nicanical
David Weber's On Basilisk Station is a nice piece of military sci-fi pulled down by too much exposition.
A lot of exposition isn't immediately a story's death knell for me. I like Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers and it has plenty of exposition. Working through Weber's exposition though is like spooning mouthfuls of cement dust. Get ready for slabs of gobbledygook squatting swathes of text. Maybe Weber put extensive effort into crafting the setting and he included the dense expository passages out of excitement for his worldbuilding. But have the courtesy to move that stuff into an appendix man. That's what Dune did: follow Frank Herbert's example, not Neal Stephenson's.
Otherwise, the story is well-paced and an enjoyable read. I like how the crew of the Fearless comes together, and also how Honor exploits all the resources of her ship—the marines, the pinnaces, the weather probes (down to reconfiguring the latter into proximity sensors). The occasional views into the background political intrigue was a nice touch. I could have used more of it, but only if Weber clearly telegraphed perspective shifts.
David Weber's On Basilisk Station is a nice piece of military sci-fi pulled down by too much exposition.
A lot of exposition isn't immediately a story's death knell for me. I like Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers and it has plenty of exposition. Working through Weber's exposition though is like spooning mouthfuls of cement dust. Get ready for slabs of gobbledygook squatting swathes of text. Maybe Weber put extensive effort into crafting the setting and he included the dense expository passages out of excitement for his worldbuilding. But have the courtesy to move that stuff into an appendix man. That's what Dune did: follow Frank Herbert's example, not Neal Stephenson's.
Otherwise, the story is well-paced and an enjoyable read. I like how the crew of the Fearless comes together, and also how Honor exploits all the resources of her ship—the marines, the pinnaces, the weather probes (down to reconfiguring the latter into proximity sensors). The occasional views into the background political intrigue was a nice touch. I could have used more of it, but only if Weber clearly telegraphed perspective shifts.