Well, I didn't read any more HH novels or short stories (wherever in the canon they might sit), or re-read any of the novels I had read (even in the current situation, life's too short), before I read
Uncompromising Honor.
On the whole I really enjoyed it and, because I'd forgotten a lot about the various improvements in military technology described in the books I'd read before, I think I was as surprised by some of the things that happened as the various Solarian League Navy COs, something I see as a definite bonus, as I both like surprises and prefer it when (and particularly when my memory eventually tells me that) those surprises have not been pulled out like rabbits out of a hat.
I don't recall the previous books being quite so obsessed with people's heights to the nearest centimeter (either directly or in comparison to others'), but perhaps Weber was trying to cast what would be an enormous series of movies (or season upon season of a spectacular TV show)... which would really be a futile exercise, given that producers have their own ideas on who they'd like to cast. I
do recall some of what I myself see as padding... but then Weber has an enormous cast of characters and he does like to flesh them out, however long (or not) they might be around.
But most of all, I think
Uncompromising Honor provides the sort of ending I would have liked to see: most of the big ends tied up to a reasonable degree and the ones that weren't quite as tied up aren't sitting there like cliffhangers demanding the fast appearance of another novel in the series.
So I'm glad I read it, and I'm glad Weber delivered what I hoped, but didn't always suspect, he would.