On Basilisk Station is the first book in David M. Weber’s cult hit Honor Harrington series.
The book opens with a prologue that has the People’s Republic of Haven’s Hereditary President discuss with his cabinet the military and economic situation. Basically, they have something of an economic problem (they’ve taken over countless worlds recently as well as increased their Basic Living Stipend) and decide to take over Manticore, since one of its wormhole’s termini is in the way of their most advantageous (and economically beneficial) routes of expansion.
Then along comes the first chapter and Honor Harrington. She’s just been assigned to be Captain of HMS Fearless. Unfortunately for her, Lady Sonja Hemphill, Admiral of the Red, has come into power with her… interesting notions of what a battleship’s armament needs. After testing, Honor and the Fearless are banished (the grav lance did not work as well as “Horrible Hemphill” had hoped) to the dumping ground for unwanted officers – Basilisk, the terminus that the Havenites were eyeing in the prologue.
Next, it turns out that the Senior Officer at Basilisk is Honor’s longtime enemy (and attempted rapist), Lord Pavel Young. He then decides that his ship needs urgent refitting and that he absolutely must be there to watch, and leaves Honor with the impossible task of covering the security of all of the system alone, knowing that if she fails, she’d take the blame.
In her astounding success, she stumbles upon a plot on Medusa, Basilisk’s lone inhabited planet, to do something. Now, who’s behind it, how to catch them and why are they doing it?
On Basilisk Station is a crossover of Military Science Fiction and Space Opera. It is also the first book in a series of fourteen so far, plus ten spin-offs, so obviously someone liked it. A lot. The worldbuilding’s solid, too.
Honor does, admittedly, give off a bit of a Mary Sue-ish vibe, and the prologue doesn’t quite fit the book, but watching her succeed in the face of adversity is a bit of a guilty pleasure, and the prologue is the prologue not just to On Basilisk Station, but to the whole Honor Harrington series.
Overall verdict: Recommended for any SF aficionados or people looking for a feel-good type book. I liked it.
bibliophiles 