Book #1 in Manticore Ascendant, a new series set in David Weber's best-selling Honorverse from multiple New York Times bestseller David Weber and #1 New York Times bestseller Timothy Zahn. Adventure in the heroic days and frontier past of Honor Harrington's Star Kingdom! Growing up, Travis Uriah Long yearned for order and discipline in his life — the two things his neglectful mother couldn’t or wouldn’t provide. So when Travis enlisted in the Royal Manticoran Navy, he thought he’d finally found the structure he’d always wanted so desperately. But life in the RMN isn’t exactly what he expected. Boot camp is rough and frustrating; his first ship assignment lax and disorderly; and with the Star Kingdom of Manticore still recovering from a devastating plague, the Navy is possibly on the edge of budgetary extinction. The universe is not a safe place. Travis Long is about to find that out.