maza's Full Review: David Weber - On Basilisk Station
This is the first novel of the Honorverse as it has come to be called, which I recently discovered. It is series of novels based usually on Honor Harrington (although on later novels the focus shifts to other characters).
We meet Commander Honor Harrington, with her constant companion, the six-limbed treecat Nimitz, as she takes command of the cruiser Fearless. (Weber expects you to know the difference between a commander and a captain, between a cruiser and a destroyer, and similar naval lingo.)
This is not the first time Harrington has worn the white beret of a starship captain; she is an experienced and successful officer in the Royal Manticoran Navy. Manticore, we learn gradually, is a multi-star realm settled from Earth some centuries earlier. It is a hereditary monarchy with a two-house parliamentary government and power distributed through a landed aristocracy and a vigorous merchant class. Sound familiar? Not only does its economy and political system echo 18th-century Europe, its space technology does as well. Interstellar journey times approximate those of sailing ships. More important, the combination of gravity manipulation for shielding and computerized missile and laser fire for offence, have led to naval tactics that could be understood by, well, a Captain Hornblower. Once, wooden-hulled ships exchanged cannon fire until one burned, sank, or ran. Now, gravity-enwrapped ships exchange smart missiles until one loses power, explodes, or runs.
Harrington's small new command is armed with an eccentric experimental weapon, but in a fleet exercise she exploits it to surprise and embarrass an admiral. As a result, Fearless is assigned to the Manticoran equivalent of Tierra del Fuego, to keep the peace in the Basilisk system. Underequipped, with a suspicious, demoralized crew, Honor finds a neglected outpost where smuggling is taken for granted and the indigenes are being stirred up by agents of Manticore's nemesis, the People's Republic of Haven.
Here we learn that Honor Harrington is dedicated, modest, and constitutionally incapable of doing anything less than her best at any job. Through intelligence, with clever ship-handling, and by inspiring her crew to superhuman efforts, Harrington begins to achieve things the Navy didn't expect would be achieved. The more she achieves, the more enemies she makes. The book ends with a slam-bang naval battle, which Weber stages and depicts in gripping style.
Listeners can get in on the Honor Harrington saga from the very beginning with On Basilisk Station. Honor s demoralized crew blames her for their ship...More at Buy.com
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