The verdict
An old-fashioned naval adventure with a satisfying payoff, and a good first chapter for a very long series.
Quick facts
- Author
- David Weber
- First published
- 1993
- Publisher
- Baen Books
- Series
- Honor Harrington, book one
- Best for
- Naval adventure, competent protagonists, and a payoff earned by the setup
- Skip it if
- You want moral ambiguity or a short book
Author David Weber
On Basilisk Station is David Weber’s 1993 novel about a brilliant young officer handed a worn-out light cruiser, a resentful crew, and a posting so unimportant that it is meant to end her career quietly. It is the first Honor Harrington book, and it is a naval story in the old sense: a captain, a ship, a station nobody is watching, and something wrong underneath it.
The idea behind it
The premise is that competence is not the same thing as career advancement, and that a navy which has stopped fighting a real war will find reasons to reward the wrong people. Honor Harrington is given the Basilisk Station picket because she is inconvenient, and the ship is falling apart because nobody who matters has cared about the posting in years.
Weber builds the novel around the gap between what the station looks like on paper and what it is actually for. That is a very old naval idea and it is used here with real affection for the tradition: the ship matters, the crew matters, and a captain’s job is to make both work.
The story, spoiler-light
Harrington takes command of the Fearless at the end of a deployment that has left the ship and her crew at their lowest. Her predecessor was popular and she is not, her officers are openly hostile, and the station’s senior officer regards her as an ornament. Her response is to start doing the job properly, which turns out to be an unpopular move.
What she finds is smuggling with a purpose behind it, and a neighbouring power using the system as a staging ground. Two things are worth knowing before you start. The first half is deliberately slow, because the payoff depends on you understanding the station. The second half is a single extended engagement fought with one under-armed cruiser against a force that should not lose, and it is genuinely well done.
What makes it science fiction
This is Hornblower in space, and Weber is not subtle about it. The technology is consistent enough to be interesting: impeller drives that constrain how ships can move and fight, missile pods that make a small ship dangerous if it is used cleverly, and a wormhole junction that gives the system its strategic value. The tactics follow from the hardware rather than the other way round.
It is also the first book of a long series that becomes a much larger military and political story, and the seeds are here: an alliance with a religious colony, a rival republic running out of money for its own navy, and a woman from a planet settled by genetically engineered slaves, whose existence is a live political question wherever she goes.
Who should read it, and who should give it a miss
Read it if you like naval fiction, competent protagonists, and a payoff that is earned by the setup. It is also one of the friendliest doors into a big series, since almost nothing in it requires prior knowledge.
Give it a miss if you want moral ambiguity or a short book. Weber explains his technology at length, the good guys are good, and the later volumes in the series get very long indeed. The first half will test your patience if you are not invested in the crew.
Where to start, and what to read next
Start here. It is the first Honor Harrington novel and the series is one continuous story, so this is the entry point rather than a choice. If you enjoy it, the sequence rewards reading in order.
The two to pick up next are The Honor of the Queen, which takes Harrington to the Grayson system and sets up the alliance that runs through everything afterwards, and The Short Victorious War, where the war the series is named for finally starts.
The rest of the main sequence, for reference: Field of Dishonor, Flag in Exile, Honor Among Enemies, In Enemy Hands, Echoes of Honor, Ashes of Victory, War of Honor, At All Costs, Mission of Honor, A Rising Thunder, Shadow of Freedom and Shadow of Victory. There are also anthology volumes and two spin-off series, Saganami Island and Crown of Slaves, which follow other characters in the same war.
The verdict
An old-fashioned naval adventure with a satisfying payoff, and a good first chapter for a very long series. Read it for the ship.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a Kindle edition of On Basilisk Station?
Not at the time of writing, which is why this page has no digital preview panel. The paperback is widely available and the buy link below goes to it.
Is it the first Honor Harrington book?
Yes, and the series is a single continuous story, so it is where to begin. The later books assume you know the cast.
Why is the first half so slow?
Because the novel is establishing a station, a crew and a set of problems that the second half resolves. The engagement at the end only works because you know what the Fearless is missing and what the station cannot see.
Is the military detail accurate?
The technology is internally consistent and the tactics follow from it, which is what matters. The feel is deliberately drawn from naval fiction rather than from physics.
Where can I buy it?
The buy links for Amazon.com and Amazon.in are on this page.