Book | Honor Harrington | On Basilisk Station (1993) [****]
Book | Honor Harrington | On Basilisk Station (1993) [****]
Publisher: Baen
Author: David Weber
Format: Word DOC, 267 pages.
ISBN: (Hardcover format) 0-7434-3571-0
On a previous Journal I was saying how much I'd like to collect the Honor Harrington books. When I looked it up in Wikipedia I found out that a lot of the novels are available online through Baen. So I downloaded them and converted the Word DOC formats to PDFs and I've started reading them.
On Basilisk Station is the first novel and this is my second reading. It's just as good as the first time I read it. We're introduced to Commander Honor Harrington and her new command, the Royal Manticoran Navy light cruiser Fearless.
Honor comes from a heavy gravity world. She is tall and good looking but very strong and quick. She has a pet treecat named Nimitz who is quite dangerous and is empathic (reminds me of Flinx's minidrag Pip, from Alan Dean Foster's Commonwealth books). Honor is a master tactician, though it is an innate talent and she is quite bad at math when she has to think about it (much like CS Forester's Horatio Hornblower). She is also always polite and unnaturally cool under fire.
It is a science fiction universe. Starships travel via either natural Gates, which effectively teleport the ship to a specific paired Gate, or via translation into subspace, which allows speeds up to 5000c using semi-permanent natural gravity corridors. So ships can travel to any nearby star systems in days to weeks or to more distant but specific star systems in effectively no time.
Commander Harrington comes from Manticore, a system with three habitable planets. Manticore is pretty much the British Empire during the Napoleonic Wars except without extra-solar colonies (but they have Basilisk Station). Their main enemy is the People's Republic of Haven -- with multiple star systems, a large population and fleet, but technologically a bit inferior and with a relatively poor economy. Sort of like the Soviet Union during the Cold War but with Chinese Communist influences.
In the first book, Honor has her new command but the Fearless has been refitted with experimental short range weaponry. Totally unsuited to the ship as Fearless is too light to survive to close range to deliver her attack unless trickery is involved.
Honor also has to deal with her XO, Lieutenant Commander McKeon who resents her for taking the command he thought is rightfully his. And after a series of disappointing war games she also has a resentful and demoralized crew. As a final ignominy Fearless is assigned to Basilisk Station, Manticore's sole extra-solar possession and a total backwater where the worst ships are sent.
But Honor refuses to give up. She finds herself Superior Officer on Basilisk and by God she is going to do her duties. Naturally this surprises everyone else as the Colonial Government and the Gate Authority are not used to competent Navy personnel.
But that brings up a problem for Haven. They have a plan to take over Basilisk and Honor and her crew are liable to ruin it. It's a race as Honor and her allies piece together the puzzle and the Havenites prepare for their coup attempt.
David Weber dedicates the novel to CS Forester. As well he should because it is a lot like Horatio Hornblower in space. And the space battles are quite well told. High speeds mean a lot of slashing attacks. Long range fire are with smart missiles accelerating at thousands of gravities. Lasers rule at short range. Ships try to maneuver for broadsides or "dotting the T" on the enemy. There are only two space battles in the novel but they're both filled with action and excitement.
Overall it's a great story. If you love Horatio Hornblower you'll love these books. One of the big complaints I hear is that Honor Harrington is such a Mary Sue but if you read Hornblower you realize that he's also the same. It doesn't matter if you're totally enjoying the story.
Highly recommended.
My Journal
Thursday, December 27, 2007