On Basilisk Station

One reviewer pegged the style of writing in this kindle book, Information Dump. What could have been interesting about a female captain and her quirky tree-cat as she climbs through patronage-based rankings of spoiled Nobles and Hangers-on became page after page of how to make a space-faring vessel in just 500 years and 50 pages of useless action-killing exposition. There are so many pages of information dumping that you may be inspired to quit reading within the first 100 pages (and Im being very kind with your patience and the horribly boring lectures youll have to endure). Honor Harrington is beautiful, surpasses Einstein in her IQ, has near-perfect understanding of every tactical situation she could possibly encounter and is just humble enough about her many gifts to avoid being an unbearable know-it-all. There was just enough of a hope that this story could get better that I followed it to its bitter and predictable end. Thank goodness this book was free.

Try reading B. V. Larsons Undying Mercenaries series for great stories and wonderful characters. For complicated and interesting world-building with unpredictable characters and twisty stories, try C. J. Cherryhs Foreigner series.

This is a tight adrenaline rush of a book, with a fresh intriguing heroine surrounded by a lot of good characters. Alistair McKeon is especially interesting as hes trapped in jealous resentment of Honor for most of the book, and yet by the ending, Weber has managed to credibly disentangle McKeon from his prejudices and salvage him both as an officer and a man. Its still a Weber book, so theres much too much salivating over the various types of weaponry and ships and ship drives, but theres a lot less excess verbiage on those subjects than Weber managed to cram into later titles in the series. There are flaws, of coursethe bad guys are fairly cardboard and Honors overly capable, but those are common problems with military sf, and they dont ruin the story or the readers satisfaction when the good guys come out on top.

The problem is that for me, at least, reading many of the newest David Weber Honor Harrington books is proving to offer steadily diminishing returns. Theyre just not up to the standards of On Basilisk Station, and yet I keep buying them because Honors story isnt finished yet, and I want to know who she becomes. Plowing through Webers recent writing in order to find out what happens with her is getting more and more difficult, though . . .

On Basilisk Station is a tight adrenaline rush of a book, with a great heroine surrounded by a lot of good characters. Alistair McKeon is especially interesting as hes trapped in jealous resentment of Honor for most of the book, and yet Weber manages to credibly disentangle him from his prejudices before the story ends. Its a Weber book, so theres much too much salivating over the various types of weaponry and ships and ship drives, but still a lot less excess verbiage than Weber managed to cram into his later titles in the series.

I read this book when it first came out and have followed the series since, but with less and less interest or satisfaction. The most recent books just dont have the excitement, tight plotting or character development that are found in these early entries. The most recent books tend to be stolid tomes with far too many characters (to the point where its hard to remember who all those people are), a plot-line so broken into pieces that the stories lack flow and often even purposeas Weber resorts to padding his books by retelling events from the viewpoints of alternate characters.

Hes also prone to bogging down his books with chunks of text that describe the weapons, the ammo, the drives and the ships in obsessive detail. If youre going to write military sf, you need to have thought through all of those things so theyre believable and consistent, but Webers gone boring on about them for much too long. As his descriptions of these things often are lifted almost word for word from his earlier books, the reader gets stuck reading them again and again, so they go stale and just weigh down the story.

Most of the early books are worth readingI just wish that were also the case with the latest ones.

Somehow I have missed out on the Honor Harrington series for the last 25 years, learning of it only after adopting a motorcycle named Nimitz. What a thrill it is to discover a whole universe of stories fully forrmed and ready for me to dive into at maximum military acceleration!

Do not read Basilisk Station unless you are ready to be completely hooked. While Honor Harrington’s cold exterior keeps even the reader from fully getting to know her, we grow to respect her the same way her crew does. Meanwhile, missiles fire, lasers flash, and no fewer than three FTL technologies create some of the most thoughtful space navy battles I have read in years. Strategy and tactics win over sheer firepower, but we are on the edges of our seats until thee very end of the book.

The ending is satisfying, with no annoying and artificial cliffhangers to cajole you into buying the next book, but trust me: you will want to anyway!

While admittedly it takes a little while to get going and the author does, from time to time, understandably detail at length certain aspects of the universe (more than I would like), I was reminded of a more engaging, and less cumbersome, sci-fi take on Patrick O’Brian’s excellent Master and Commander series.

The first book deals with Honor being sent to Basilisk Station, an out-of-the-way Manticoran outpost where the Navy sends its rejects. However, Captain Harrington is nothing if not determined and efficient, and promptly sets about carrying out her duty while a conspiracy is brewing to rid the sector of Manticoran presence. The book thus sets up a thrilling web of suspense, intrigue, and speculation, as Honor realizes the gravity of their situation and we see her mind spinning into action, devising plans and counterplans. However, not only is she short on resources, severely limiting her options, but she also has to deal with a crew that blames their Captain for their troubles and, consequently, has little regard for her, at least at first.

It was most enjoyable to witness the transformation of the crew of the Fearless as they slowly embrace their Captain and her no-nonsense attitude, becoming themselves every bit as proficient as her in the discharge of their duties (with a few exceptions, but that is life). I was sad to see her Exec-turned-Captain, Mr. McKeon, go at the end of the book, as he experienced the most development as a character, and I always thoroughly enjoyed and looked forward to his exchanges with Honor. I can only hope this is not the last we’ve seen of him.

Considering you can get this book for free on Amazon’s Kindle Store right now, there’s absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t pick it up and give it a read. I’m certainly looking forward to Book #2. See you there!

I just could not continue to read this book and gave up after a few chapters.

My biggest issue was the way the author described the principle character; She is a strong, independent, intelligent wonmann who has made it to the top by her own hard work (you go girl): before you for a negative opinion of me I have no problem with a strong lead female character and none of the traits above are negative (read the Dunmore books by Eric Thomson for a good example).

Despite the attempt to write a strong lead character the author cant help but make her crushingly insecure and constantly reference the way she looks. And she has a cat, of course its an alien cat and its special.

Garbage.

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