On Basilisk Station

I have enjoyed literally hundreds of hours of thrilling military SF in the series of which this book is the first novel. David Weber is one of two authors who have invented new SF sub-genres. In David’s case, the sub-genre is often called space opera. The other author is David Drake. His Hammer’s Slammers stories are now considered the first books in the ‘space marines’ sub-genre.

David Weber’s story universe is huge. I sometimes think it’s too big in the sense that he tries to weave too many sub-plots into the larger story arc. But his first book is quite… show more.

I am frequently unimpressed by the way male authors write female protagonists, but David Weber is an exception. His Honor Harrington character feels completely authentic to me in this first book of a military space opera series. Having run afoul of a superior officer, Honor is relegated to a backwater outpost with an aging gunship and a cantankerous crew. That would be bad enough if the place was quiet, but this star system is rife with smugglers and merchant cartels, and interstellar politics threaten to trap her between the ruling body and an adversarial power.

The first Honor Harrington book, On Basilisk Station, is space opera the way it should be written. Weber’s space navy isn’t ‘pew, pew’ laser bolts, it’s cool and well-thought-out hard sci-fi. Technology leads to tactics; tactics lead to strategy; and strategy wins and loses wars. And then he drops Lieutenant Honor Harrington, fresh out of the academy, down in the middle of it, with her first ship. She’s a great character with the strength, skill, and courage to do her duty, figuring out which rules of war to follow and which ones to break, to win through to victory. And… show more.

David Weber’s Honorverse is what Star Trek wants to be when it grows up, and the first novel, On Basilisk Station, is a wonderful place to start. It introduces the main character, Honor Harrington, at an early part (but not the beginning) of her military career, and introduces both the Star Kingdom of Manticore and its primary antagonists (at least for the earlier books in the series), especially the Republic of Haven.