The first in David Weber’s marvelous Honor Harrington series, On Basilisk Station is a paean to competence. Royal Manticoran Navy Commander Honor Harrington has a gutted ship, a demoralized crew, and a posting in the deep boondocks of space under a man who hates her. For years the internal politics of the Star Kingdom of Manticore has left Basilisk Station the understaffed posting of last resort for well-connected incompetents and officers in exile. Smuggling is rife, and planet-side natives are hopped up on increasing amounts of homicide-inducing hallucinogens. Honor has been given an impossible task: police an entire solar system with an aging cruiser with experimental armaments that don’t work, but she is too strong-willed and duty-bound to let a little thing like the impossible get in her way.
Weber fills the pages of this series with memorable characters and technical yet somehow still rousing descriptions of naval battles in space. Honor is bad at politics but good with people. Watching how Honor finds way to inspire, develop, and sometimes downright drag her dispirited crew into achievement and work of which they can be proud was one of the highlights of the book for me. Recommended for fans of Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey & Maturin books, strong heroines, and ragtag teams coming together.