On Basilisk Station
Aug. 8th, 2007 09:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sawylTechnically, this counts a holiday re-read, but that isn't going to stop me from writing about it. I have a terrible weakness for SF and an embarrassing enthusiasm for naval novels, so something that combines the two, like David Weber's On Basilisk Station, is pretty much an shoo-in.
Honor Harrington of the Royal Manticoran Navy has been assigned to a new spacecraft: HMS Fearless. Her delight alloyed somewhat when she learns that half the armaments have been replaced with an experimental new weapons system. When the new system fails to perform in a series of fleet exercises due to its limited range, Fearless is banished to Basilisk Station, the navy's traditional dumping ground for hopeless cases.
Upon arrival at Basilisk Honor learns that picket is being commanded by Captain Pavel Young, the arrogant aristocrat who attacked her when she was at the naval academy. Fortunately, Young announces that his ship requires maintenance and immediately departs for home, leaving the problem of Basilisk in Honor's lap. Intent on doing her duty, Honor devises a scheme to carry out her obligations despite limited resources and, in the process, her determination galvanises the Fearless' crew, who have slipped into a malaise following the disastrous fleet exercises.
In the course of their customs duties, the crew of the Fearless uncover evidence that human are supplying the locals, a group of stone-age aliens, with a psychoactive drug in an attempt to cause a confrontation between the natives and the Manticoran administration. Honor and the Governor Matsuke immediately suspect the involvement of Haven, a nearby expansionist republic, but they lack hard evidence. When the conspiracy finally matures, Honor quickly realises that an invasion is imminent and that only prompt action on her part can possibly prevent it.
Basilisk, the first of the Honorverse series of novels, emerges more or less fully formed and sets the tone for the rest of the novels in the series. It includes a wonderfully mathematical system of starship mechanics which make all sorts of complex tactics possibilities and a consistent view of spacecraft technology that effectively mandates broadside duals. The ruthlessness with which characters are dispatched is also refreshing. After all, war is hell and every participant is somebody's son or daughter, so it would completely absurd if all of the characters you've got to know, come to like and hoped would become a fixture, passed through their trials without incident.
All in all, an excellent start to a pretty consistently good series of novels.
Honor Harrington of the Royal Manticoran Navy has been assigned to a new spacecraft: HMS Fearless. Her delight alloyed somewhat when she learns that half the armaments have been replaced with an experimental new weapons system. When the new system fails to perform in a series of fleet exercises due to its limited range, Fearless is banished to Basilisk Station, the navy's traditional dumping ground for hopeless cases.
Upon arrival at Basilisk Honor learns that picket is being commanded by Captain Pavel Young, the arrogant aristocrat who attacked her when she was at the naval academy. Fortunately, Young announces that his ship requires maintenance and immediately departs for home, leaving the problem of Basilisk in Honor's lap. Intent on doing her duty, Honor devises a scheme to carry out her obligations despite limited resources and, in the process, her determination galvanises the Fearless' crew, who have slipped into a malaise following the disastrous fleet exercises.
In the course of their customs duties, the crew of the Fearless uncover evidence that human are supplying the locals, a group of stone-age aliens, with a psychoactive drug in an attempt to cause a confrontation between the natives and the Manticoran administration. Honor and the Governor Matsuke immediately suspect the involvement of Haven, a nearby expansionist republic, but they lack hard evidence. When the conspiracy finally matures, Honor quickly realises that an invasion is imminent and that only prompt action on her part can possibly prevent it.
Basilisk, the first of the Honorverse series of novels, emerges more or less fully formed and sets the tone for the rest of the novels in the series. It includes a wonderfully mathematical system of starship mechanics which make all sorts of complex tactics possibilities and a consistent view of spacecraft technology that effectively mandates broadside duals. The ruthlessness with which characters are dispatched is also refreshing. After all, war is hell and every participant is somebody's son or daughter, so it would completely absurd if all of the characters you've got to know, come to like and hoped would become a fixture, passed through their trials without incident.
All in all, an excellent start to a pretty consistently good series of novels.
