On Basilisk Station
Honor in Trouble: Having made him look like a fool, she's been exiled to Basilisk Station in disgrace and set up for ruin by a superior who hates her. 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.
Stats for nerds
3recommend
4mentions
4people
2014–2023years
75% recommend25% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- The Culture series is good but I've struggled with getting through it all as well. If you like space opera I can highly recommend the Honor Harrington series, the first book being On Basilisk Station [0]. This has held up for me for well over a decade and I've reread the entire series (~14 books IIRC) at least 4-5 times. I've heard it described as "Horatio Hornblower in space" but I never read that series so I can't speak to that.
[0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35921.On_Basilisk_Statio...
- David Weber's "Honorverse" series of novels - which starts with On Basilisk Station - has the most believable science fiction "false science" approach I've yet seen in fiction.
There's a catch - you have to be OK with long-winded exposition - but the stories are really good, with a fascinating look at technology and culture of a not-too-distant future.
- These days I seem to prefer extended series of books that develop a detailed alternate universe. Three truly excellent series (Author-Series-1st Book):
Eric Flint - 1632 - "1632"
David Weber - Honor Harrington - "On Basilisk Station"
Stephen Brust - Vlad Taltos - "Taltos"
- Incidentally, On Basilisk Station is a free e-book at the publisher's website [0]. They also have an online HTML version [1]. So you can try the first book in the series to see how you like it before purchasing any of the others.
[0] https://www.baen.com/on-basilisk-station.html
[1] https://www.baen.com/readonline/index/read/sku/0743435710
