On Basilisk Station by David Weber

On Basilisk Station is the first book in a series about Honor Harrington.

She's a newly promoted captain about to be put in charge of her first cruiser in the Royal Manticoran Navy (RMN). She, and her empath treecat Nimitz, are excited to finally be where she has trained all these years to be.

Unfortunately, the cruiser in question has been gutted for refit by an experimental armament that, while it looks good on paper, is hardly practical. Political movement and one set of fleet manuevers later where the experiment fails, demoralizes her crew. And to make things worse, they are banished to an out of the way picket (Basilisk).

Her local superior, one Pavel Young, son of the Earl of North Hollow and scum of the universe, quickly abandons her and heads back home, leaving her in charge of a situation that is quickly getting out of hand. The People's Republic of Haven (Peeps), an ever expanding welfare nation, is looking to expand into Manticore's neigborhood. The local aborigines are revolting. And the only thing stopping them is one beat up, ancient cruiser led by our heroine, Honor.

David Weber set out to pay homage to Horatio Hornblower written by C. S. Forester (notice that even the initials are the same) and he did just that. Honor is a direct copy of Horatio, only in space. Honor, like Horatio before her, is an officer in a royal navy with stellar principles and a character defining sense of duty. She's honest, direct and able to get the most out of her crew even when her crew wants nothing to do with her.

While this book is not the best of the series, it serves as a greate introduction to the 'honorverse'. It's rules, physics, fleets, ships, propulsion, battles, and politics are explained in enough detail that you can then jump right into any other book set in Honor's universe. And, perhaps best of all, it's free! That's right. You can go read it right now at Baen's free library. But let me warn you now, if you like space battles, honorable characters set in a dishonorable world, greedy villains, and empath cats, you'll end up buying the whole series!

Key words: Honor Harrington, David Weber, light space opera, series, science fiction, space battles, navy, honor and integrity, leadership, exciting, heroine.