Bookworm Speaks!A Beautiful Friendship by David Weber****David Weber…one of the High Lords of Sci-fi and a King of Space Opera. The Story: The main character is ancestor of the famed Honor Harrington, Stephanie Harrington who is a first generation colonist to the planet Sphinx of the Star Kingdom of Manticore, is not happy with her current situation being moved from another, more exciting planet. This all changes when she meets and bonds with a native life form called a Treecat which may be sentient. The ramifications of this discovery will change both the Harrington family and the planet Sphinx forever. The Good:What makes this book so good is how relatable it is despite taking place so far into the future. It belongs to a category that bookworm likes to call “Background Science Fiction” as it deals with the people in the background. Its not a story about a teenage prodigy overthrowing a corrupt regime or a team of fighters trying to save the galaxy, its about a teenage girl who has stumbled upon something and tries to make the best of it while trying to live her life. Its what made the television series Firefly so appealing, in that it has an everyman factor to it. Something the majority of an audience can find a connection to. This made much more impressive when considering David Weber’s background as military historian, which generally does not deal with the common folk all that much. What also makes this book relatable is the characterization of Stephanie. Bookworm has said before that righting accurate teenagers can be very hard but the author pulls in off very well. Stephanie does come off as being smarter and more mature that her compatriots but it is stated in the text that Stephanie is smarter than the average person and the pioneer setting of the planet Sphinx lends to her maturity. In the beginning, she does act a lot like a teenager would in a similar situation. The character of Lionheart the Treecat is also how this book shines. For those who are unfamiliar with the Honor Harrington Series, tree cats are the companions of characters from the series including the titular character. Treecats are sentient and very intelligent but we never actually hear them communicate until later in the series. In this book we are given a first hand account of their thought processes. This greatly establishes the tree cats and Lionheart as a main character rather than a side character as Nimitz of Honor Harrington often became. Lionheart thinks in terms that are familiar but a sufficiently different to drive home the “alieness” of his nature. The Flaws: The main flaw is common with many of the Honor Harrington series: There is ton of background information in this story and the author loves to share it. Expositions or plot dumps are a mainstay of David Weber and some would say of a lot of science fiction in general. Infodumps are passages of text that explain certain details about what is going on in the story. Some readers find them interesting and add another layer of detail to the story, but some may find them distracting and take away from the actual story. Also accompanied by the exposition are references to events that do not appear in the text. This in of itself is not unusual in that a lot of times in fiction there are references to unseen events i.e. The War, the Noodle Incident. But it seems very important the way the characters refer to these events, which lead to other short stories. It can make things pretty confusing. The narrative itself can be a turn-off as well. In a manner of speaking, the text does not tell a consistent story. The entire plot takes place over several months and years with events happening in between the chapters unseen by the audience. On one hand, this is to the stories benefit as the expanded timeline allows a deeper exploration into the ramifications of the discovery of the Treecats but other readers may find it a bit too much to swallow at once. Final Verdict:A worthy addition to any Space Opera library even though it doesn’t take place in space!Four out of Five Stars. Story: I absolutely adored it! Both main characters were delightful, their relationship and environment fascinating. Love! 5 starsNarration: Nearly perfect. Just lovely, in fact. Basic narrative and most voices were great. There were a voice or two that sounded snotty (in attitude, not mucus), but that works for teenagers. (And I think the word "terran" was mispronouned.) The delicate touch with accents was much appreciated. 4.5 stars
What do You think about Beautiful Friendship, A (2012)?
More of a young adult book as it is marketed but helped fill in some back story so was interesting
—C_Wam
Really enjoyed this opener to the series. I will check out the next book.
—chels
