A Beautiful Friendship

Star Kingdom, Book 1

By: David Weber

Narrated by: Khristine Hvam

Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Stephanie Harrington had always expected to be a forest ranger on her homeworld of Meyerdahl until her parents relocated to the frontier planet of Sphinx in the far distant Star Kingdom of Manticore. It should have been the perfect new home - a virgin wilderness full of new species of every sort, just waiting to be discovered. But Sphinx is a far more dangerous place than ultra-civilized Meyerdahl, and Stephanie's explorations come to a sudden halt when her parents lay down the law: no trips into the bush without adult supervision!

Yet Stephanie is a young woman determined to make discoveries, and the biggest one of all awaits her: an intelligent alien species. The forest-dwelling treecats are small, cute, smart, and have a pronounced taste for celery. And they are also very, very deadly when they or their friends are threatened - as Stephanie discovers when she comes face-to-face with Sphinx's most lethal predator after a hang-gliding accident.

But her discoveries are only beginning, for the treecats are also telepathic and able to bond with certain humans, and Stephanie's find - and her first-of-its kind bond with the treecat Climbs Quickly - land both of them in a fresh torrent of danger. Galactic-sized wealth is at stake, and Stephanie and the treecats are squarely in the path of highly placed enemies determined to make sure the planet Sphinx remains entirely in human hands, even if that means the extermination of another thinking species.

Unfortunately for those enemies, the treecats have saved Stephanie Harrington's life. She owes them - and Stephanie is a young woman who stands by her friends. Which means things are about to get very interesting on Sphinx.

©2011 Words of Weber, Inc. (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

good background

Stephanie at 14 tyears
good info on how our percosious heroine meets her soul mate
not as good a stiry as her later years but reader did excellent job as always

Fun!

Treecats Rule! Excellent for any age and Weber never lets me down!! We need more books about honor and integrity. Reader is always awesome!!

interesting start

Having listened to the Honour Harrington series. it was interesting to see how her family first met the treecats. I will be suggesting this series to a friend who has been looking for books for his own daughter.

Pretty Interesting Story

Pretty good world building, but the narrator wasn't very good in my opinion. I always love non-humanoid sentient aliens, especially since there aren't many around in books. The cast is pretty straight and white, though, and for how far it is in the future, you'd think things would be more different, so the story does have a few flaws. There is a bit of an endemic of telling instead of showing, and tons of exposition. The narrator isn't too good at doing voices (Climbs Quickly's voice sounds strongly like Naoto Shirogane in Persona 4, and that's not the worst of it), and sounds like she's smiling in innappropriate parts of the story, which mess up the tone.

Great Storyline

fun and spellbinding . Not too far fetched. Good for the younger crowd.
nice break.

A WONDERFUL story

It keeps me wondering what happens next on the edge of my seat. A lot of concern, wonder, amazement, and laughter in this book. Highly recommend.

a beautiful friend

a very delightful book. loved the reader. good lead in to the honor series.

Wow, Weber hits the target.

I love strong female characters, and I've been in and out of the Honor Harrington books for ages. They are good, but I've always been left a bit ho-hum.

Something drew me towards this one, as I've always been interested in the back story of the tree-cats joining with the humans outlined in honor harrington, but without exposition.

This tale is as powerful and as emotive as, "The Host," by Stephenie Merry. Another story that shook me to my roots.

The beauty of the relationship between the tree-cat and the two leg, balanced against the risks of surviving on such a dangerous fantasy science-fiction world is a thrilling, wonderful ride. I listen a lot when I'm walking for exercise, one day I was so engrossed I did two extra (1 mile) laps:)

Khristine Hvam doesn't get in the way of the narrative, and just tells the story. As a result, the listener is focused on the drama, not the voice. In my book, that's a perfect reading. Nice Job.

I really love this book, I cannot wait till book two is released in late 2012.


brendan

Well written childrens sci-fi novel

I really enjoyed the audiobook - especially its length and the telepathic cat angle! The story line was great with the exception of the over emphasized and beleaugured parental "our decisions our perfect and unnaturally well thought out" internal monologues

To Sci-Fi or not to Sci-fi?

Space Sci-fi isn't my normal genre but I decided to give this book a try. I am surprisingly not disappointed. Stephanie is a spunky young lady who befriends a cat, but it isn't just any cat, it's a cat that can read mines with other sphinx. They are highly intelligent and once they choose a "human" soulmate, it's for life.
It is worth the credit in my humble opinion.