On Basilisk Station

Commander Honor Harrington. It’s one of the most significant names in the history of military science fiction. Harrington’s first appearance in the series featuring more than a dozen novels is incredibly entrancing and it’s easy to see why this is one of the most beloved of all the military science fiction series. Honor Harrington of the Royal Manticore Navy is on her first mission here on Her Majesty’s Ship Fearless, only to discover that it’s been basically neutered with a new, largely useless weapon. She’s been sent there by Lord Pavel Young, whose own career was damaged by a court martial for attempting to rape Honor, who has diabolical plan to take Honor down! The absolute joy of David Weber’s writing is the amount of detail he managed to bring to play. Here, he has built an incredible series of worlds, all within an amazing universe, that Honor and the Royal Manticore Navy operates in. The plot, which brings us to drug smuggling, grand conspiracies, and incredible space battles, is all set within Weber’s always impact-heavy prose. That combination alone makes On Basilisk Station into a phenomenal introduction to an amazing character. Why it’s on the list The beginning is a difficult thing, but here, the beginning of the Honorverse is endlessly entertaining. Also, there’s an empathic cat.