryphons, spells, and wizards.But all of that is about to change. It seems there is intelligent life elsewhere in the multiverse. Other human intelligent life, with terrifying new weapons and powers of the mind . . . and wizards who go by the strange title of "scientist."

For Captain Honor Harrington, it's sometimes hard to know who the enemy is. Offered a chance to reclaim her career, she is given command of a "squadron" of merchantment, and ordered to stop the pirates who are plundering the Kingdom's commerce. But the pirates are not all they seem

Drugi tom cyklu o przygodach Honor Harrington. Tym razem bohaterka obejmuje dowództwo konwoju do systemu Yeltsin. Przedstawicielem Jej Królewskiej Mości zostaje admirał Courvosier, przyjaciel i mentor Honor, a celem ich misji jest zawarcie sojuszu z władzami planety Grayson. Manticore potrzebuje bowiem sprzymierzeńców w zbliżającej się wojnie. Królewskie Ministerstwo Spraw zagranicznych przeoczyło jednak drobną kulturową różnicę, zlecając zadanie Honor na planecie Grayson kobiety nie mają żadnych praw i nawet sama obecność Harrington stanowi obelgę dla wszystkich męskich obywateli. Na dodatek Grayson niespodziewanie zostaje zaatakowana przez fanatyków z planety Masada, a w boju ginie admirał. Czy Honor będzie w stanie ocalić planetę przed nuklearną zagładą?

Przybita ostatnimi wydarzeniami i rozgoryczona rozwojem sytuacji lady Honor Harrington udaje się na planetę Grayson, by zając się zarządzaniem domeną Harrington i zaleczyć wewnętrzne rany. Spokój jednak nie jest pisany — z jednej strony atakują wrogowie wewnętrzni, dla których kobieta — patron stanowi obrazę, z drugiej zewnętrzni: zrewolucjonizowana Ludowa Republika Haven kolejny raz próbuje zdobyć system Yeltsin. Na drodze do zwycięstwa jednych i drugich stoi tylko jedna przeszkoda — admirał lady Honor Harrington. Admirał, ale nie Królewskiej Marynarki…

Honor Harrington zostaje powieszona, a nagranie z egzekucji rozpowszechnione. Admirał Esther McQueen pierwszy raz od lat przejmuje inicjatywę i kontratakuje, zmuszając Sojusz Manticore do obrony. Grayson rośnie w siłę, a Królewska Marynarka testuje nowe uzbrojenie i nową klasę okrętów. Tymczasem na Hadesie, planecie więziennej, Honor leczy rany odniesione w trakcie ucieczki. O tym, że przeżyła, wiedzą jedynie dwie osoby. Dzięki pomocy więźniów Harrington opanowuje planetę i obiecuje zabrać ich ze sobą. Jest tylko jeden problem — uwięzionych jest prawie czterysta tysięcy, a ona ma zwyczaj dotrzymywać słowa

Szósty tom przygód Honor Harrington. Szósty tom przygód Honor Harrington, która wraca w nim do Royal Manticoran Navy, ale jako dowódca grupy czterech statków pułapek, czyli jednostek handlowych przerobionych na okręty wojenne, z załogami, na których nie można zbytnio polegać. Ma oczyścić z piratów obszar Konfederacji Silesiańskiej, gdzie marynarka handlowa ponosi przez nich duże straty. Jak się jednak okazuje, nie wszyscy oni są wyłącznie piratami, a na dodatek starzy wrogowie w Gwiezdnym Królestwie Manticore nie zapomnieli o Honor Harrington i zrobili, co mogli, by tak zadanie, jak i przeciwnik oraz środki, które dano jej do dyspozycji, gwarantowały przegraną…

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Three thousand years after Sun Tszu wrote those words, in the time of the Fourth Interstellar War, the ancient advice still holds true. The "Bugs" have overwhelming numbers, implacable purpose, and a strategy that's mind-numbingly alien. They can't be reasoned or negotiated with. They can't even be communicated with. But what they want is terrifyingly clear. The sentient species in their path aren't enemies to be conquered; they're food sources to be consumed.Totally oblivious to their own losses, rumbling onward like some invincible force of nature, their enormous fleets are as unstoppable as Juggernaut. Yet for the desperate Federation Navy and its enemies-turned-allies, the Orions, there is nowhere to go. Their battered, outnumbered ships are all that stand between the billions upon billions of defenseless civilians on the worlds behind them and an enemy from the darkest depths of nightmare, and there can be no retreat. But at least their options are clear.As Sun Tzu said, in death ground, there is only one strategy:

Unleash the Fury!Zhikotse. Shallingsport. Louvain. Sacred fields of battle on far-flung worlds where warriors of the Imperial Cadre spent blood and lives defending human civilization. Alicia DeVries was there; she led the charge. Her reward? Betrayal by a deceitful empire. Retirement to obscurity.Now Alicia is the only survivor of a brutal attack on her frontier-world family. Not since the mighty Achilles has the ancient spirit of the Fury Tisiphone taken up residence inside a human being. But not since Achilles has a warrior so skilled, so implacable, and possessing so much battle sense sprung up among the mass of humankind. Hero of the Empire. Holder of the Banner of Terra

And peace isn’t always wonderful. Once the enemy was defeated, the central governments of the Inner Worlds were anything but willing to relinquish their wartime powers. To insure that their grip on the reins of power remained firm, the establishment plans to allow the non-human beings of the Khanate to join the Federation, thus reducing the Fringe Worlds voting bloc to impotent minority status. The ruthless bureaucrats of the Corporate Worlds are smugly confident that this power play will keep the colonial upstarts in their place. But the Fringers have only one answer to that: Insurrection

Trzeci tom cyklu o Honor Harrington. Dwa lata po bitwie o Yeltsin bohaterka obejmuje dowództwo krążownika HMS Nike, najsłynniejszej jednostki w całej Królewskiej Marynarce. Okręt ten zostaje wysłany do ważnego strategicznie systemu Hancock. Tymczasem władze targanej wewnętrznymi problemami Ludowej Republiki Haven postanawiają posłużyć się starym, sprawdzonym sposobem na zmniejszenie niezadowolenia społecznego — prowokują wybuch lokalnego konfliktu zbrojnego, czyli ”krótkiej, zwycięskiej wojenki”. Kolejny raz okazuje się jednak, że nawet najdoskonalsze plany nie wytrzymują konfrontacji z rzeczywistością, zwłaszcza gdy mamy do czynienia z waleczną, zakochaną i gotową na wszystko kobietą…

Akcja książki zaczyna się w momencie, w którym kończy się Krótka, zwycięska wojenka. Jest kontynuacją wątków w niej rozpoczętych, z nieco większym naciskiem położonym na kwestie polityczne — wojna między Gwiezdnym Królestwem Manticore a Ludową Republiką Haven stała się w końcu rzeczywistością — oraz na osobiste sprawy Honor Harrington. Wracają znane i lubiane postacie z pierwszych tomów. Jednak gdy Honor udaje się na planetę Grayson, by stać się rzeczywistym patronem, dają o sobie znać także starzy wrogowie. Nie do nich należy jednak ostatnie posunięcie…

The Star Kingdom of Manticore and the Republic of Haven have been enemies for Honor Harrington's entire life, and she has paid a price for the victories she's achieved in that conflict. And now the unstoppable juggernaut of the mighty Solarian League is on a collision course with Manticore. The millions who have already died may have been only a foretaste of the billions of casualties just over the horizon, and Honor sees it coming. She's prepared to do anything, risk anything, to stop it, and she has a plan that may finally bring an end to the Havenite Wars and give even the Solarian League pause. But there are things not even Honor knows about. There are forces in play, hidden enemies in motion, all converging on the Star Kingdom of Manticore to crush the very life out of it, and Honor's worst nightmares fall short of the oncoming reality. But Manticore's enemies may not have thought of everything after all. Because if everything Honor Harrington loves is going down to destruction, it won't be going alone

CONTENTS A Beautiful Friendship, David Weber A Grand Tour, David Drake A Whiff of Grapeshot, S. M. Stirling The Universe of Honor Harrington, David Weber

Whom the gods would recruit, they first tick off...Our Hero: The unlikely Paladin, Bahzell Bahnakson of the Horse Stealer Hradani. He's no knight in shining armor. He's a hradani, a race known for their uncontrollable rages, bloodthirsty tendencies, and inability to maintain civilized conduct. None of the other Five Races of man like the hradani. Besides his ethnic burden, Bahzell has problems of his own to deal with: a violated hostage bond, a vengeful prince, a price on his head. He doesn't want to mess with anybody else's problems, let alone a god's. Let alone the War God's! So how does he end up a thousand leagues from home, neck-deep in political intrigue, assassins, demons, psionicists, evil sorcery, white sorcery, dark gods, good gods, bad poets, greedy landlords, and most of Bortalik Bay? Well, it's all the War God's fault

VENGEANCE IS A DISH BEST SERVED HOT.Imperial Intelligence couldn't find them, the Imperial Fleet couldn't catch them, and local defenses couldn't stop them. It seemed the planet-wrecking pirates were invincible. But the pirates made a big mistake when they raided ex-commando leader Alicia DeVries' quiet home world, tortured and murdered her family, and then left her for dead.Since the Imperial forces seem hog-tied, Alicia decides to turn "pirate" herself, and steals a cutting-edge AI ship from the Empire to start her vendetta. Her fellow veterans think she's crazy, the Imperial Fleet has shoot-on-sight orders. And of course the pirates want her dead, too. But Alicia DeVries has two allies nobody knows about, allies as implacable as she is: a self-aware computer, and a creature from the mists of Old Earth's most ancient legends. And this trio of furies won't rest until vengeance is served

Honor Harrington obejmuje dowództwo wiekowego krążownika HMS Fearless, uzbrojonego w eksperymentalną, niezbyt skuteczną broń. Mimo to w czasie dorocznych manewrów floty udaje się jej zniszczyć flagową jednostkę „Agresorów”, za co zostaje oddelegowana do układu planetarnego Basilisk, miejsca zsyłki dla najgorszych oficerów. To jednak dopiero początek kłopotów. W układzie tym kwitnie przemyt, tubylcy z jedynej z zamieszkanych planet zażywają narkotyk wywołujący atak furii, a pobliska Ludowa Republika Haven knuje coś paskudnego. Harrington ma do dyspozycji tylko niesprawny krążownik i buntującą się, zdemoralizowaną załogę, a przełożeni wymagają od niej zaprowadzenia porządku w całym układzie. Wszyscy przeciwnicy Harrington popełnili jednak poważny błąd. Rozwścieczyli ją…

DEFEAT WAS NOT AN OPTION. The war wasn't going well. The mind-numbingly alien Arachnids were an enemy whose like no civilized race had ever confronted. Like some carnivorous cancer, the "Bugs" had overrun planet after planet . . . and they regarded any competing sentient species as only one more protein source. They couldn't be reasoned with, or even talked to, because no one had the least idea of how to communicate with a telepathic species with no recognizable language . . . and whose response to any communication attempt was a missile salvo. No one knew how large their civilization-if it could be called a "civilization"-actually was, or how it was organized, but the huge fleets they threw against their opponents suggested that it was enormous. The Grand Alliance of Humans, Orions, Ophiuchi, and Gorm, united in desperate self-defense, have been driven to the wall. Billions of their civilians have been slaughtered. Their most powerful offensive operation has ended in shattering defeat and the deaths of their most experienced and revered military commanders. The edge in technology with which they began the war is eroding out from under them and whatever they do, the Bugs just keep coming. But the warriors of the Grand Alliance know what stands behind them and they will surrender no more civilians to the oncoming juggernaut. They will die first . . . and they will also reactivate General Directive 18, however horrible it may be. Because when the only possible outcomes are victory or racial extermination, only one option is acceptable. The Shiva Option

Perfidious Plots, Courageous Resolve—and, of course, Starships Blown to Smithereens! The Solarian League Navy has been the premier navy of the galaxy for centuries. Indeed, no one can remember a time when it hasn't been acknowledged as the most powerful fleet in existence. Until now, that is. A conference to end the terrible war between the Peeps of Haven and the Manticorean Star Kingdom is slated. Peace is finally within reach. Yeah, right. Not with the slaver conspiracy that calls itself Manpower, Inc. pulling intergalactic strings. The plan? To plunge the Star Kingdom into a two-front war with Peeps and Sollies—a process calculated to blast Honor Harrington's home system to smoking ruin! Assassination's afoot. And out on the galactic frontier known as the Verge, big trouble boils over as Solarian League arrogance butts up against the steely resolve of Harrington protégé Michelle Henke, aka Admiral Gold Peak. Too bad for the Sollies. For Harrington's officers have a habit of coming through in the clutch and finding a way to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. But most of all—whatever the odds—they never, ever give up the fight!

A brand new 50,000 word novella, Sword Brother.From the 20007 year edition of "Oath of Swords"

The planet Grayson is strategically placed to make a very good ally for the Kingdom of Manticore and so Honor Harrington is sent to carry the flag. However, women on Grayson have no rights. Then Grayson is attacked by its sister planet

The Star Kingdom of Manticore is once again at war with the Republic of Haven after a stunning sneak attack. The graduating class from Saganami Island, the Royal Manticoran Navy's academy, are going straight from the classroom to the blazing reality of all-out war.Except for the midshipmen assigned to the heavy cruiser HMS Hexapuma, that is. They're being assigned to the Talbott Cluster, an out of the way backwater, far from the battle front. The most they can look forward to is the capture of the occasional pirate cruiser and the boring duty of supporting the Cluster's peaceful integration with the Star Kingdom at the freely expressed will of eighty percent of the Cluster's citizens. With a captain who may have seen too much of war and a station commander who isn't precisely noted for his brilliant and insightful command style, it isn't exactly what the students of Honor Harrington, the "Salamander," expected.But things aren't as simple -- or tranquil -- as they appear. The "pirates" they encounter aren't what they seem, and the "peaceful integration" they expected turns into something very different. A powerful alliance of corrupt Solarian League bureaucrats and ruthless interstellar corporations is determined to prevent the Cluster's annexation by the Star Kingdom . . . by any means necessary. Pirates, terrorists, genetic slavers, smuggled weapons, long-standing personal hatreds, and a vicious alliance of corporate greed, bureaucratic arrogance, and a corrupt local star nation with a powerful fleet, are all coming together, and only Hexapuma, her war-weary captain, and Honor Harrington's students stand in the path.They have only one thing to support and guide them: the tradition of Saganami. The tradition that sometimes a Queen's officer's duty is to face impossible odds . . . and die fighting

The families who rule the People's Republic of Haven need a short, victorious war to calm the Proles and defuse any threat of civil war. In their way stands a kingdom that has always backed down before... but Honor Harrington wasn't involved before

This appendix sketches in some of the salient points of the galaxy into which Honor was born… and which she, willingly or not, was to play a major part in changing forever

Bahzell Bahnakson of the Horse Stealer hradani never wanted to be a champion of the War God. Unfortunately, Tomanāk had insisted. Even more unfortunately, Bahzell's own sense of responsibility hadn't let him say, "No."Which was how he found himself in the Empire of the Axe, where even people who didn't actively hate hradani regarded them with suspicion and fear. Of course, that was only the start of his problems. Next, there was the Order of Tomanāk, many of whom were horrified by the notion that their deity had chosen a hradani as a champion . . . and intended to do something about it. And assuming he survived that, he had to go home-across three hundred leagues of bitter winter snow-to face a Dark God who threatened to destroy all hradani. Throw in the odd demon and brigand ambush, and add a powerful neighboring kingdom with no intention of letting Bahzell (or anyone else) save his people, and you have the makings of a really bad day.But one thing Bahzell has learned: a champion of Tomanāk does what needs doing. And the people in his way had better move

Someone is assassinating the leaders of both the Star Kingdom of Manticore and the recently liberated former slave planet of Torch. Though most believe the Republic of Haven is behind the murders, Anton Zilwicki and Havenite secret agent Victor Cachat believe there is another sinister player behind the scenes. Queen Berry of Torch narrowly escaped one assassination attempt, and a security officer from Beowulf has been assigned to protect her, a task complicated by the young monarch's resentment of bodyguards, and the officer's growing attachment to her. Meanwhile, powerful forces in the Solarian League are maneuvering against each other to gain the upper hand, not realizing or, perhaps, not caring that their power struggle is threatening the League's very existence and could plunge the galaxy into war. Once again New York Times best-selling authors David Weber and Eric Flint join forces in an exciting new novel in the Honorverse. Cover Art by David Mattingly

Honor Harrington, już jako pełnoprawny oficer Królewskiej Marynarki i dowódca eskadry, otrzymuje rozkaz, w wyniku którego wpada w zasadzkę zastawioną przez wyjątkowo uzdolnionego admirała. Ma dwa wyjścia: stoczyć bitwę, w której straci okręt i załogę, albo poddać okręt i uratować. Wybiera to drugie, na honorowych warunkach. Okazuje się jednak, że w Ludowej Republice Haven politycy mają więcej dopowiedzenia niż admirałowie i Honor ląduje na pokładzie okrętu, którego celem jest więzienna planeta Hades, na której ma się odbyć jej egzekucja. Przyszłość rysuje się w czarnych barwach, ale jedyne,czego Honor Harrington nigdy się nie nauczyła to poddawać się rezygnacji

NO ONE WANTED ANOTHER WAR Thomas Theisman didn't. After risking his life and a fresh round of civil war to overthrow the Committee of Public Safety's reign of terror and restore the Republic of Haven's ancient Constitution, an interstellar war was the last thing he wanted. Baron High Ridge didn't. The Prime Minister of Manticore was perfectly happy with the war he had. No one was shooting anyone else at the moment, and as long as he could spin out negotiations on the formal treaty of peace, his government could continue to milk all those "hostilities only" tax measures for their own partisan projects. His Imperial Majesty Gustav didn't. Now that the fighting between the Star Kingdom and the Havenites had ended, the Andermani Emperor had his own plans for Silesia, and he was confident he could achieve them without a war of his own. Protector Benjamin didn't. His people had made too deep a commitment to the Manticoran Alliance, in blood as well as treasure, for him to want to risk seeing it all thrown away. And Honor Harrington certainly didn't. The "Salamander" had seen the inside of too many furnaces already, knew too much about how much war cost. Unfortunately, what they wanted didn't matter