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.

The beginning of the beginning

Humanity establishes a toe-hold colony on a 1.35G planet with a long annual orbit. It's a world of tall, dense forests that are rich with six limb life forms.
The planet has a long annual orbit, every season is a long sixteen weeks
A generation, and a half pass, and repeated plagues have reduced the population of our colony, and it needs more families . Alas, FTL travel is established, people, and families can now travel between the interstellar colonies.
A family with a pre-teen daughter arrive at the leading edge of a deep snow winter. It's Springtime, gardens are coming in, only celery stalks are disappearing from Gardens. The daughter is 12 Terran years now, she's sets find out where the salaries been going. The thief is a native, has six legs, and looks like a cat. She, and it have an immediate bond. The beast is smart, real smart, and perhaps it's kind of telepathic. We come to know that this world has it's own sentient life. Her friend the "tree cat" is a part of the local stone age tribe of hunter gatherers.
Here the story begins, and it's a good one of solid story telling. The good news is that this is a sample of a big library of stories based on a girl growing into a young woman with a full Dynamic life, a young woman who is bonded with telepathic ET l, a tree cat.

Shows in the middle then picks back up.

You can see where Honor got her attitude. Stephany shows the same traits as Honor even at the age of 12.

This is a Great Story, but the Title Hides the

adventure and uniqueness of the story. The beginning of a pretty good trilogy. The narration is wonderful.

Good, but could have ended better

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

I would have made the last half of the book a little more exciting. The first half was great, but then I got bored before the end. I also felt like there wasn't enough of a climax at the end of the book.

What aspect of Khristine Hvam’s performance would you have changed?

She did good most of the time, but there were a few places, especially at the end, where the way she expressed the words to explain noises were a major distraction from the story.

Any additional comments?

Overall it was a good book. It's clean, great for teenagers, and has an interesting idea. It was good enough for me to get the next book, but I haven't read it yet

Very cute book

I think most preteens would enjoy it tremendously.It has a good bit of action and excitement Main character is very relatable To bright children.The definitely leaves me as an adult with an interest in finding out more about the tree cat people.

fun

If you could sum up A Beautiful Friendship in three words, what would they be?

A great listen

What did you like best about this story?

a view of the honor-verse before the wars and apparently before the wealth brought in by the wormhole terminus. A story grounded on Sphinx and paced accordingly.

What does Khristine Hvam bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

loved the performance

Teenager at heart

I really enjoyed the book even if it was written for teens, after all I am 75 year old teenager at heart.
It is less dramatic and violent than the Honor series but excellently written. The narration was superb as it normally is for Audible. I am looking forward to the next one in this new series. My thanks to David Weber, Christine Hvam and Audible for a very pleasurable few hours of entertainment.

Tied up a loose end!

Thanks Mr. Weber for the story about treecats! Thanks Ms. Hvam for a quality performance!

Nice

No where near the level of the mainline Harrington series, a bit simplistic. But the I guess it's directed towards a younger audience. Still, fills in some early history of the cats and the Harringtons.

If you are an adult start with On Basilisk Station, if your an emerging reader start here.

Excellent read, excellent reader

Would you consider the audio edition of A Beautiful Friendship to be better than the print version?

I only listen to unabridged audio books, because I want to get the full story as the author intended, not a chopped up version. I wouldn't say that the audio book edition is better or worse because it has the exact same words in it. It can definitely be more convenient though, since it's it hard to read a book while driving, etc.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I like Stephanie because she reminds me a lot of Honor, and it's mostly about telling her story.

What does Khristine Hvam bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Honestly, I wasn't sure what to think when I saw that Khristine Hvam was reading this book (hopefully this series). I've listened to the entire Honor Harrington series read by Allyson Johnson, and was expecting to have this done by her as well. I think that Khristine did a wonderful job though, and it does make sense to have a different reader do the prequel series of Star Kingdom.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Most good books/stories are, and this one was no exception. I mostly listen to books while walking to/from work or exercising, and I found myself looking for reasons to do those activities to listen more.

Any additional comments?

Excellent book, can't wait to read/listen to the rest of the series.