In honor of the podcast coming up on this book (along with Eve), here’s a thread to chat!
I’ve ordered a copy. It’ll be a while before it arrives and I get to read it. It seems difficult enough to come across a copy in the UK, but I’ve found one. I understand there are a lot of similarities to Horatio Hornblower. It sounds promising.
Ha, I just finished listening to this on audiobook about a week ago. I like the premise, and I like most of the characters, but I got so irritated whenever it would go into describing how fast the projectiles were moving or took an entire forty-five minute section out of a battle scene to describe the history of the type of drives they used. It’s something I think I’d be able to better overlook on print, I think, and something similar hasn’t bugged me overly much on Weber’s “March Upcountry.”
I’m excited, my ILL copy of the book just came in 
And anyone who hasn’t seen it yet should check out splatterson’s blog post on the book.
So I sat and read the book yesterday (I know I read quickly, but it’s doable in a weekend afternoon if you don’t get distracted.)
Wow! I can’t believe I had never heard about these before. Honor’s a fabulous character and once I can dedicate a few weeks to fun reading exclusively, I’m heading to the library to get more.
Sithwitch - I didn’t find the history/explanation bits annoying at all, but that might have to do with a) I was reading not listening, so I could skim at will and b) I thought they were very well integrated into the story in terms of showing us Honor’s thought processes. Plus, I just found the information interesting.
I thought the crew dynamic was really very interesting (particularly with McKeon), and the final chase with the Sirius was very cinematic. Even as someone who doesn’t really care what kind of guns a ship has or much about military strategy, I thought it was fun and engaging.
So… if I were to pick up another Honor Harrington book, what comes next?
Book 1: On Basilisk Station
Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
Book 3: A Short Victorious War
Book 4: Field of Dishonor
Book 5: Flag in Exile
Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
Book 7: In Enemy Hands
Book 8: Echoes of Honor
Book 9: Ashes of Victory
Book 10: War of Honor
You can read the first two books for free at Baen’s Free Library.
EDIT: The eBook prices are actually fairly cheap too if you just want to get into them quickly.
I liked the series, but after a certain point, I began to slowly dislike the series as it went on.
The publisher has it for free on their website, at http://www.webscription.net/p-304-on-basilisk-station.aspx. I believe they have a couple more from the series, too
Joe
Oh and btw, I’M SO FREAKING EXCITED! Honor Harrington is so cool! Especially the new stuff with Eric Flint. BTW, anyone been reading the snippets on the new Torch of Freedom novel? It’s pretty awesome.
Yay!!
Joe
I just finished this book and really enjoyed it. I’m definitely hooked on the Honorverse now. If anyone is interested (especially Sean), you should check out Keith Laumer and David Weber’s Bolo novels and anthologies if the idea of gigantic, sentient super battle-tanks with rail guns and hellbore cannons sounds good to you. They are some of my favorite military SF stories.
There’s some trademarks of certain authors that I normally don’t notice until it’s pointed out or I hear it repeatedly, usually repeated phrases: “death’s head grin” for Simon R. Green, “it could not be borne” for Orson Scott Card, “Well and so” for Jacqueline Carey, etc. With what (admittedly little) I’ve read of Weber, I’ve noticed that his asides about the speed at which objects travel occur frequently enough to consider it a trademark and I accept that. I’m not sure about asides like the history of the ship’s drives in later books, having only listened to the first one, but I really do think it would have bugged me less had I been reading it so I could have skimmed it. As it was, with the slower nature of audio vs. reading, it kind of ruined the cinematic space battle for me with a twenty-minute aside, completely knocking me out of the flow.
I loved the ground battles, though. Those were awesome, and I felt horrible for that group they found torn apart by the Medusans, especially the last few seconds from that one woman’s POV. Also, Nimitz rules.
I have gotten all 10 in .lit format and have converted them so they are readable in my Mobipocket reader on my blackberry… very handy.
Just started reading On Basilisk Station.
Love Honor’s beret on the cover.
I’ve worn berets for years. Love the look of them.
Too bad Weber only decided in Book Two that she’s half Asian (unless I missed something)… the cover doesn’t really show her “almond-shaped eyes”.
Cover art rarely portrays things accurately (at least, in the books I’ve read), but her eye shape was definitely mentioned in On Basilisk Station, and on the cover of the Baen hardcover edition (the one I got from the library), they’re as described in the book.
I into book 3 at the moment. I’ve heard the series gets tired and soap opera-y at some point? If true, about where should I expect that to happen?
I’m up to Ashes of Victory and I haven’t had any real soap opera-y stuff yet. Or maybe I just glazed over it to get to the ships blowing up. 
Thats good to hear. I’m glad you read ahead…
I don’t want to alarm you… but I think there’s a lobster on your face.
Just finished On Basilisk Station. Awesome book. I really enjoyed it. I’ve had an interest in Napoleonic era navies for quite some time and the similarities in this book are apparent. So now there’s another book series I have to read. This is going to get expensive, there are a lot of books
BTW I’d recommend checking out the Horatio Hornblower series, which served as inspiration for the Honor Harrington books. Even just check out the series of tv movies that were made. I love them. There are a few familliar faces, with serious sci-fi creditials, in them. Such as Ioan Gruffad, Jamie Bamber, Paul McGann and David Warner.