On Basilisk Station (1993)

Loved the escalation and the ( )

Hornblower in Space. That is basically it.

(My shortest review ever!) ( )

Better than i thought it would be. Starts kind of clunky, but gets better and grows on you. ( )

I don't want to spoil anything - this book takes a bit to get going, but holy shit, stick with it to the last 25%. IT FUCKING EXPLODES! I've been wanting to read this series for a long time and when I started it, I thought it may have been a bit overrated, but holy shit.......the ending is totally worth it. 100% satisfying. Very cinematic and worth the wait. READ IT! ( )

This book introduces Honor Harrington as she takes command of the Fearless and, after embarrassing Admiral Hemphill, finds herself assigned to Basilisk Station. There she finds an old enemy, Lord Pavel Young, in command. He attempted to rape her while they were at the Academy but she wiped the floor with him. However, instead of pressing her advantage and getting him thrown out of the service in disgrace, she let's him off the hook and makes a major enemy.

Young takes advantage of Honor's appearance to take himself and his ship back home to Manticore for "essential repairs" hoping that Honor will fail in her new command. However, Honor doesn't fail. Despite a first officer who seems to have some sort of grudge against her, she rallies her crew to do all the things Young and his ship should have been doing.

From customs inspections to interfacing with the diplomatic mission overseeing the residents on the planet, Honor's crew is stretched thin but finally doing what the Navy should have been doing all along. And just in time too. Because Haven has been hatching a plot to get Manticore off Basilisk and gain control of its terminus for itself.

Haven has hatched a plan to drug and arm the natives with weapons far above their technological development and let them loose on the enclaves where the foreigners live. Then they will sweep in with their Navy and "save" the foreigners and highlight Manticoran incompetence.

However, with Honor on the planet, there is no Manticoran incompetence to be had. After Hemphill's reconfiguring of Honor's ship's weapons which made them a lot less effective and useful, Honor is left to face a much larger and better armed Havenite ship to keep it from escaping to hyperspace and alerting the rest of the invasion force that it is time to sweep in to an easy victory.

The story is filled with technical detail that I would normally skim but couldn't in the audiobook. However, the parts of the story where people were interacting and plans were developed was engaging enough to get me through the technical details. I loved the way Honor wins the loyalty of her new crew and even finally gets her first officer on the right track. ( )