On Basilisk Station

Honor Harrington, Book 1

By: David Weber

Narrated by: Allyson Johnson

Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

Having made a superior look a fool, Honor Harrington has been exiled to Basilisk Station in disgrace and set up for ruin.

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.

A Note from Author David Weber
There's been some confusion—not to say, um, energetic debate, readers and fans being readers and fans—about the correct pronunciation of "Manticoran." The truth, alas, is that a stitch was dropped. An error occurred. A mistake was made… and it wasn't Audible's fault. It was mine. Before Audible recorded the very first Honor Harrington book, narrator Allyson Johnson and I not only corresponded by e-mail but actually spoke to one another by phone. She wanted to make absolutely certain she had the correct pronunciations for names, places, star nations, etc., and I tried to make certain all of her questions were answered. And so they were. Unfortunately, at some point in the process, I replied to one of her e-mails by telling her that "Man-ti-core-ahn" was pronounced "Man-tik-er-ahn." Exactly how this happened is more than I can say at this point, except to blushingly disclose that the original e-mail remains intact, confirming to all the world that it was, indeed, my fault. I can ascribe it only to a temporary mental hiccup on my part and crave your forgiveness. If, however, you must blame someone for the mix-up, that someone should be me and not Audible, who have done everything they could to get it right.

©2002 David Weber (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Mixed feelings

I have everything David Weber has written either as a real book (he's classed as "Buy In Hardbound", which few authors in my library have achieved) or eBook. The book is great. It's an extremely good series about Honor's rise to prominence over her career. That's the good part.
The bad part: the narrator. For the love of all that's holy, is it impossible for these readers to know their subject material? How this one reconciles the pronunciation between Manticore and Manticoran is beyond me. There are other similar issues, but this one is like a knife to the ears every time. Some of here characterizations are crazy. In a universe set hundreds of light years from Earth, where do all these French and Cockney accents come from?
I've already resigned myself to having to live with this, since I'm determined to own the series. Please, producer, remember that there's a difference between being able to read and doing so competently. This one falls far short. My rating is for the story. The reader should be given one star. Or maybe even go into negative territory.

Entertaining listen!

If you could sum up On Basilisk Station in three words, what would they be?

Intense, active, complex

What did you like best about this story?

That despite the chaos dumped in Honor's lap, she still is human. She hasn't been given super-human abilities to cope and like all humans, she does have a breaking point. When dealing with a listless crew, suspected smuggling problems and superior officers who try to squash careers, I'm sure most people would have given up, yet Honor's resilience is realistic.

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

Before the Honor Harrington series, I had not heard any performances from Allyson Johnson.

Sadly disappointing narrator for a favorite book

I have been a fan of the Honor Harrington books for a very long time, and continue to await new titles in the series. I was eagerly anticipating the books becoming available on Audible, and have either purchased or wish listed all of them. This anticipation was sadly quashed by listening to this, the first in the series. The narrator has far too many mispronunciations, clearly marking her as unfamiliar with either military terminology or with science fiction, whether she is or not, and evidence of very sloppy editing. I regularly listen to audio books during my daily commute, and do not recall ever hearing so many blatant mispronunciations. In addition, some of the character voices do not ring true for a long time reader of the series.

How I hate this Narrator!

What made the experience of listening to On Basilisk Station the most enjoyable?

This is a fantastic story that I return to over and over, and while some find it too full of what they call 'unnecessary detail', I think it is part of what makes the whole Honorverse come alive.

What was one of the most memorable moments of On Basilisk Station?

I love the moment when Honor blows the wedge of the Havenite courier ship before loping after the Qship.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Allyson Johnson?

The original narrator Madelyn Buzzard, Kate Reading because she is always a joy to listen to or Amanda Ronconi who brings even badly written books to a level of enjoyment worthy of Audible with her voice. Allyson Johnson's completely illogical accent choices (Grayson's with French accents, as well as Havenites with some weird Midwestern accents come vividly to mind) make it really hard to forgive Audible for choosing her for such an extended series.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Too many to count. I read or listened to this book more than 20 times and I find new moments each time - when I am not being irritated by the narrator's horrible accent or pronunciation choices.

Any additional comments?

Please please please remove Ms. Johnson as the narrator at least for the later books.

good story not so good performer

the story was engaging though it bogged down in details at times. the reader had an unnatural inflection and timing. Hope the next book is read by someone else.

Book 1 of one of the best sci-fi series out there!

From the moment I started reading this tremendous series over 15 years ago, I haven't been able to put the books down. The story and the extremely well-crafted characters grab you immediately and when you reach the end of a book, if you're anything at all like me, it's akin to torture to have to wait for Weber to write the next one in the series. I was very excited to revisit the first book in this audio format.

Unfortunately, the narration by Allyson Johnson annoyed me somewhat. Over all, she reads very well, but two things in particular bothered me quite a bit. First, I found that her voice characterization for Honor sounds too much like a little girl. I wish that Ms. Johnson had used something closer to the voice she uses when narrating (vs. speaking dialogue). Also, her characterization of Lord Hamish Alexander just didn't work for me at all. Given how large a role this character plays in novels later in the series, that's a big problem for me. The second thing which annoyed me greatly was her mis-pronunciation of many of the non-english names (French and Spanish in particular), and in particular, her incorrect pronunciation of the word "Manticoran" which occurs quite regularly throughout the story.

Overall, I enjoyed listening to this audio book, and I think you will too, especially if you're not as picky about the narration as I am. I have the next book in the series in audio format as well, but that will be the last one I listen to as the narration problems tarnish the experience for me. I'll be sticking with the paper books, though!

Good book but

but why does Honor Harrington have to have a high-pitched hysterical little girl's voice, full of, I don't know, pretense? falseness? Is she supposed to be in the throes of puberty or what's this about?? There's not a shred of authority in that voice, not a shred of sincerity, and it makes the mental picture of Honor Harrington in my head quite ridiculous.

This especially bothers me since none of the other female (or male) characters in the audio have such a silly voice. It's just...unfortunate to do that to the main character.

Space Fantasy

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I would like to have had some more action during first 40% of the story, it was a little boring and a bit tough to stay with for the first bit.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I really did like Weber's depiction of the space battles. They were well thought out, detailed and exciting.

What three words best describe Allyson Johnson’s performance?

Adequate, unimpressed, difficult. Her performance was OK, I don't hate it, but it wasn't outstanding. Her depiction of Honor was probably the best character she has. I don't know if she was the right actor for the job, but it was a difficult story to narrate as there were lots of characters and accents to encompass.

Was On Basilisk Station worth the listening time?

Overall it was, but it's not a great book, the climactic sequence at the end makes it worthwhile, but it's up and down as to its overall enjoyment.

Any additional comments?

I still have book two in my wish list, so I'll probably check it out, but it's no where near the top of my listening list.

too much "technical" read like a newscast

This was a pretty good story, but the narrator read almost every sentence with the same newscast-like intonation, which in an adventure story, I found annoying.. Also the author ocassionally got carried away with technical detail which was a bit of a snore. Otherwise just a good old fashioned sci fi story about a fine, upstanding, smart, straight up guy struggling against idiocy and never giving up. Kinda reminded me of Matt Dillon of the old Gunsmoke shows. Aways bucked up and did right, no matter how hard, or who opposed him. Kicked butt when necessary. Only this time it was space, and the guy was plunked into a woman's body.

I couldn't stand the mispronunciations

The narrator ruined it for me. I read most of the books and enjoyed them when they first came out so I wanted to listen to the audiobooks for the whole series but I couldn't stand the narrator and the ridiculous mispronunciations.

PLEASE audible, redo these recordings with another narrator.

I returned the book. Thank goodness for Audible's return policy.