The Fan-Review thread

I thought it'd be a fun idea to have a thread devoted to fan reviews
of books. Basically, you do up a review of any of the Honorverse
books or short stories then give your opinions upon it. Why you liked
or disliked it and in the end, give a 1/10 rating of the novel.

We've all had very large discussions of various books in this set but
I always enjoy hearing other fan's thoughts about the actual novels.

On Basilisk Station

Review 1#

By. Charles Phipps

Why not begin where it all began? On Basilisk Station was my
introduction into the Honor Harrington series only recently when a
friend recommended the book series to me and there was a bunch of
David Weber books on the book shelf at my local store. I had a
fondness for space opera but hadn't really heard much about the
series. I was worried, completely unjustified in the end, that it
would prove to be just another generic science fiction series.
However, I had a little extra money and needed something to read while
I wrote my latest attempt at science fiction superstardom.

I won't be entirely complimentry in this work because while it's not
my least favorite of the Honorverse books, I enjoyed the direction
that David took in later works. I'll list both my criticisms, which
should be taken with a grain of salt since David Weber is a hugely
successful author while I am not, along with my compliments.

What strikes me most about this story is this *is* probably my
favorite portrayal of Honor Harrington along with "Honor Amongst
Enemies." At heart, Honor works best for me when she's the
combination of Nelson, Pollyanna, and Charlie Brown. A rather curious
combination but what essentially boils down to as liking her most when
our plucky heroine (and she is plucky) is down and out yet determined
to make the most of her situation. It's one of the main complaints
that I have about books where Honor is beloved and accepted by those
around her. Somehow, I just like her better when she has Spiderman's
problem of no luck but bad.

I appreciate David Weber reversing the cliche of someone assigned to
the ass-end of space only to thwart a major disaster in order to
redeem herself. Honor Harrington certainly does so at the climax but
she successfully managed to turn it around well before that moment
arrived. It's nice to also see a Captain whose not laid back in
fiction either. Honor Harrington cracks the whip in this book and
that's what gets the best results from her Navy rather than any touchy
feely goodness you might get from Star Trek.

I'm not terribly fond of the portrayal of the People's Republic of
Haven during this story but they serve as serviceable villains.
Frankly, they just don't pick up steam until Pierre's rebellion.
They're venal, conquest minded, and greedy but not really terrifying.
The board meeting just doesn't invoke much menace. I do appreciate
the "Stealing from Paul to pay Peter" nature of their need for
conquest. There's something actually more believable about their
ruthless willingness to delay paying the masses their Welfare check by
going to war than High Ridge's incompetent handling of everything.

Honestly, I think that my least favorite part of the story had to do
with the Native revolt. While the Havenite plan makes a certain
amount of sense, we never get to meet the savages in the same manner
that we get to meet the Masadans. Given Honor Harrington is stuck on
her spaceship the entire time, the totally liquored up guys with
firearms don't really present much in the way of menace that they
could have been. However, barring a ridiculous "Captain Kirk goes
down to the planet" moment, I don't see how it could have been
resolved.

I wish that Hauptman had returned as an eternal thorn in Honor
Harrington's side. Part of what makes his appearance here so good is
the fact that Honor is a stickler for the rules and in other
circumstances, I'd be entirely on the side of the cartel owner for
enforcing regulations that no one should really care about. I admit
that I was shocked by the "booty" reward system of Manticore when I
first read about it. It added an interesting dimension to the Star
Kingdom (along with dueling) that made me think this rule is probably
abused a great deal by Captains seeking to make money.

I also enjoy Honor Harrington's distaste for Horrible Hemphill because
even reading this book for the first time, it's obvious that Honor was
dead wrong about the Admiral. While the gravity lance certainly
didn't work, the philosophy of greatly expanding one's technology to
deal with an enemy is such a fundamental doctrine of war that it makes
young Commander Harrington look rather silly. The fact that the book
series went on to prove Honor's views on Miss Hemphill to be
outstandingly wrong was also a nice stick to her. Again, I keep
wishing that she'd stayed Miss Harrington's enemy though.

Honor's problem with her command starved XO is resolved in the end but
it also struck me as a very good piece of real Navy stuck into the
book. Fundamentally, there are a lot of very good second in commands
that routinely get passed over for promotion because they're just not
dynamic enough by comparison to other wundkinds out of the Academy.
His distaste is petty and he knows it. It's tragic really that we
didn't get to see Admiral Harrington and him in second in command at
more loggerheads.

(Dang, I just keep wanting to set the entire universe against our
heroine don't I?)

One complaint, that may or may not sound silly was that I did find the
rape subplot to be rather....vexing. While its certainly empowering
to have Honor Harrington kick around the sleazeball, it did seem
rather upsetting to see it included at all. There's no reason that
Pavel Young couldn't have been a superior who was an utter rotter
without actually attempting to insert the fact that he tried to
sexually assault her.

Overall, I very enjoyed this work and it immediately caused me to pick
up as many copies of the book as possible.

8/10