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.

Good book and good reader

I enjoyed the story line and the details of whats going on. The narration was very good. I enjoyed Allysons voice. but! the profanity level was to high for my liking. If you like military sci-fi, then you will like this one, but if you have a low profanity level, then you will need to pass this one up.

Excellent Naval Science Fiction

Any additional comments?

I am going to have to look up the author on Wikipedia. I think he must have served as a naval officer. This is exactly what a lot of science fiction is unfortunately missing. I have not been this thrilled by a piece of naval science fiction since the modern Battlestar Galactica miniseries. Great attention to detail! Absolutely gripping story! I am looking forward to the whole series of books. I love it when I discover a really good series, after the whole thing has been written, so that I do not have to wait for them to come out, one at a time.

Space Opera with interesting characters

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

Good vs Bad

Who was your favorite character and why?

Nimitz, because the tree cat is definitely a force to be reckoned with.

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

Not heard her before, so I cannot compare.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Faced with impossible odds, Honor manages to not only succeed, but does so in an exemplary manner.

Any additional comments?

Good parallels to what is happening in our society today (in the USA at least) with some social commentary.

POIGNANT, & TRIUMPHANT

Against odds beyond measure Honor Harrington defeats, & comes nack from Hell itself.

AWESOME BOOK

random silly accents?

I don't know why but the narrator seems to assign silly accents at random. in an interstellar society why do people from the same planet have accents ranging from Southern to Russian and then randomly someone from a different star system entirely will have one of those accents too. it was distractingly weird

Interesting Story but ...

Any additional comments?

The story was interesting though I thought a little long. I think the narration was what did me in. The main character is a female commander, Honor Harrington, and audible used a female narrator. She made Honor sound puny. I didn't have a problem with her portrayal of the other characters. So there you have it. I think the story was interesting and if you don't have problems with the narration, you will probably like the book.

Great book, good performance

The story and writing was excellent, although it does make some unusual viewpoint switches. The narrator started off making the male voices sound almost cartoony, but quickly settled down, and the narration was quite good. There were occasionally confusing viewpoint switches, but jumping back 30 seconds and paying closer attention to the names cleared those up.

Excellent Sci Fi

Would you listen to On Basilisk Station again? Why?

It's likely, though only after I've listened to the many other books in the series.

What did you like best about this story?

It was well-constructed with a good balance between combat, intrigue, and personal interaction.

What about Allyson Johnson’s performance did you like?

She has a wide range of voices for the characters.

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

When the exec threatens his "superior."

Any additional comments?

Johnson's pronunciation of "Manticoran" is a little odd - she says ManTIcoran when I expected MANticoran. And I think Honor's voice is a little higher-pitched than I envisioned (is enheard a word?) But otherwise, the book is quite good.

SLOW

5 hours in the story finally started to get interesting. then, at about 12 hours in, there was a long chapter on the scientific history of space flight. Yawn. However, by the end I did care about the main character and what happened to her. For that reason, and on the theory that the tedious back story is in place, I may check out the next book. Maybe.

Honor Harrington

This is book 1 of a multi book series. Having read the book first, I knew what it was about, and this is an unabridged audio book. If you enjoy a nice lead up to some fast paced spaceship action, this is a good book to start on.