History Trivia / HonorHarrington

* IKnewIt: The end of ''Mission of Honor'' features [[spoiler: Haven and Manticore allying against Manpower and the Solarian League]]. This had been predicted by many readers.

* AccidentallyCorrectWriting: In ''Flag in Exile'', Grayson swordsmanship is explained to be [[IKnowMortalCombat largely inspired by samurai movies]], except the Graysons, not knowing any better, sharpened the upper edge of the katana as well, which Honor uses to lethal effect in her duel with Steadholder Burdette. While traditional Japanese swords are single-edged, [[https://sengokudaimyo.com/swords there are known examples]] of early swords especially where the front third of the spine was also sharpened.

* Honor's actions in ''The Short Victorious War'', assuming command of the fleet after her admiral is incapacitated, rather than having an admiral aboard another ship assume command during a key moment in the pitched battle, is likely based on the actions of US Navy [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_McCandless Lieutenant Commander Bruce McCandless]] aboard the heavy cruiser USS ''San Francisco'' (CA-38) during the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Naval Battle of Guadalcanal.]] Like Honor, Commander [=McCandless=] was decorated for his actions rather than court martialled. With the death of Admiral Dan Callaghan, Captain Cassin Young, and ''San Francisco'''s XO (as well as Admiral Norman Scott aboard USS ''Atlanta'', accidentally struck down by friendly fire from ''San Francisco'', nobody was immediately aware of it in the confusion except a the men who found Scott's body), the US fleet was in disarray. He was not the seniormost surviving officer aboard ''San Francisco''. The senior surviving officer aboard was Lieutenant Commander Herbert Schonland, the ship's Damage Control Officer. Schonland was far too busy keeping the crippled cruiser afloat, and told [=McCandless=] to "carry out the Admiral's orders," effectively giving command to [=McCandless=] (though necessary, this could have been interpreted as Dereliction of Duty and/or Deserting his Post In the Face of the Enemy for Schonland). When the fighting subsided, Captain Gil Hoover of the light cruiser USS ''Helena'' took command of the remaining ships as the senior surviving officer afloat. Though costly, the battle was a victory for the Americans, and [=McCandless=] and Schonland's actions saved ''San Francisco'', with both men receiving the Medal of Honor.

* AscendedFanon: The names "podnought" and "SD(P)" for [[MacrossMissileMassacre missile pod-laying superdreadnoughts]] were originally {{Fan Nickname}}s used on Creator/DavidWeber's web forum. They got made official.

* QuoteSource: ObliviousToHatred

* ItsPronouncedTropay: WordOfGod is that "Manticoran" is supposed to be pronounced with the emphasis on the third syllable (as "Man-ti-CORE-ahn"). However, all the audiobooks incorrectly put the emphasis on the second syllable (as "Man-TIK-er-ahn"). As it turns out, the fault lies not with the narrator but the author, who accidentally gave her the wrong pronunciation for the word in one of his emails. After the mistake was cleared up, it was decided that the incorrect pronunciation would stay in the sequels to avoid confusing the listeners.

** The Honorverse was originally going to be timeskipped several decades, following the death of its namesake character during the climax of ''At All Costs''. Her children would have continued the action. The Creator/EricFlint collaboration ''Crown of Slaves'' nixed this plan; its espionage plot ended up fast-forwarding the conflict by putting pressure on the Mesans to enact their plan early. As a happy side effect, Honor was spared, cutting off what would probably have been the [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks greatest fan rebellion]] in modern Sci-Fi literature.

* WordOfGay: [[http://forums.davidweber.net/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4508&p=112492#p112492 Word of Weber]] is that Admiral Mark Sarnow is gay (and happily married), though the mention of it never makes its way onscreen. One forum poster did, however, note that it could potentially explain why Pavel Young never accused Honor of sleeping with him.

** The revolutionary leader of the [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny People's Republic of Haven]] is [[UsefulNotes/MaximilienRobespierre Rob S. Pierre]] - and that is far from the only referential link between the Peeps and the [[FrenchRevolution French Revolution]]. In particular, he establishes a [[ReignOfTerror Committee of Public Safety]] as a "temporary" government after his coup.