Search - The Shadow of Saganami (Disciples of Honor, Bk 2 / Honorverse, Bk 13)

Outstanding blend of military/technical writing balanced by superb character development and an excellent degree of human drama. Very highly recommended.
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 Manticorean 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 are being assigned to the Talbott Cluster, an out of the way backwater. 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 expected.
But things aren't always precisely what they appear to be . . .