Rating: 
Summary: Military SF At Its Best!!!
Review: On Basilisk Station is the first book in David Weber's Honor Harrington series. I must say that after reading this book I have to dive into the rest of the series! On Basilisk Station has many things going for it that make it a great SF novel. First, the characters seem real and I found myself really caring about them. I was drawn into the internal conflicts between Honor and her crew and was moved when they finally came together as one. Honor Harrington is truly one of the great characters in science fiction. The second thing this book has going for it is an excellent, exciting plot that moves along at a quick pace. Action and great battle scenes really keep your pulse pounding and the pages turning. On Basilisk Station is what good SciFi should be! Highly recommended!
Rating: 
Summary: Disturbing subtexts make this a bit unpleasant
Review: ...This and another Weber book I read (Apocalypse Troll) are like reading a Tom Clancy novel -- occasionally engrossing and very technical military adventure, but, since the world is entirely of Weber's creation (Tom Clancy, until recently, was at least constrained by reality) the relatively simplistic anti-democratic, pro-military viewpoint that underlies both these authors is even more pronounced in Weber. All of the civilian leaders are bumbling idiots. All of the military leaders involved in politics are evil and warped. Only Honor and the others who choose to just "do their duty" are portrayed favorably. The weird, flat, idealized view of military command and competance begins to grate by halfway through, and by the end the book becomes difficult to read. Now, I am certainly not in any way anti-military (or why else would I read military SF?), but I also do not believe that military leaders are inherently superior to their civilian counterparts, nor are they always noble and uncorruptable. This book is fun, get me wrong, but the nature of the characterization and the strange politics lead me to suggest that those interested in this sort of novel might be best off with either a Louis Bujold or Timothy Zahn (depending on whether you like romance with your war or not) book instead...
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down!
Review: A friend of mine kept telling me that I would love the Honor Harrington series, but, I had lots of other things to do, and at that time, too many other books to read.
Six months later, I saw the book at the bookstore and thought I'd give it a try. I started reading it and just couldn't put it down.
David Weber creates such real characters that you really come to care for by the book's end. Honor seemed very much like a person that I would know in real life (and she and I share many of the same personality traits).
Honor ticks off some high-ranking officers and is sent to a backwater assignment as punishment. She manages to tick off just about everyone other than her crew (and even then some of them can't stand her at first). Honor single-handedly manages to kick off a mini-war. She manages a victory, despite great odds against her and her dinky little ship.
I love Honor's treecat Nimitz (similar to a Terran cat but is an empath and has 6 legs.....no ordinary cat for this extraordinary captain).
There is one character I hated above all others...and in future books just becomes more loathsome.
David Weber has a very good grasp on physics...if he didn't his space travel mechanics would be mere technobabble. He also understands military protocols and keeps faithful to a set structure of his own making.
So far I am on Book 7 of the series (In enemy hands) and they just keep getting better!
Rating: 
Summary: Pure Pulp SF for the bus-ride home, nothing more.
Review: Not a lot to say really because this isn't the type of SF I normally go for, so I won't be too critical.
If you like simple, lighthearted military SF, lots of battles, hokey weapons, endless technobabble, corny dialogue, and cheezy characters, then you'll probably have some fun with this. If you enjoy SF that really challenges your intellect, thirst for real depth of characterization, and thrive on complex, developed plotlines, then don't bother to look here.
It's obviously not aimed at that market anyway. For example, in chapter 3: "and HMS Fearless leapt to an instant acceleration of five hundred and three standard gravities" ....really now!! I just laughed and stopped reading. Like I said, good for a short bus-ride, so you don't need to stare out the window.
Rating:
Summary: The Beginning
Review: Generic Disclaimer when i review a David Weber book: I am David Weber's elder brother. Generally, however, i think i am fairly well able to avoid any bias in my reviews thereunto appertaining. Some little while ago, Dave mentioned to me that he was working on a female Hornblower-template space opera character. He gave me a little background, and it sounded interesting. Thus, when i got a chance to read "On Basislisk Station", i was quite eager, and, i am happy to say, i was not disappointed. OBS has, for me, pretty much all of the strengths (and they are many) or Dave's best writing, and, unfortunately, indications of some of the weaknesses (minor though they may be) to come. Strengths -- he does very well at portraying Good Officers who Lead By Example and who can see the best way to use their ships and the personnel assigned under them, no matter how ill-suited to the task at hand they may appear to be, or how overwhelmed by opposing forces. Honor's excellent use of the bastard weapon system inflicted upon her by misguided theorists is an example of such -- even if it does get her sent to the Manticoran equivalent of a footbeat in Yonkers. He has a strength in portraying Bad Guys -- many of whom turn out to be pretty much just ordinary joes doing their best for *their* side, just as Honor is doing her best for hers. Unfortunately, he also has a tendency to introduce Villains from time to time -- genuine, mustache-twirling, sneering, scenery-chewing mellerdrammer tie-Little-Nell-to-the-tracks Oilcan Harry-syle villians (sic). And they just *grate* on me. The only "good" thing about the introduction of Pavel Young here is that it's pretty obvious he's eventually going to Get His. His Villains are off key to my ear -- you'd think *someone* would notice their sneering and snarling and frothing at the mouth whenever the hero(ine) is mentioned, but no-one ever does. ((Over in the fantasy books -- "Oath of Swords" and "War God's Own", such villains are appropriate. Unfortunately, in the fantasies, he writes dialect speeches...)) OBS sets the pattern for many of the Harringtons -- Honor is sent into a difficult situation that turns out to be much worse than it at first appears. Through skill, good management and general all-round-good fortune, she manages to survive hideously uneven odds when the whole situation blows up, and, though she loses many of her crew and basically has her ship(s) shot to pieces, saves the day. Though there is a lot of standard Space Opera in the Harrington series, they are all rather more than that because (A) Honor Harrington is much more than the generic captainkirk of all too many space operas, and (B) because the situations he throws Honor into -- and the characters and societies surrounding her in those situations are interesting and fun to read about, and even the Bad Guys, including arch-Bad Guys the People's Republic of Haven, are not drawn in absolute fulgurin unrelieved blackest black. Read this one and, if you are at all susceptible to pure adventure-military-space-opera SF, i'm fairly sure you'll want to read the next (Honor of the Queen) and the next (The Short Victorious War) and the next (Field of Dishonor) and...
Rating: 
Summary: Get real. (Minor spoilers)
Review: This is my second attempt at David Weber (after Colin MacIntyre saved the planet), and it definitely wasn't worth it. At least Colin and the megalomaniac battle ships were fun to imagine. I guess I'm definitely not DW's intended audience. (Warning: Minor spoilers ahead) The politicians depicted in this book are all living in a dream world. All they can think about is how to get more territory; they're talking about war as if it was the main tool of politics and a great way to improve your economy and get rid of debts. The only fraction that seems to have sane ideas is made to look like babbling idiots and weaklings; even Honor Harrington thinks about them this way. I can live with the techno babble, but please don't tell me that I'm supposed to take it seriously. Then there's the fights. There's a battle where Honor's ship has to catch a enemy ship that flees, and the fight between them must go on for dozens of pages. Honor's ship is dying. People get killed trying to make repairs. And then the ship is dying some more. And still it is in pursuit, even though it's barely more than scrap metal now, but somehow it's still fighting; some more heroic deaths (about half the crew is dead now), the ship falls to pieces some more (there can't be much left now), and this goes on and on until you're ready to burn the book. Guess what, most of Honor's crew is dead and the ship is sold for scrap metal but thank God her ship's name will always stay in comission on the Navy's list of honor. I mean, *that* really consoled me. Thank goodness the name won't be forgotten! There's almost no characterization, pretty much everybody is a stereotype. Honor is the only competent officer, the odds are all piled against her, but she wins (of course). Honor has a nice name, but the book isn't about honor, more about stupidity. I had trouble finishing this book and can't see why it's such a bestseller. If all you're interested in is hoaky heroic battles and even more heroic deaths of stereotype characters you never really got to know before they get killed off, this may be for you. For everybody else, there's military SF out there that's classes better than this (The Forever War, for example, or some of David Feintuch's books, or - not really in this class - Ender's Game), and if you're looking for stories about honor and personal integrity with a military touch, look elsewhere (Longyear's The Enemy Papers would be a place to start, or Mary Renault's truly excellent books, if you are willing to read about ancient Greece instead of faraway planets of the future).
Rating:
Summary: The place to start
Review: You have to start at the beginning to appreciate Honor. Space opera / military SF at its best.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Have Resorces for the Mission? Do It Anyway!
Review: On Basilisk Station, what title could promise less of threat and violence. Oh ye of little faith. Honor Harrington succeeds in acomplishing a tough mission with the wrong equipment and personal for the job in spite of official indifference, the interference of the wealthy and politically connected, and the active if covert operations of her government's enemies. In a book that sets the pattern for most of the series, Honor has to walk through a political minefield while surviving tactical situations that offer little hope for survival. Weber has created a technology of future interstellar war with its own set of constraints and has even imagined competing schools of military thought that influence weapons development and deployment. Inside these constraints Honor must motivate her discouraged crew and, when all else fails, fight a difficult battle with a crusier disguised as a merchant vessal. This is a book where paying attention to the details of combat operations rewards the reader. It also is a book where the relationship between captain and crew provides much of the interest. Read this book and then the series that goes with it. You will discover a world fully realized and a fascinating examination of the relationships between politics, economics, and waging war all while following the career of one brilliant office, Honor Harrington. If you thought Flandry was something, wait till you meet Honor. And if Pohl Anderson's Flandry is a bit before you time, well you might check him out too.
Rating: 
Summary: Superb space empire warfare
Review: On Basilisk Station begins the story of Honor Harrington's rise through the ranks of the Manticoran Navy, as she becomes an increasingly important factor in an intragalactic war. The series has fantastic stories, believable characters, and engrossing plots. I've just finished the sixth book. This first book, more than any other in the series, focuses on the mechanics of Weber's pseudo-science for faster than lightspeed travel. I enjoyed it, but I know some won't. Regardless, don't let it bog you down: after he covers it here, it is only mentioned briefly in future works. The only reason I give this book (and the series as a whole) four stars instead of five is that the heroine is a trifle too lucky. Don't get me wrong, she largely makes her own luck. But coincidence plays a hair too big of a factor for me to be truly comfortable. If it weren't for that, I would gladly label this the best science fiction I've ever encountered.
Rating:
Summary: A "must read"
Review: Excellant Military Sci-Fi. But it's much more. Intrigue, gun-play, treachery, galactic politics, broadsides, covert ops, exotic alien life-forms, and Commander Honor Harrington, if you need something else, you're just being picky;)
As usual for me, I bought a new paperback which caught my eye at the local bookseller, read the first chapter, put the book down utterly impressed (which is not usual), and sought out the rest of the series waiting to finish it in order. I was not disappointed, in fact; Weber is officially on my list of "Favorites", along with Steven Brust (though I stay away from his Dumas retellings), David Drake, and Robert Asprin. This book is a gem of the genre, and I finally found the 2nd book in the series today (Honor of the Queen) so I've got to cut this short (and start reading:)
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