On Basilisk Station

This was recommended to me by a few different people because a) I like space opera and b) I like historical nautical fiction like Horatio Hornblower and the Aubrey-Maturin novels. The Honor Harrington books were deliberately written to evoke that nautical military fiction, up to and including a nod at another famous protagonist with the HH initials, and a logical reason for teenage midshipmen (or at least they look that way.) There's some neat aliens too, like the treecats such as Nimitz, Honor's faithful companion.

I was slow to warm to it. David Weber's first effort still suffers from some inexperienced writing, such as awkward dialogue and infodumps (one of which was in the middle of the big climactic space fight! Why can't we have learned about how the tech works earlier, like when Honor came aboard the ship?) I understand he never stops with the infodumps either, but I hope they are timed better.

All in all, however, I was engaged and I enjoyed this pleasant romp through space, and it made me check out the rest of the series; which did succeed, by book three, in winning me over (reviews to follow). A recommended read for fans of nautical fiction, military fiction, and space opera.