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.

Oh my tree cats

Khristine Hvam did an excellent job narrating this story. Stephanie Harrington had been mentioned in the Honor series and I am so glad to see David Weber is going back to tell her story. This story tells about the discovery of the tree cats and the beginning of their relationship with the Harrington's. This is suppose to be for teens but adults will enjoy it as well. This is a must for all the Honor fans. I just can not wait for the next book in this series. I do hope it is just the beginning of a delightful series.

Well narrated, decent YA sci-fi

This is the first book in the Honorverse: Stephanie Harrinton by Weber; a sub-series in his Honorverse series aimed at YA readers. The second book in this series, Fire Season, is due out October 2012.

The audiobook was very well done, with excellent narration and good distinction between character voices. It was a good book to listen to.

Stephanie has been forced to move to the relatively unpopulated planet of Sphinx when her scientist parents acquire land there. During one of her hanger flights Stephanie crashes into the forest only to be saved by another sentient species on the planet which she nicknames tree-cats. She bonds with a tree-cat she calls Lionheart and a struggle ensues to ensure the safety of this new species. The book switches between Stephanie’s and Lionheart’s/Climbs Quickly’s viewpoints. This worked well for the story and gave us an excellent glimpse into both sentient life forms (humans and treecats).

I listened to Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi earlier this year and you can’t help by think of that book when you read this one. To be honest this book is a less action-packed, less humorous Fuzzy Nation aimed at a YA audience. It is a decently done YA science fiction novel, but I felt like I was reading a watered down version of Fuzzy Nation.

This book does addresses some interesting issues like discovering and exploiting sentient species on a non-earth planet. Unfortunately the story is very simple and predictable. Things are incredibly very over-explained and reiterated again and again. The description is so repetitive and things are explained in such minute detail that the whole story felt very dumbed down.

Stephanie makes an excellent heroine. She is smart, funny, honest, and brave. The relationship she has with her parents is also really well done. You can tell that their family relationship is based on mutual respect; it’s a family anyone would be happy to be part of. Lionheart and his clan are similarly respectful and reasonable with each other.

There were things that puzzled me though; like why was language such a barrier for so long between the humans and the tree cats? Stephanie and Lionheart are friends for over a year and they still have trouble communicating. You would think if both species are so intelligent then they would eventually start using hand signals or writing to communicate. This was just a major gap in logic that bothered me throughout the story.

Things are fairly well tied up at the end of the book, and although this is clearly not a stand alone novel, it could be read as such.

Overall a decent if somewhat flawed YA science fiction novel. I enjoyed the heroine and her family dynamic, the tree cats were also interesting. The story was very simplistic though and things were re-iterated to the point where the story felt a bit dumbed down. Also if you have read Fuzzy Nation by Scalzi then you have already read a very similar story that is funnier and more action packed than this one. I would tentatively recommend to middle grade or YA sci-fi fans; I don’t think most adults will find much here to interest them. I would highly recommend reading John Scalzi’s Fuzzy Nation instead of this book to explore similar topics.

Not his Best, but still pretty good

I could see this was going to be a good concept at the start. I didn't think the character was as intelligent as some of the others Weber has written about. But she is young, and acted accordingly. I do hope there are more to come. And that the story is expanded even more, as these are the stories I love to hear.

Wonderful

What made the experience of listening to A Beautiful Friendship the most enjoyable?

I loved the story, I am hoping my 10 year-old-daughter will listen too.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The girl was terrific, Steffanie. SHe is a great, brave, and tenatious character which is just what tree cats seem to like.

Have you listened to any of Khristine Hvam’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, but she is almost as good at the reader of the Honor series.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

both in several places.

Any additional comments?

THis book was set way before the Honor Harrington character, the girl in the book is actually an ancestor several generations before Honor and the first persone to ever be adopted by a tree cat and this is the story about how humans and tree cats first made friends. Its a wonderful adventure and a great story!!

YA novel in Honorverse

This is a great YA novel in the extended Honorverse. Having said that is a pretty fun romp for adults too, with more than a dollop of Fuzzi Nation to boot. Well worth a read, particularly if you are an animal lover.

Great start to the series

Where does A Beautiful Friendship rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Well up in the top 5 percent.

What was one of the most memorable moments of A Beautiful Friendship?

I think when Stephanie was injured and Lionheart protected her.

Which character – as performed by Khristine Hvam – was your favorite?

A tossup between Stephanie and Lionheart.

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

Yes

Any additional comments?

I have already gotten the second book. I also tried the Honor Harrington series by the same author on the reviews of other listeners but returned it as I found it to be totally uninteresting.

A cute young adult book

Rated G, no swearing, no sex and a close family. This is a perfect book to read for a break from graphic books. A young girl discovers a new species and she tries to protect the tree-cats from scientists and others who would exploit them. I enjoyed the story, there were predictable outcomes but so do many books and movies that I still enjoy.

Great youth read SciFi.

Early Honorverse primer with excellent stage and settling. This story about Honor Harrington's ancestresses creates the background built upon for all the resulting future history of the Manticore star system and her neighbors.

A bit tedious.

As with another reviewer, I too had recently listened to Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi and enjoyed it much more than this story, in fact I listened to it twice I liked it that much. While this book was okay, maybe a bit boring, it focuses too much on preteen problems and for the first hour I debated whether to finish the story. But after the initial getting to know who is who and what is what that the story was good enough to finish this book but not enough for me to finish the series. Other reviewers seem to think that if you have read the other series this series would be better, I had not read the other series by this author and overall it was just okay in my eyes. I recommend ready Fuzzy Nation instead. The narrator was okay.

Indeed!!...

An excellent read. I really enjoyed the characters and creative backgrounds throughout the story. We have a winner. Once more into the breach lol