This book was recommended to me by someone who, like me, won't read an average off-the-shelf sci fi book because there are no decent women characters (literally! Most women in sci fi books wear almost no clothing! Furthermore, they are obviously written by geek authors who don't know any actual women).
In that respect, the book is good. It is amazingly gender-fair without drawing any attention to that fact, which is almost unheard-of. Too often, the fact that women are equal to men is practically shouted on every page. In a truly gender-fair world, there would be no need for that, of course. In "Honor Harrington on Basilisk Station," David Weber does a nice job of just making equality normal and unremarkable.
Unfortunately, the rest of the book didn't have much to offer, so I'll have to rate it an overall "0."
For starters, the characterization was terrible. There were a couple of characters with a little depth-- Honor herself and her executive officer, for instance-- but even these were treated only as seriously as minor characters in good books. Almost all the other characters had no distinguishing features except their physical description, their job duties, and one cartoonish personality trait.
Another annoying feature of the characters was that Weber named too many of them. Even though there were perhaps ten key players, about fifty people were named. Worst of all, Weber gave everyone a first name, last name, and job title (such as Chief Engineer, Bosun, or First Lieutenant), and then referred to them by any one of those three. I found that I couldn't keep track of everyone. He even named characters just to refer to them once, like names of Marines that the squad leader assigned to do some task.
How about the plot? Nothing special. It was a fairly standard story where one part of an interstellar system becomes expansionary, plots to take over another part, and the plot is thwarted by our heroes despite the fact that some of their own countrymen are trying to see them fail for political reasons. Too much time was spent in the battle descriptions at the end, particularly in the dialogue. I don't need to read every single, "Yes, sir, I'll do it right away."
Overall, "Honor Harrington on Basilisk Station" is readable-- it's not really bad sci fi-- but it just didn't grab me. There are many other Honor Harrington books (this is the one introducing the character), and I suppose she will naturally gain some depth in the later books, but I probably won't seek these out.
Copyright © Kim Allen 2001
