I'm not sure what I've gotten myself into. With my completion of the Tunnels series I was looking for new book blood when I had a chance to talk to my dad. He and my sister EA are presenting at Life, the Universe, and Everything (a writing symposium In Utah) on world building in science fiction and fantasy. As a result he has every excuse he'll ever need to dive headfirst into his beloved sci-fi books. I'm sure I've mentioned that science fiction is not my favorite genre to read, often because of what I might call "techno porn." Science fiction is known for dwelling on the technical intricacies and aspects of the world the author's built. Many science fiction stories depend on the reader understand the technology involved in order to understand character motivations, possible solutions, and plot points. However, sometimes the author drones on about a technology just to show how cool it is. One of the last sci-fi books I read did this and while I found the story interesting I didn't want to hear about how the main character manipulated his computer. My concern leads me to be a little wary of the sci-fi my father recommends - although I know that the books he does recommend is going to be well written. However, when he told me about On Basilisk Station by David Weber my interest was piqued as he described it as a military sci-fi. Military fiction is something that I do find very interesting and so waited with baited breath for my credits to come in so I could pick it up. I was not disappointed. David Weber gives us a heroine who is competent, cool, caring, and flawed in her own little ways. Someone we can stand up and cheer for. What's more, he gives us a whole cast of characters that we can relate to, get behind, and also stand up and cheer for. I'm worried about what I've gotten myself into because the Honor Herrington series started in 1991 and the most recent book came out two years ago. So far there are thirteen books. I don't know if I'll try to get them all one after the other, but I will probably end up working my way through them. Here is the link to the Audible page for the book. The series is narrated by Allyson Johnson who does a wonderful job of bringing the characters to life. I enjoyed her accents for the different roles and was impressed with her range of voices.
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Plot: Honor Herrington is receiving her first independent command. She is a career officer in the Royal Manticorian Navy and has show great ability during her assent to the rank of Commander (just below captain in the navy) and is about to take control of Fearless, a light cruiser class warship. However, the first problem that arises is that someone has completely changed her weapon systems and expects Honor to validate the new tactics required to use them. Being the imaginative officer she is, Honor succeeds this, but then suffers from the limitations of the system. Posted to the most out of the way station possible for her efforts Honor is forced to complete multiple objectives with just her lowly light cruiser, a crew who doesn't know what to think of their new commander, and no help from the outside. What's more, there is a plot boiling below the surface of the local planet and the overworked and lonely Fearless is the only one in position to do anything about it.
My personal favorites: The book was very well written. It was clean and concise giving plenty of drama, suspense, action, and intrigue. Honor was a character that I could really get behind and we were able to see her, not just from her own eyes but from others as well. Her victories were truly exciting whether it was a naval engagement or confronting an irate merchant magnate. They were also not without costI loved the different kinds of drama within the book - naval engagements, character, troop action, personal - it had a good variety of them all. Despite the new cultural and technological elements it was easy to accept them and I didn't feel like they bogged down the story.
Considerations: The term, "swear like a sailor" is applicable here. It wasn't anything like Red Shirts more on par with Larry Correia's books. The language was used appropriately - meaning that it had weight to it and it was used by certain characters in very particular instances, usually when something was going horribly wrong. There was also a fair amount of violence. Not as descriptive as Monster Hunter International but there was certainly gore.
The audio book ended with the first chapter of the next book, Honor of the Queen, which was a nice listen. I don't know if I'll get it immediately, Words of Radiance book two in The Storm Light Archives comes up in the beginning of March and I've been waiting for it for almost a year (many have been waiting longer). I did thoroughly enjoy the book and am looking forward to grabbing these along the way. The total length was just over 15 hours.
Plot: Honor Herrington is receiving her first independent command. She is a career officer in the Royal Manticorian Navy and has show great ability during her assent to the rank of Commander (just below captain in the navy) and is about to take control of Fearless, a light cruiser class warship. However, the first problem that arises is that someone has completely changed her weapon systems and expects Honor to validate the new tactics required to use them. Being the imaginative officer she is, Honor succeeds this, but then suffers from the limitations of the system. Posted to the most out of the way station possible for her efforts Honor is forced to complete multiple objectives with just her lowly light cruiser, a crew who doesn't know what to think of their new commander, and no help from the outside. What's more, there is a plot boiling below the surface of the local planet and the overworked and lonely Fearless is the only one in position to do anything about it.My personal favorites: The book was very well written. It was clean and concise giving plenty of drama, suspense, action, and intrigue. Honor was a character that I could really get behind and we were able to see her, not just from her own eyes but from others as well. Her victories were truly exciting whether it was a naval engagement or confronting an irate merchant magnate. They were also not without costI loved the different kinds of drama within the book - naval engagements, character, troop action, personal - it had a good variety of them all. Despite the new cultural and technological elements it was easy to accept them and I didn't feel like they bogged down the story.
Considerations: The term, "swear like a sailor" is applicable here. It wasn't anything like Red Shirts more on par with Larry Correia's books. The language was used appropriately - meaning that it had weight to it and it was used by certain characters in very particular instances, usually when something was going horribly wrong. There was also a fair amount of violence. Not as descriptive as Monster Hunter International but there was certainly gore.
The audio book ended with the first chapter of the next book, Honor of the Queen, which was a nice listen. I don't know if I'll get it immediately, Words of Radiance book two in The Storm Light Archives comes up in the beginning of March and I've been waiting for it for almost a year (many have been waiting longer). I did thoroughly enjoy the book and am looking forward to grabbing these along the way. The total length was just over 15 hours.
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