On Basilisk Station cover art

On Basilisk Station

Honor Harrington, Book 1

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Having made a superior look a fool, Honor Harrington has been exiled to Basilisk Station in disgrace and set up for ruin.

Her demoralized crew blames her for their ship's humiliating posting to an out-of-the-way picket station.

The aborigines of the system's only habitable planet are smoking homicide-inducing hallucinogens.

Parliament isn't sure it wants to keep the place; the major local industry is smuggling; the merchant cartels want her head; the star-conquering, so-called "Republic" of Haven is up to something; and Honor Harrington has a single, over-age light cruiser with an armament that doesn't work to police the entire star system.

But the people out to get her have made one mistake. They've made her mad.

A Note from Author David Weber
There's been some confusion—not to say, um, energetic debate, readers and fans being readers and fans—about the correct pronunciation of "Manticoran." The truth, alas, is that a stitch was dropped. An error occurred. A mistake was made… and it wasn't Audible's fault. It was mine. Before Audible recorded the very first Honor Harrington book, narrator Allyson Johnson and I not only corresponded by e-mail but actually spoke to one another by phone. She wanted to make absolutely certain she had the correct pronunciations for names, places, star nations, etc., and I tried to make certain all of her questions were answered. And so they were. Unfortunately, at some point in the process, I replied to one of her e-mails by telling her that "Man-ti-core-ahn" was pronounced "Man-tik-er-ahn." Exactly how this happened is more than I can say at this point, except to blushingly disclose that the original e-mail remains intact, confirming to all the world that it was, indeed, my fault. I can ascribe it only to a temporary mental hiccup on my part and crave your forgiveness. If, however, you must blame someone for the mix-up, that someone should be me and not Audible, who have done everything they could to get it right.

©2002 David Weber (P)2009 Audible, Inc.
Adventure Fantasy Fiction Military Science Fiction Space Opera
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Thought I'd give this a go. Saw it described as 'Military Science Fiction' and wondered what that'd be like. Unfortunately, it wasn't for me really. I did however listen to the end. It was actually a very good yarn but I found all the detailed descriptions of battle tactics and hardware very heavy going. Suppose I'm just a 'make the jump to hyperspace and get on with story' sort of reader. I don't need detailed descriptions of how that might technically be possible. It was sort of the same story with the detailed politics bits. Others will love it so if that's you you'll love this.

Great if you like 'Military' detail

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This is my first venture into Weber's writing and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Good narration and Honor is a great heroine. It's fun to see how she deals with her opponents both internal and external and how she wins her sceptical crew over to her methods.

A fun mix of politics & space fleet combat

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Be ready for a lot of exposition. I mean A LOT. Interesting, needed, but still. EXPOSITION. The author had the good sense not to put it into the action scenes, at least, but everything else was fair game.
Still, the world and characters all this expositoring creates is very much worth it. I can count authors who even remember that in space you're not restricted to two vectors of movement on one hand. And the number using realistic time frames for communication is even smaller. The amount of real life science is just beautiful and then it's used to further the plot!

Great book but you have to be patient.

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I love this audiobook. Allyson Johnson does a wonderful job.

Great!

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I had mixed feelings about starting this book after reading reviews but I am so glad I chose to read it. great story and a highly immersive universe that really goes in to the technology and naval tactics and the thought process of the characters. some of the supporting characters are a little hard to distinguish between but the plot is excellent and keeps evolving and is belivable (obvious sci fi aspects not withstanding).

the narration isn't great, she tries do do voices for the characters and they are all terrible but you get used to it and just ignore it after a while.

I highly recommend this book if you like immersive world's and military sci fi

Fantastic story, terrible narrator

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