On Basilisk Station

On Basilisk Station by David Weber is the first novel in the Honor Harrington series.  I hadn't read one of Weber's books before, but I'd always heard good things, and I wasn't disappointed.  The book more or less reads as a military science fiction novel, one of the best that I've read in this category.  Weber's description of what future space naval combat might look like was particularly engaging; the stress and combat energy practically boils out of the pages and will have you sitting on edge while you read. In addition, I think that Harrington is a very likable and well-rounded heroine, which no doubt has contributed to the remarkable success of the series.

At a few points the novel does get bogged down in details, however.  Discuss of military procedures gets tedious at times, and at one point Weber simply info-dumps a large section describing the logistics behind space travel on his readers.  While it was quite interesting to me, by the end of it even I was tempted to just start skimming.  One more minor complaint I had was that I felt much of the strong language in the novel was unoriginal.  I understand that Weber was going for a realistic combat situation, but he could have been more imaginative with swearing and colorful expressions. 

Overall, On Basilisk Station was an enjoyable read and I look forward to reading more of the books in the series.  It hasn't replaced Ender's Game or The Dark Wing as some of my favorite military fiction books, but it's definitely up there.  And if you have a Kindle, you can download and read the book for free!