Honor's a bit too much. And it's a lot more military-glorification than the Barrayar books have, where even Miles, and especially Cordelia, have issues with the social structure. I don't see that so much in Weber's books. They're basically Age of Sail novels swapped into a space opera format: it's a retelling of the Napoleonic Wars, down to (I'm told) the nefarious politicians on both sides, whereas most of the military are Straight Up and Honorable.

If you're a big Horatio Hornblower and Patrick O'Brien fan, you may get a kick out of them. I read 2 or so, and got bored. Plus, she has a telepathic cat. ::twitches::

A Telepathic Cat. Now that would be REALLY annoying.

"Food. Food now."

"Let me IN!!!"

"Let me OUT!!!"

"Let me IN AGAIN!!!"

"Food! Better food! This food sucks!"

"Go ahead, stroke me. I may bite, or I may not bite. What's life without risks, puny human?"

"Don't look at me like that. These papers clearly aren't important. I shall be sitting on them for the foreseeable future."

"Worship me."

"These are not the droids you're looking for."

"Bored now. I think I want to make something bleed."

You forgot:

"Let's test gravity again." crash

Heeeee!

"Let's test gravity again." crash

How did you get into my apartment last night, sarameg? I had a bored kitty at 2:00 am pushing over my nicely stacked quarters, all four remotes, and all the coasters, as well, all while looking directly at me in defiance before using that paw.

ETA: There is a really good series of romance SF books by Robin D. Owens featuring telepathic animals (mostly cats) called Fams (short for Familiars, of course) on another planet. Only certain animals have the capacity to be communicate telepathically (cats, dogs, who are rarer than cats on this planet, and moles and foxes), and not even all members of these species are able to do so.

The first book is called Heart Mate, and the Fam is a scarred tomcat called Zanth who exemplifies Catitude (his favorite word is "Mine!" repeated five times for emphasis when he really means it).

Terry Prachett's version of the Harry Potter court-ordered pre-publication gag:

`Now that the bound proof copies of Thud! are out, and will no doubt be winging their way to an e-bay near you, I would like to say that ANYONE WHO READS A WORD OF IT before publication day will be MADE TO SIT IN THE CORNER and their ENTIRE COUNTRY will be given DOUBLE DETENTION until every single person SAYS SORRY!!!!!'

The modern-day Julian May series (memfault on titles and too lazy to look them up) divided telepathic powers into several flavours, and cats were good at coercion. I think she was onto something, as I swear I feel the mental pressure from my cat's stare.

"Lie down on the sofa. You want to lie down. All day."

"Put the squalling proto-human out for the dingoes."

Hmm. I never really got into the Hornblower or O'Brien stuff. I did find the first two Honor books on Baen Free, so I went ahead and downloaded them. I have readjusted my expectations, though, and won't be looking to enjoy them like I did the Vorkosigan books.

I should just break down and get The Time-Traveller's Wife and The Historian, but I'm kind of looking for fun fluff.

Speaking of fun fluff, I've read Rachel Caine's first two Weather Warden novels recently, and enjoyed them a great deal. Fast, funny, suspenseful modern fantasies, with a not-that-original but entertainly mouthy female narrator.

And a couple of main characters who bear a striking resemblance (physical and personality wise) to Daniel Jackson and Jack O'Neill. Which is only a surprise if you don't know Rachel Caine's other online identity... *grin*

I've read all the Honorverse books. As noted, they are based on the Napoleonic Wars with Honor Harrington standing in for Horatio Hornblower. There isn't a lot of characterization, and most of the interesting characters tend to be on the opposing side. Of the more recent books, the better ones are those where Harrington is offstage. They have the same problem Star Trek had. Captains are more interesting than admirals. Weber seems to be acknowledging this by writing books set in the verse that aren't about Harrington.

Also, it's not a real cat. It's a sapient alien that looks vaguely like a cat, except for the six limbs and opposable thumbs.

Opposable thumbs? A cat that can open its own tins of catfood?

...but I bet it doesn't, even so, right? 'Cause it likes having minions to do it. Yeah.