A Beautiful Friendship (Honor Harrington - Star Kingdom Book 1)

this is one of the best prestories I have read. You can follow the storyline hinted at in previous books in the honor Harrington series. Great storyline great characters and the best explanation of the tree society yet.

David Weber has a way of making you believe in treecats and their world. I just wish that I could have a treecat for my very own, or more accurately, I wish that a treecat would choose to bond with me.

I have read all the Honor Harrington books and found them all enjoyable
This book follows that form well wish it had been a little longer
Also would like to se a couple of stories of when
Honor was young included

Seems to me "go-backs" are tough, but David Weber produces detail & adventure like no one else. His heroines/heroes are worthy of their exceptional capabilities, and what imagination-on-a-level-of-detail this man has!!

I was entranced by the evolution of this story from a novella to a full blown book.

While I thouroughly enjoyed the original story, I am just as knocked out by the expanded storyline.

But as a long time fan of the Honorverse I know that I am biased about anything written in it.

A BEAUTIFUL FRIENDSHIP
(2011)

Since ARTHUR W. JORDIN has done asn excellent job summarizing the plot I won't do that hereI WILL SAY THAT I ENJOYED THE NOVELLA IN More Than Honor (Worlds of Honor #1)THAN HONOR A NUMBER OF YERS AGO. I'M GLAD THAT THE Author IS GOING TO WRITE A YOUNG ADULT SERIES FOR THIS. I HOPE HE CLOSES ALL THE GAPS BETWEEN STEPHANIE AND HONOR IN On Basilisk Station (Honor Harrington).

January 2,0214 UPDATE:

THIS IS ALSO AVAILABLE IN AN AUDIO VERSION IF YOU WANT TO BRING SOMEONE UP TO-DATE QUICKLY.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK.
GUNNER SEPTEMBER, 2011

I was hoping for a bit more meat added to the story, Beautiful friendship was one of my favourite Honorverse short stories, and I was hoping for something better here. In quite a few books it has been hinted that Stephanie Harrington has been responsible for treecats obtaining a special status and protection, and yet in this book beyond deciding that they need to give impression of sentient but children-like creatures which need to be protected we really don't get much progress in the interaction between the humans and treecats and treecat status. Entire new material is built around the "bad guy wants to steal 'cats to sell as pets". Too simple.

As much as I admire Dave Weber as a writer, his imagination, and his publishing skills I am dissapointed that he has resorted- along with his publisher, Baen Books of taking short stories he's already published and turning them into one story.

What this means is "A beautiful Friendship" and the other story- I've forgotten the name- have already been published.

Instead of continuing with the "Honor Harrington" books with the impending war between Manticore and Mesa/Solarian Leauge,,,we've been waiting 2 years.

During this two years, Author David Weber has spent time working on his "Safehold" series (Which are good, please don't get me wrong) but we're still waiting,,,for Honor Harrington.

I believe that paying for the same thing twice is a rip off.

Example: You buy food once,,then you buy more food. You buy a newspaper each time with different news. You purchase new tires for your car- you pay for them once, and maybe have them repaired under warranty or if they're damaged.

This is not the first time this has happened- this has happed with Webers Bolo long short story or short novel "Miles and miles to go".

I am out about 15 or 16 dollars. I love Webers writing- but I'm only willing to pay for it ONCE.

1) the store should hilight the YA genre more conspicuously
2) agree with previous review that the time jumps in the story of several years are disjointing
3) story contains several flashbacks and references to previous action which are also disjointing, prehaps they occurred in the above mentioned time jumps which were edited out , which required flashbacks to the deleted activity --very strange way to write a book

the subject matter of the book is firmly in the plot line of the series which should have done as an adult book as are the rest of the books
to introduce this material in a YA book serves no usefull purpose

'A Beautiful Friendship' appeared previously in 'More than Honor', a short story collection. This is the expanded version with added detail and story. It happens in the same world as David Weber's Honorverse series, although this book is targeted towards a younger audience and takes place earlier in time. It describes the meeting of treecats and humans for the first time and the beginnings of their interactions. Stephanie Harrington is a 12 year old girl, newly arrived on the planet who's just a bit too precocious. Trying to keep her occupied and out of trouble, her parents convince her to find out what or who is stealing celery from gardens around the planet. Once she solves this mystery, a whole new range of problems open up as humans discover that there are sentient creatures already living on their new planet. Overall, it's a nice addition to the Honorverse backstory and even though it's intended for a YA audience, I think most adult Honor fans will enjoy it also. There were one or two oddly written sections where I feel the author glossed over important events, but as these events were previously written in the short story collection 'Worlds of Honor' in the story 'The Stray', it was only referenced here. 'The Stray' does helps flesh out the back story of Dr. MacDallan's own treecat history and I'd recommend it to those interested. There was obviously room for a sequel or two at the ending of the book and I think this will be an engaging series for younger readers interested in a strong, female protagonist.

David Weber's "Honorverse" currently consists of 12 novels in the Honor Harrington series (with the next one due to be published in 2012) plus 5 short story collections published in the "Worlds of Honor" anthologies. That huge amount of material is a great backstory with which to work and this first entry in a new Young Adult series starring one of Honor's ancesters takes full advantage.

Don't worry if you've never read any of the other books though. I've only recently read a couple and have enjoyed them so much that I want to keep on reading. This book, "A Beautiful Friendship" stands on its own completely, requiring no previous knowledge of the Honorverse.

The novel itself reads like a really good book. Notice I didn't say, "a really good YA book." True, the protagonist is a young teenage girl but that's about the only clue. The author doesn't "dumb down" or "age down" the story for younger readers. The adults in the novel do not go around acting like idiots, allowing the young characters to run the show, as you find in so many YA titles. Instead, we are treated to a nice, heartwarming 1st contact story filled with awe-inspiring scenes, dangerous moments, courageous multi-dimensional characters, etc...just what I like in a fine story. And the fact that it serves to expand my knowledge of the Honorverse is just an added bonus.

Looking forward to more in this series.

Have you noticed how you often read a series and find that what you liked about the series gets thinner with each book? Weber does not have this problem. This is the first volume in a new series (Same universe as the 'Honor Harrington' books, but set earlier. These are likely intended for juveniles, but like Robert Heinlein, some of Weber's best work lies in that area!

Weber is an excellent writer - pick up any of his books and you will see that to be true. These are fun, even joyous in places, and are truly enjoyable to read. I recommended Weber to my wife and she read all the Harrington books, and then bought this series - and finished the three a few weeks ago.

You have already read the blurb review from the publisher, which tells you what the story is about. What it does not tell you is Weber's books (And this one) are character driven. You really will identify with the characters - probably even the Treecats (Especially true if you like animals, as we tend to anthropomorphize them). If you have read the earlier Harrington books, you will like these. If your looking for something fun to read - this would be an excellent choice. Looking for a gift for someone (Young or Old, it matters not) - consider buying this for thiem. Even if they don't read ordinarily, this might well make them do so - Yes, its that good.

Highly recommended!

Cover: Mostly solid, but Stephanie looks too old

Plot: Not as action-packed as the blurb made it sound. It ended up being more about the legal fall-out of discovering a sentient species whose sentience is hard for humans to document and confirm than about the adventures of the main characters, but that was still interesting. My main problem was the pacing of the middle section. There's this whole bit with a clan of treecats being murdered and another human-treecat pair surfacing that was not blended into the overarching story very seamlessly. Apparently this book was adapted from a short story so hopefully this won't be a problem in the other books in the series.

Characters:

Stephanie, the main human character was mostly an entertaining lead. She was very clever and adventurous. Unfortunately, her cleverness made her kind of condescending towards her peers sometimes, which was annoying.

Climbs Quickly/Lionheart is a treecat that accidently bonds with Stephanie. I always enjoyed the sections from his point of view because it was interesting to see humans from the POV of a species that's really different from us. The author did a good job of making the treecats feel alien but not so much so that they are unrelatable.

Mix a bunch of cliches for something actually new - parents move and kid hates new place, the smart girl has no friends, cats are telepathic! But wait - this exotic food called celery can enhance the tree-cats telepathic ability. And they are smart enough to hide from humans, AND smart enough to know that hiding from humans is a really good idea. Until one gets photographed by ... wait for it... lonely smart-girl.

Other cliches debunked - the smart and uncaring parents. Nope! Stephanie knows her parents love her, and while she's willing to go behind their backs she won't actually lie to them. It's just a question of them, ya know, asking the right question.

Another cliche - when Dad decides his lonely smart-girl needs to socialize more, the bigoted kid picks on Stephanie, and no adults step in.

On the other hand, since this is a YA book, it seems that the good vs evil is fairly clear. The bad guy practically has a neon arrow pointing at him.

David Weber adores his info-dumps, so there were a couple of places I just skipped three pages here and there. On the other hand, the two pages of how 'financial options' works was nice to see in a YA book.

This is my first foray into David Weber's Honor-verse, and I found it enjoyable enough. I think I'll pick up the next book and give it a read, too! I'm looking forward to seeing how the relationship Stephanie has with Climbs Quickly grows and evolves. And I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how Stephanie herself matures. (The sample at the end of this book suggests she'll still be pushing hard on every limit in book two, but I have hope we'll see her grow up before the trilogy is over.)

Another reviewer suggested this book wasn't written in a contemporary YA style, and I agree -- but I don't think it hurts the book. I think the primary difference is just that the point of view breaks from what is common in contemporary YA, and isn't afraid of utilizing the third person PoV to bring us outside of Stephanie's narrow scope of understanding and allow us to catch glimpses of what other elements are in play.

Really enjoyed this first volume in Weber's new "Star Kingdom" series! It's marketed to 'young adults' (YA) because Weber's protagonist is Stephanie Harrington, 14, the ancestor of Honor Harrington, and the first human to "discover" tree cats and bond with one. The novel focuses on Stephanie's adventures, with just enough said to make the adults' actions (esp. the antagonist) understandable. The core of the book is, of course, the beginning and development of the relationship between Steph and the treecat Climbs Quickly (or, as she names him, Lionheart). Weber made the decision to move back and forth between Stephanie's (along with the adult characters) perceptions and the dialogue occurring between Climbs Quickly and other tree cats (who call themselves 'The People'). Although this bothered another reviewer, I do not see how Weber could avoid this, because, in order to maintain tension and keep the plot moving, an obvious key element needed to be the tension that arises for the reader knowing the tree cats are as intelligent as humans (discernable from these conversations) but which Steph and the other humans can only guess at. Weber has carefully structured the novel so that, as Stephanie's relationship with Climbs Quickly/Lionheart develops, we begin to perceive some of the deeper implications of this relationship not just for the teen, but for this still-developing 'frontier' world. In so doing we also begin to perceive the much larger 'universe' (i.e.the intertwining webs of relationships, economics, politics, history, etc) in which this story is set. Just a hint, though. This is, after all, YA fiction. Weber's depiction of Stephanie is spot on, in that she is smart, curious, "full of herself", confident one moment and seriously questioning herself the next, all of which, to this father of four (now grown) daughters, rings very true. But Stephanie is more than your ordinary teen in that she is also phenomenally brave. She is a hero in the truest sense of the word, and reading the portions of the book where this extraordinary aspect of her was portrayed was nothing less than inspiring. Weber really knows how to write. Now, I have little problem with a lot of young adult fiction with characters set in bleak, urban, dystopic landscapes, and such characters dealing with complex paranormal relationships (i.e. vampires werewolves, zombies, the fey, succubus, angels, demons, etc. etc.), whether it's urban fantasy, paranormal romance, fantasy or science fiction. Apparently some reviewers do, to which I say, 'Chill Mom/Dad. Your kid is ACTUALLY READING A BOOK OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL. MOST DON'T. YOURS IS. THIS IS A GOOD THING." There's a lot of great reading here. And just about all of such YA fiction reinforces morality/ethics in some way, so that even though the setting may be bleak, the emotional tone at the end is most often hopeful and encouraging to the teen reader, living in their own dystopia of school, parents, etc. BUT! I have to admit that it's so nice, perhaps even wonderful, to experience a novel, a great story, that's set not in a dystopia, but rather in a classic space opera setting. Shades of those Heinlein juveniles! This is the type of story that I read when I was twelve that made me a science fiction fan for the rest of my life. Hmmm. . . I have to be truthful here. This novel is . . . . better than a lot of SF that I read when I was twelve and thirteen. No lie. . . Yeah, Sparkie, it's THAT GOOD!

This is a novel-length extended version of an excellent short story set in the Universe of David Weber's "Honor Harrington" series but some five hundred years earlier. The original short story was first published in the collection "More Than Honor" and can also be found in the more recent anthology "Worlds Of Weber."

"A beautiful friendship" describes how Stephanie Harrington, a twelve-year-old girl from the first generation of Honor Harrington's family to move to the Manticore system, became the first human to be "adopted" by a Sphinx treecat.

For anyone who has never read any of the Honor Harrington books, "Treecats" are a small arborial sentient species native to the planet Sphinx who look a bit like six-legged cats with long tails. Among themselves they are fully telepathic: they can read the "Mind-glows" of humans well enough to be empathic, e.g. they can read emotions but not thoughts. Treecats find the mind-glows of many humans attractive and in some circumstances a human and a treecat can form a lifelong bond similar to those between the human and dragon characters of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonflight series.

This book tells the story of that first bonding, of how Stephanie came to be known as "Death Fang's Bane" among the treecats, and of the struggle to have treecats recognised as an intelligent species with legal rights corresponding to human rights.

Weber has confirmed on his website that "A Beautiful Friendship" is first in a new prequel series, aimed particularly at young adults (though if I am anything to go by, grown-ups can enjoy it too). The next book in this series is called "Fire Season" and appears to be scheduled for publication in October 2012. The new series is called the "Star Kingdom" series.

We won't find that any human alive in Honor's time has personal memories of Stephanie because Weber tells us in "Mission of Honor: Honor Harrington, Book 12," a book in the Honorverse main series, that the first generation of the "Prolong" technology which allows Honor and many characters of her generation to expect a vastly extended lifespan, first became available about a hundred years before that book - e.g. four hundred years after the birth of Stephanie Harrington.

However, treecats can and do share memories, and one of the most important groups in their society are "Memory Singers" who act as a living library of important memories, some of which can be very old. Nimitz's wife Samantha, who is bonded to Honor Harrington's husband Hamish Alexander, is a memory singer.

In the original draft of this review, posted immediately after the publication of "A beautiful friendship," I wrote that "As treecats will learn to talk to humans through sign language in Honor's time, I'm not taking any bets against the possibility that in one of the future Honor Harrington books Samantha may be able to tell Honor of the treecats' memories of her long-dead relative Death Fang's Bane."

That was pretty close: in the very next main series book A Rising Thunder (Honor Harrington) which came out in March 2012, Samantha introduces Honor to "Sorrow Singer," a treecat memory singer who holds such a memory of Stephanie Harrington and can tell Honor, "You would have liked her. She was much like you in many ways."

The focus of this book is on how an intelligent but non-technological species like the treecats might react to the arrival of human colonists on their world, and on the good and evil ways that a society of human colonists might react to the discovery that the planet where they have been building a home for several generations is home to a native intelligent species.

There are no space battles in "A Beautiful Friendship." Like Honor's own parents and most of their family, Stephanie's parents are medical professionals. The original Republic of Haven, if it exists at all yet, has not decayed to become the corrupt and totalitarian "People's Republic of Haven" and so the military threat posed by the "Peeps" lies many years in the future.

However, the vast and ruthless conspiracy which will eventually become known as the Mesan Alignment does already exist, and there are signs that it may take an interest in the treecats ...

If you like the treecats in David Weber's other books you should read this even if you already have the short story. It's enjoyable and very interesting as long as you are not among that part of Weber's fanbase who read him solely for the battles.

If anyone reading this is a big fan of military or naval science fiction, and in the unlikely event that such a person has somehow managed to avoid reading any of the Honor Harrington books, click on the following link to the first book in Honor's story, "On Basilisk Station (Honor Harrington)," and you are unlikely to be disappointed.

12-year-old Stephanie was not happy about leaving her home on Meyerdahl to join a relatively new colony on the planet Sphinx with her parents. She was even less happy about the new limitations on her explorative nature. Sphinx was still largely a wilderness filled with unknown and possibly dangerous life forms, after all. But young Stephanie is not so easily deterred and when bunches of celery begin disappearing from the colony greenhouses, she takes it upon herself to discover the culprit.

No one could have guessed that the celery thieves were actually a whole new species that no human had ever seen before or even guessed at: a small, six-limbed breed of feline with apparent telepathic abilities. The "tree cats" as Stephanie dubs them, were aware of the humans of course, but had been very careful not to reveal their own presence. Stephanie seems different however, and this particular tree cat decides that maybe the humans could be friends and allies. But the cats, and Stephanie herself, will soon discover that while some humans are good, there are always those who will exploit any new thing if there is a potential profit. Stephanie and her new friend will need all their cunning to protect the tree cats, and to show the powers that be that these are thinking, feeling creatures and not just another pet.

The audio recording begins with the author's foreword, read by the author himself. In it, he explains that A Beautiful Friendship is set in his Honor Harrington series. In fact, it is the 18th novel in the series although it is written as a prequel so if you haven't read the other books, like me, you won't feel like you're missing out.

A Beautiful Friendship is categorized as a young adult book but it felt more like a middle grade to me. For one thing, the main character is middle grade herself and usually the age of the main character reflects whom the book is targeted at. Also, the way Stephanie was sleuthing around at the beginning looking for the celery stalker (pun intended) reminded me a lot of one of my childhood favorites, Encyclopedia Brown.

At any rate, the audiobook started off well for me. Stephanie is an interesting character and David Weber added some mystery and conflict early on, which caught my attention. Perhaps a couple of hours into the book however, I started to lose interest as the story devolved into a lot of political issues involving a new life form and what to do with it. Still later, a new character was introduced who wanted to capture tree cats and sell them as pets; the bad guy of the story. This almost got me interested again, but ultimately this science fiction story is more fiction than science and I was left feeling a little disappointed.

Khristine Hvam wasn't a bad narrator at all. She read at a comfortable pace in a crisp, clear voice and her voice characterizations were pretty good. Hvam is a voiceover professional with a fairly impressive list of credits to her name including roles in the Pokemon series as well as a Pokemon movie. She has also done commercial spots for Toshiba, GlaxoSmithKline, and Target.

I've read a fair amount of David Weber's stuff this year set in his Honorverse and following Honor Harrington, the heroine of the main series. Now we have the release of A Beautiful Friendship, the first in a new prequel teen series that focuses on one of Honor's ancestors, Stephanie Harrington. I'd heard about this a while back, but I hadn't read any of the Honorverse books at that time so I didn't pay it much attention. A bit of a mistake! Once I knew how much I enjoyed Weber's novels I got my order in for this straight away. My only real concern was whether or not I would be able to fully enjoy it knowing that it's the latest book written in such a large setting despite the prequel nature of the story. As is usually the case when I have these concerns there was no need at all. In fact, this is just about the perfect starting point...

Stephanie Harrington and her parents have recently moved to the Star Kingdom of Manticore, specifically the planet Sphinx within the binary system. Already the recipient of some genetic altering to live on a heavier gravity world, the Harrington family settles their homestead on the low populated frontier world. With a keen interest in the outdoors Stephanie is desperate to get out and about, but with Sphinx's native deadly species, such as the massive Hexapuma, her parents are not very keen on her venturing out on her own. Knowing that Stephanie won't disobey them, and trying to keep her mind active, they set her on the problem of the disappearing celery from human settlements around the planet. It isn't long before Stephanie discovers the mysterious thieves, and the possibility that Sphinx may already have its own sentient species in the treecats...

A Beautiful Friendship is partly based on the short story of the same name that appeared in one of the Honorverse anthologies and, while slightly amended, forms the first part of this new novel. I've not read the original story so I really didn't know what to expect other than a planet-based story focusing on a young main character. What struck me within the first few chapters was just how well it worked, how strong and interesting a character Stephanie is, and just how much I didn't know about the treecats!

Climbs Quickly is the main treecat character and it's through his eyes that we learn much about the history of human settlement on Sphinx and the way the treecats avoid and spy on the humans. We learn about their society, just how intelligent they are and, more importantly, just what they think of the humans, but this is an aspect that Climbs Quickly doesn't entirely agree with. Tasked to watch the two-legs we know as the Harrington's, he ponders many things while in discussion with his clan mates and while alone, and it helps the story immensely. It's when, after a trap set by Stephanie, he is caught trying to take celery that the story really gets into gear.

The treecats of Sphinx are telepathic, and while they can talk to each other in this manner they can't do so with humans, although a strong bond can form between two of them, much like it does between mated treecats. It's interesting because it is a two-way bond, the human can also feel the treecat, although this does increase with time and is never full telepathy, more like empathy. The climax of the first part of the novel is down to this aspect and is thoroughly enjoyable, setting the scene for all that is to come.

While the human/treecat relationship is one of the larger focuses of the story, so is the possibility, from the humans point of view, of them being sentient. But it's an aspect that Stephanie, her parents, and the others close to treecats wish to take slowly and carefully, not wanting a repeat of the mass-slaughter that occurred when another human-settled planet discovered they may not be the rightful owners.

It's during these aspects of the story that I found it was confused with just what it wanted to be. A Beautiful Friendship is marketed as a teen series, and while having the lead character a young female lends itself to that area, the writing is not really suited. Sometimes it works well and flows nicely, but at other times Weber shows his usual style of info-dumping and getting into more adult and complex themes. Stephanie herself seems a little too old for her age because of this, and it does effect the overall enjoyment of the novel. Had it simply been marketed as a prequel to the Honorverse there would have been little issue, although the uneven pacing does stand out.

Overall I did thoroughly enjoy A Beautiful Friendship, but it's not without its faults. I've only read a few of the Honorverse books so I felt relatively comfortable with both the setting and Weber's style, although this is a clear departure from the military themes of the Honor Harrington novels. I think it's a perfect starting point for anyone new to the Honorverse, but is it representational of the other books? No. However, if you know this going in I can't see any reason why A Beautiful Friendship shouldn't be enjoyed to the maximum!

I loved the ARC cover way more than I did the release cover!

If you like Sci-Fi where its more about the new world than it is about the technology then you will like this book. Also, if you aren't normally a Sci-Fi YA reader but just a YA reader, give this one a try because I didn't feel like it was hardcore science fiction at all - given that it could make for a smooth transition for you into a genre that you have yet to explore.

Stephanie Harrington is a smart alecky little girl with a lot of nerve. She likes to have her way, what person doesn't, but she is good about finding ways to get it. Her family has just recently moved to a planet that is in it's young stages of human colonization. The population there is still recovering from several bad bouts of a plague and her parents are much needed scientists. Due to that they are busy and don't have a lot of time spend with her.

Fortunately, for Stephanie, she is a resourceful girl, unfortunately, that trait also seems to get her into a lot of trouble. One of the traits I liked about her was she listened to her parents, but if they didn't specifically tell her no to something she would work her way around it without breaking the rules they had already set down for her. Trixy aye? I always like having enough rope to hang myself by...

The main reason I picked this book up was because of the description about the telepathic treecats. I love cats so I had to know more. This was written from mostly alternating perspectives of Stephanie and Climbs Quickly the treecat that Stephanie befriends. My enthusiasm about the treecats was not let down, they are an amazing species and I can't wait to read the next to learn more about them. He has some pretty decent character building, and we see some nice descriptions about his species and community in general. However, my biggest gripe is that after they become friends we don't get enough of his perspective. I also, personally like the name `Climbs Quickly' more than I did `Lionheart' which is what Stephanie named him.

I really can't think of anything else I didn't like about this. The story had a surprising ending that I didn't see coming and that for me is a major deal clincher on if I'll pick up the next book - which of course I will.

On an additional note: this the first David Weber book I have ever read - but because of it I have already picked up his adult Sci fi title On Basilisk Station.

This is the first book in the Honorverse: Stephanie Harrinton by Weber; a sub-series in his Honorverse series aimed at YA readers. The second book in this series, Fire Season, is due out October 2012.

The audiobook was very well done, with excellent narration and good distinction between character voices. It was a good book to listen to.

Stephanie has been forced to move to the relatively unpopulated planet of Sphinx when her scientist parents acquire land there. During one of her hanger flights Stephanie crashes into the forest only to be saved by another sentient species on the planet which she nicknames tree-cats. She bonds with a tree-cat she calls Lionheart and a struggle ensues to ensure the safety of this new species. The book switches between Stephanie's and Lionheart's/Climbs Quickly's viewpoints. This worked well for the story and gave us an excellent glimpse into both sentient life forms (humans and treecats).

I listened to Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi earlier this year and you can't help by think of that book when you read this one. To be honest this book is a less action-packed, less humorous Fuzzy Nation aimed at a YA audience. It is a decently done YA science fiction novel, but I felt like I was reading a watered down version of Fuzzy Nation.

This book does addresses some interesting issues like discovering and exploiting sentient species on a non-earth planet. Unfortunately the story is very simple and predictable. Things are incredibly very over-explained and reiterated again and again. The description is so repetitive and things are explained in such minute detail that the whole story felt very dumbed down.

Stephanie makes an excellent heroine. She is smart, funny, honest, and brave. The relationship she has with her parents is also really well done. You can tell that their family relationship is based on mutual respect; it's a family anyone would be happy to be part of. Lionheart and his clan are similarly respectful and reasonable with each other.

There were things that puzzled me though; like why was language such a barrier for so long between the humans and the tree cats? Stephanie and Lionheart are friends for over a year and they still have trouble communicating. You would think if both species are so intelligent then they would eventually start using hand signals or writing to communicate. This was just a major gap in logic that bothered me throughout the story.

Things are fairly well tied up at the end of the book, and although this is clearly not a stand alone novel, it could be read as such.

Overall a decent if somewhat flawed YA science fiction novel. I enjoyed the heroine and her family dynamic, the tree cats were also interesting. The story was very simplistic though and things were re-iterated to the point where the story felt a bit dumbed down. Also if you have read Fuzzy Nation by Scalzi then you have already read a very similar story that is funnier and more action packed than this one. I would tentatively recommend to middle grade or YA sci-fi fans; I don't think most adults will find much here to interest them. I would highly recommend reading John Scalzi's Fuzzy Nation instead of this book to explore similar topics.

A Beautiful Friendship by David Weber

Let me preface this by giving you my prejudice right up front, I am a major fan of David Weber and of anthropomorphism.

Anyone who has read the Honor Harrington books will recognize the name: Treecat. This book is Weber's entry into the Young Adult genre and it details first contact with the Treecats.

Weber may quantify this book as YA but it certainly reads as well and as interesting as all of his books. The characters are well defined and evoke positive emotions. I really enjoy the way Weber promotes loyalty, honor, responsibility and the rest of the Boy Scout motto.

Then there are the Treecats. If you have read any of my other reviews you have to be aware of how much I enjoy the interaction of minds between species. David Weber does it with such aplomb and panache that I sit in awe. Once again, Mr. Weber, you are an artist!

I highly recommend the book and not just for kids.

"A Beautiful Friendship" is a young adult science fiction adventure novel. I liked David Weber's early novels in his Honor Harrington series. His later novels were very slow paced with most of the action happening "off screen," so I wasn't sure what to expect from this novel. While I'm pleased that this novel didn't suffer from the same problems, the second half was a bit more slow-paced than I think most young adults would tolerate. The book also felt a little disjointed. Weber basically took previously published short stories from the "Worlds of Honor" collection and filled them out a little for this novel. So if you've read those stories, the most exciting events in this novel won't come as much of a surprise.

The characters were engaging and had realistic dilemmas to deal with--how to deal with prejudice, greed, etc. The world-building was excellent without slowing the pacing as much as in some of his adult novels. The suspense was created mainly by physical danger to Stephanie and Climbs Quickly, but also from some relationship tensions between Stephanie and those she felt might be a threat to the treecats.

There was no sex. There was a minor amount of explicit bad language. Overall, I'd say that this book would most appeal to fans of Honor Harrington, but they're also the ones who probably have already read the short stories that make up the backbone of this novel. However, I'm looking forward to future novels in this series.

I came into this novel unaware and unfamiliar with David Weber's "Honorverse." Happily, I realized that wouldn't be a problem, as A Beautiful Friendship is whole unto itself, a novel one can read without needing an extensive grounding in the author's previous works.

Concerning the exploits of young Stephanie Harrington, precociously intelligent and occasionally irritatingly irrepressible (to her parents, that is, who constantly try to keep her out of trouble, a usually futile experiment), and her bond with a member of the extraordinary species which shares her planet, a treecat by the name of Climbs Quickly, the book has a slow but steady build, leading to a satisfying climax and a not-too-dangling opening for future books. While occasionally the language could seem a bit...clunky, it was understandable considering it was coming from a perspective of a culture trying to describe human items using non-human terms. At other times, the narrative seemed a bit wordy, but for the most part the story moved along at a brisk clip, introducing characters and concepts in a steady pace. The villain was suitably villainous without being overtly so (no cackling, no mustache-twirling) and he had a satisfying comeuppance at the end of the tale. The best part of the story was, while Stephanie was clearly described as a young adult, a preteen at the beginning of the story, she is represented in a positive way, intelligent, determined, with a clear moral compass and sense of duty. Yes, she occasionally whines and pouts and she occasionally rebelled against her parents' restrictions--if she didn't, she wouldn't be realistic. However, that wasn't her whole character. The relationship between her and Climbs Quickly, though, is at the heart of the book and in it is where Stephanie truly blossoms into a fully-fleshed human being, not just a character who happens to interact with a cute and quirky new animal. From Climbs Quickly is where Stephanie, never a waffling sort of person, gets her sense of purpose: To protect the newly discovered species from the conflicting and potentially deadly interests of the many powerful political and private groups both on planet and off. Which gives us our second plotline of the book and a continuing thread of a story for any sequels.

In the end, although I'm not the demographic towards which this book is aimed, I still enjoyed it and found it to be a delightful introduction to Weber's Honorverse.

First off, I must confess, I love Weber's Harrington universe and all the books in them. So I was slightly disposed to enjoy this book from the time I cracked open the first page. And I will say, it did not disappoint. I think the most awesome part about this book is that, despite the fact that it is categorized as Young Adult, Weber doesn't dumb it down any. The universe Stephanie Harrington is born into is quite complex, with all the scientific advances as well as political situations. Weber simplifies, but doesn't dumb it down.

To me, the aspect which makes this a YA book is that the primary character is a young adult. But the situation she is finds herself in is quite an adult one, and her decisions and actions have real consequences. Weber does an excellent job of not shying away from these.

Another aspect of not dumbing down the material is that the book is rife with many sci-fi concepts, many of which are unique to Weber's universe this book takes place. Weber does an excellent job of introducing/revealing these things without overwhelming the reader.

In conclusion, I greatly enjoyed this book and can't wait until the next one comes out. I would highly recommend this to any teens - though be forewarned, this will definitely prove to be a "gateway" book for many into discovering the massive Honor Harrington series this YA series is a prequel to. Of course, in my mind, that's not a bad thing.

I am inclined to disagree with Kirsten on this one (I don't actually know who she is, but that's what the bookmark said when I got it from the library).
First off, this book is all-around an OK read. It was funny, sad and altogether a good story.
The author, however, seems to be unsure if he is quite emphasizing his point enough and sees fit to over-employ the word "literally". For instance, "They literally ripped the hexapuma to shreds." REALLY?! LITERALLY?! RIPPED? SHREDS!? TO!?!
That was about the third time he used the word. He did it again when referring to the event later. Dude, we believe you. It was ripped to shreds. With claws. "Ripped to shreds" is not a figure of speech, so there is no need to modify it to ensure that readers know that the creature was, indeed ripped to shreds. "Literally" does not add emphasis, it simply means that something happened exactly as it is said.
For instance, you would expect a guy who is engulfed in flames whilst playing the banjo to be exhorted with the yelled, "You're literally on fire, dude!" If he is merely an awesome banjo player, however, it is erroneous to say as much, and yelling, "You are literally an awesome banjo player, dude!" is simply unnecessary.
That bothered me. I have read better Young Adult fiction by Sci-fi authors. Still, points for the treecats.

INTRODUCTION: The Honorverse occupies a special place in my affection. I have been a huge fan since I have discovered the first several books in 1994 and I have been rereading the series books quite a lot across time. Today the series is still my #1 ongoing one and each new novel is a highly, highly anticipated one. I find myself visiting Baen's Webscriptions 5 times a day when I know there is the possibility of a Honorverse e-arc for sale.

When the novelization of the short story "A Beautiful Friendship" as the start of a new YA series was announced, I was a little mixed for several reasons - while I really liked it, I am leery of prequels and I also thought the scope of this series will be limited in many ways unless the author does a complete rewriting of the early Manticoran history in contradiction with what we know from almost 25 Honorverse volumes. On the other hand, the YA label did not bother me since Mr. Weber has written several Honorverse stories with YA as main protagonists and they were all interesting and entertaining.

Stephanie Harrington always expected to be a forest ranger on her homeworld of Meyerdahl, until her parents relocated to the frontier planet of Sphinx in the far distant Star Kingdom of Manticore. It should have been the perfect new home --- a virgin wilderness full of new species of every sort, just waiting to be discovered. But Sphinx is a far more dangerous place than ultra-civilized Meyerdahl, and Stephanie's explorations come to a sudden halt when her parents lay down the law: no trips into the bush without adult supervision!

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: There are three aspects about "A Beautiful Friendship" that I will talk about: who is the audience of the novel, the Honorverse fan or someone new to the series, how does the novel integrates with the original story and where does it stand in the detailed universe created by the author?

Before that I will just note that "A Beautiful Friendship" is a normal Weber novel, YA label aside, so the same exuberant, talkative and flowing style, the occasional info dumps and the meticulous world building combine with his usual characters: the competent heroine or hero, the bumbling villain or the able villain who just may be on the wrong side for generic - eg born into a dictatorship and a "patriot" - rather than personal flaws. Also as expected treecats star quite a lot in the novel, though their role in the main story of the Honorverse has been important too.

I read A Beautiful Friendship in a sitting and it entertained me end to end, so I would say that even if you are a huge fan of the Honorverse and read the original story several times as I previously did, you will enjoy the novel. This being said, I think that a newcomer to this superb sfnal universe will enjoy it even more since he or she will stay in suspense about the main plot of the book to the end, will discover the world of Sphinx and will wonder about the future fate of the treecats in an occasionally merciless human universe. All points that are known to any fan of the series and proving again that prequels have intrinsic limitations that even the ablest author won't be able to go around.

To my surprise, the first part of "A Beautiful Friendship" which corresponds to the original story has been expanded to include much more detail about the treecat clans before "first contact" and about Stephanie's life, so it offered lots of new and interesting nuggets and I think that Mr. Weber did a great job integrating the original text with the new stuff. This part was as excellent as the earlier short story and it is a major highlight of the novel even for people who have read the short story.

The second part which continues after first contact was more conventional - various moneyed and powerful interests do not like treecats and/or the idea of treecats being protected and "given" vast pieces of land said interests want, others want to do good but only bumble and fumble, while others have even more sinister goals and it's up to Stephanie Harrington, Climbs Quickly and an assorted cast of helpers, both humans and treecats to thwart the bad guys and put the good but bumbling guys on the right path so to speak.

This part was still engaging and while it ended at a very good point, I am curious where this series goes next. It is true that the "big picture" scope is limited by what we know from the main series that takes place some 500 years later, but who knows since David Weber is extremely good at twisting and turning the story around even when you think you know what's what. So I expect to be surprised!

Overall, A Beautiful Friendship (A+) was a positive surprise for me and my fears outlined in the introduction never really materialized except for the prequel limitations which meant that a lot what happens, has to be in a certain way. Of interest to both younger and older readers, the Honorverse fan and the casual or new Weber reader, A Beautiful Friendship is an entertaining end to end romp.

Note: This review has been originally published on Fantasy book Critic and all links and references are found there

A Beautiful Friendship is a solid YA Science Fiction novel. The story is definitely tailored toward the younger YA audience, but the reading/apprehension level is quite high for the younger YA crowd... It appears as though Weber was unsure as to what age group he wanted to target with this book. Not only was it wordy at times, but A Beautiful Friendship was also overly descriptive of certain elements. For this reason, I found myself skimming a few times as much of the description didn't seem to add to the story. I also found there to be some issues with pacing. I would have liked to see this split up into a couple books versus having one big climax at the beginning and one at the end.

What saved this book for me was the wonderful world building. Weber managed to create a completely original, complex, and dangerous setting for A Beautiful Friendship. The humans were fairly flat characters, but the treecats were well thought out and interesting. As a reader, you get a deeper look into their minds than you do the humans.

I would recommend this for more skilled YA readers. As both a Sci-Fi and YA reader, I found this book to be a bit confusing. It doesn't know exactly what it wants to be. Overall, it was an interesting read, but I think I'll check out Weber's non-YA Sci-Fi books next time.

Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review.

Disclaimer: I am reviewing an unproofread advance copy, that I received for free through the Vine program.

I did enjoy this book, although my wife wasn't crazy about it. I have read all of the Honor Harrington books and the Honorverse books and the Saganami etc. books, but this one is my wife's first exposure to the author's work.

All the time I was reading all the Honor etc. books, I kept thinking that the 'treecats' were by far the most interesting aspect of them, and I found myself wishing for "more treecats".

So when I read the novella version of this story, initially published in the Honorverse collection "More Than Honor", I was really happy. Now this is an expanded version of that novella, turned into a full-fledged novel (although as some have pointed out, for Weber it is pretty short, in comparison with many of his other books).

My wife points out that although Weber has great ideas for a great story and interesting ideas, his execution, his writing style, lacks a bit of craft. So this bothered her enough to be a turn-off.

Me, I don't mind, I guess I've read past clumsy dialogue etc. in great science fiction for many years now.... H.P.Lovecraft, Robert Heinlein, etc. were never known for their excellent characterizations or realistic witty dialog.... Now it IS great to read exceptionally well-written sci fi with great dialog and characters, by more modern authors like Julie Czerneda, Karen Traviss or Alistair Reynolds. But Weber is a good enough writer for me, and his ideas are just so interesting, and his sketching out of the whole series of novels about Honor Harrington is just so large and majestic that I can overlook some wooden artificial characters & dialog. (my wife suggested that he could do with a collaborator, and I did point out to her that some of his best short stories, in the Honorverse collections, are indeed collaborations...).

But anyway -- do read this book, especially if you enjoy the Treecats more than all the details about tonnage and missile staging and counter-measures and zero-zero encounters and Warshawski sails etc. in the rest of Weber's novels...

As a young person I was a huge fan of Robert A Heinlein's science fiction novels aimed at a young audience. I read and reread them endlessly. Later he wrote books with much more depth, very different from his earlier work. I loved these books too. I haven't read a lot of the science fiction genre in many years as for some reason I didn't find the ones being written these days all that entertaining. So what I was hoping for here was something as clever and fun as my old Heinlein friends.

I would love to visit the Sphinx planet and see those amazing trees where the treecats reside, hidden away from the two legs. The description of these trees is fabulous and it sounds like it would be fun to play among them.

Oh and I do wish I could have a telepathic conversation with a relative of Lionheart. It would be amazing to "taste" someone's mind glow, or hear the singers tell the story again and again. I would hope not to meet a Hexapuma unless I was protected by a large "trank gun" or a huge clan of treecats.

Stephanie Harrington seems to have the potential to be a great hero for a series of stories about Sphinx and how the early residents ganged together to protect the environment.

A Beautiful Friendship seems to have everything a good story should have, excitement, fun characters, good guys, bad guys and some very imaginative creatures as well as really cool plants.

It was originally written as a short story and I think the padding to make it into a novel did not really add to the story. There is lots of talk and more talk in between the two really big action scenes at the beginning and the end.

I would hope that this is creative and clever enough to get reluctant young people to read, but I am not sure it will.

I looked up David Weber and found he has written another series about Honor Harrington, can anybody tell me how Honor is related to Stephanie, assuming that the same name indicates the same family somehow.

Xeno-veterinarian Richard Harrington, his botanist wife Marjorie and their twelve years old daughter Stephanie move from planet Meyerdahl to Sphinx. The adults are ecstatic with relocating but their tweener offspring is upset having to leave behind friends and the big city of Hollister to reside in boring rustic Two Forks where harsh winters never end. Stephanie finds herself as an outsider with kids her age as her interests in xeno forests is shared by none of them

Native to Sphinx are the sentient treecats. They are cautious about revealing themselves to the two-legged outsiders. Thus Climbs Quickly is tasked with observing those residing on the Harrington farm.

Stephanie is fascinated with someone stealing celery from her mom's greenhouse and those of others. The locals set traps, but she sees how inane their attempts are. Instead she sets her own gizmo to try to capture the thief. She sees a six-legged treecat climbing out a window and takes a picture. Using a glider, she searches and meets Climbs Quickly as a storm threatens both of them followed by a stalking beast.

This fascinating look at ancestors of Honor Harrington is an enjoyable young adult science fiction thriller that focuses on the first bonding between a treecat and a human. The story line is character driven by the humans and the treecats as two cultures collide not always smoothly. Although background between how well the two species, especially their respective families, cope with the unique bonding is ignored for action, readers will appreciate A Star Kingdom's tale of the beginning of A Beautiful Friendship.

Harriet Klausner

** This reviewer owns the Audio Version **

I got this book because of the high reviews it has received and I wasn't disappointed. The book was an easy read, and fun. The audio version is about average. Its not tedious, and not amazing. Some reviewers note that the "bonding" between tree-cats and humans isn't explained. This didn't really bother me since the book is told from the character's perspective. THEY don't know yet how or why their bonds form, so we don't know either. I would render a guess that this phenomenon will be figured out in later books. In the mean time, I have my own ideas of what could allow a link to form. This is something I like from a book, some questions unanswered, but not HUGE plot lines. I think David Weber did a good job with this.

As far as kids go, this book is free from any sexual content, but does have some violence early on when Stephanie gets into a scrape. By violence I mean blood, if you made the book into a movie, the "blood everywhere" would bump up the rating pretty fast. It is just the one part though. As far as understanding plot content goes I would say 10 and up, and you can decide about the blood. There is a bit of the whole fern gully/ avatar feel going on, where "evil humans" pose a threat to the native species, but its not too overdone.

Overall, it was a pleasant book. I would probably give it a 3.5, its good, I will read it again so I bumped it to a 4.

David Weber has moved the very successful "Honorverse" one step back in history and one step down the bookshelves, to present the story of young frontier-settler Stephanie Harrington and her discovery of the sentient race that she names "treecats" as a YA book. A Beautiful Friendship melds and expands on two previous Weber short stories, one about Stephanie bonding to Climbs Swiftly (soon named "Lionheart" by the humans) and the other about Scott MacDallan and his treecat buddy Swift Striker, I mean "Fisher."

This is a sweet, one-level book that goes through the three stages of new friendship rather quickly. The curiosity and first meeting are well-explored, as are the reservations about contact from the treecat perspective. The first test of friendship and the danger that brings them together are a bit hasty through the action sequence, but not too bad. The alternating gloss-over and deep dives about human politics and personal interactions in the second half made for a bumpy and uneven reading experience for me. I admit to flipping past some sections only to have to go back because suddenly the plot reappeared.

This is definitely a YA book aimed at advanced readers who are still enjoying the younger emotions. It has adventure and excitement - treecats and hang gliding! - and none of those stupid romance issues that adult books drag around for no good reasons.

Solid characterization if a tad on the juvenile side.

I suppose since the protagonist is a young teen, that's probably appropriate.

I got this as a freebie on Kindle and went from this directly to the main Honor Harrington novels. I'll probably go back and buy the 2nd and 3rd books in this prequel series at some point.

The idea of a human bond with a telepathic animal (especially an alien one) isn't really that new...Dragonriders of Pern was a huge part of my own childhood...however, a lot of the ideas in this book are really quite novel and fun to think about.

Some of the points I found most interesting as concepts:

1) That the telepathic People/treecats and the verbally communicative humans can not actually communicate with one another, even when bonded. So very different are their communication methods that although they can reach an understanding, direct communication is not (in this book anyway) possible. Treecats just cannot seem to comprehend sound language no matter how they try, nor can humans ever directly discern completely coherent thought from them. This leads to a lot of interesting cultural differences and really influences the way the two deal with each other.
2) Primitive hunter/gatherer alien society with highly advanced humans. Not all that novel...and yet much of my experience in sci-fi does not have humans this far ahead of the aliens it encounters (in fact, usually it's the opposite dichotomy). But this does lead to a really interesting exploration of that society figuring out how to deal with the humans...avoid them and hide? Contact them?
3) Dealing with the pets vs. sentient species conflict with a species that is so different its intelligence is hard to guage and which really does seem to hit the human sense of "small, cute, and petlike" and what that means.
4) Interesting details about an imaginary human past...exploration of planets, contact with other sentient species (although it would have been nice to know more...we really only find out about one that did not go well), differences in biology, climate, gravity, etc.
5) Interesting and acknowledged details about where humanity has advanced (sub-molecular edged knives) and where it either hasn't or has keep the "old" ways as superior (modern style bullet rifles)
6) Examination of very complex human natures both good and bad.

However...all that said, the book also left a lot to be desired, mostly because it tended to have a very jarring flow with "snippets" of story. There is a decent lead up right until the time that Stephanie/Death Bane's Fang (main female human character) and Climbs Quickly/Lionheart bond...then the story immediately jumps ahead 3-4 years, completely skipping over pretty much all of them getting to know each other, Climb's Quickly's recovery from serious injury, humanity's initial reaction to treecats, Climbs Quickly's reaction to being introduced to much of humanity's culture/technology/etc for the first time, integration with the families (Climbs Quickly into Stephanie's and, to a lesser extent, Stephanie's into his when they visit him). Then it jumps around from there until it settles on a plot. There are long (somewhat dragging parts...well written enough but enough sidetracking from the story they're not really as interesting as they could be) segues into hanggliding, riflery, and so on. There are tantalizing little glimpses of other stories in the background (one example is when an entire treecat clan gets wiped out and another human/treecat pair is tragically involved) but you don't get to actually learn a whole lot about these. Then it finally settles on a plot involving a corrupt pet dealer that seems a bit...trite and rushed toward an ending.

There are also quite a few questions for me that just don't feel right...perhaps because of the jarring pace of the story. I wonder the following questions:

1) Why do so few treecat/human bonds form? When Climbs Quickly's clan first saw his bond, it was agreed more should attempt it...yet in 4-5 years, only 3 bonds form.
2) Did Kane/Kale (whatever the other boy's name was...I don't recall) actually form a bond with his own treecat or not? It seemed to hint that maybe and then didn't clarify at the end.
3) What were the other sentient species meetings like?
4) How did Stephanie initially prove to people that treecats were intelligent when so few except Lionheart every publically emerged? (It does seem to become generally accepted, even if the degree is not)
5) Although treecats learn some things from the humans (farming) they seem completely indifferent to much of their technology (they admire it perhaps, but don't really seem to want it or emulate it...with his "hands" which are dexterous enough to do things like make nets, Climbs Quickly seems able, but you never really see him using any of the human tools). Why is that?
6) The bond isn't really fully fleshed out. It's implied that it's like but not the same as a bond that forms between treecats when they find mates. Stephanie is clearly not impaired from finding a romantic interest, but those treecats that bond (all two of them) seem like they might end up single...does the bond with a human interfere with finding a mate?
7) Can the treecats bond with anyone or just "special" humans with a bit of telepathic ability already? The Dr. (can't recall his name) who bonds with Fisher (other treecat) has ability. It's not really clear that Stephanie does although it's heavily implied that she's somehow more empathic (toward treecats though not really other humans). Does this imply that maybe a really strongly telepathic human really could break through the communication barrier with a future bondmate?

Really...I loved the concept and many of the ideas but it's the pacing and general lack of information (that's tantalizingly hinted at) that makes me give this 3 stars...it leaves both wanting and dissatisfied. Long well examined details on weaponry and side tangents, big gaps on things that seem like they could be key story line. You could fit a whole book in between the initial fight with the Death's Bane/Hexapuma when their bond is really discovered and where the story picks up years later... And then the fact that the main villain doesn't feel real whereas other characters are so well examined. It's just kind of odd.

One additional note of disappointment - I tried hard to imagine how a treecat would look being six legged. I couldn't even fully decide how they would stand or walk around most of the time (I mean that I could think of multiple ways but couldn't pick the "right" one so I ended up assuming them to be essentially 4 limbed versions of Puss in Boots most of the time when reading). This could be easily solved by showing me cover art that didn't hide half the treecat.

As an avid reader in the Honorverse, I was sure to enjoy this. But what was even better is its appeal to me as an introductory book for the main series. Or even as a book to get a young reader interested in books as a whole. Most parents and teachers know that getting a child to read a really good book is a great way to get them interested in reading itself. And making a child into a reader is a first step to enhancing their education.

There is a short story somewhere in the collections in the Honorverse that is a kickoff point for this book. I have read that story and really enjoyed having it expanded and explained more. Whether you have read it or not is not important, since it is included in the book.

Stephanie is a 12 year old girl and is a very strong role model for young girls, as well as being involved in some very interesting events. These events are interesting enough that boys also will like this book. She is not a girly girl so has interest for both. This would be a great book for school libraries and for any parent who wants to get a child to be interested in reading. And it is also quite interesting for adults, especially those who want more about the treecats.

I loved this book. It has been years since I've read an Honor Harrington novel and now I am wondering why. I was completely captivated by this novel and feel the urge to reread the entire Honor Harrington series...which would be quite the undertaking considering my to-be-read stack is already overflowing but I might have to pick up and read a few anyway.

A Beautiful Friendship is perfect for fans of the Harrington series or to get young readers interested in reading them. This book is about Stephanie Harrington and how she became a companion to her treecat. Lionheart is a six legged sentient treecat looking being on the planet Harrington's parents have recently moved to. They were unknown to the local population until Stephanie and Lionheart formed a unique telepathic bond that leads her to his clan home. Things aren't going to be easy for the 14-year-old Stephanie and her new companion but then, when you are 14 things are never easy.

This book is written around two characters; that of Climbs Quickly, also known as Lionheart, and Stephanie. The entire cast of characters within this novel was interesting and engaging. From Stephanie's parents to the all the scientists that want to study Lionheart to his clan, each had their own unique voice which brings this book to life.

This book presents some social issues plainly and in an easy-to-understand way. Stephanie must prove that Lionheart is a sentient being but without revealing too much that could make people see treecats as a threat to human expansion. The conflict between showing Lionheart as sentient without putting people on edge was very interesting and I feel it was presented well in this book. I've felt that sometimes Weber spends too much time on the political and military aspects of his adult novels and I was thrilled with this book. While the political parts were there, they were assets to the story and the time dwelt upon them was enough to keep me interested but short enough that I wasn't bored.

I loved reading about Stephanie and Lionheart. 5 Stars!

Weber is at his best when he has a single main character in his story and the plot follows the character as they take on new challenges and grow.

A Beautiful Friendship is a wonderful example of how good Weber's writing can be when he keeps to that formula.

There isn't much to dislike in the book. The villains are a bit abstracted, and the few direct confrontations end up coming off rather flat, but that would be my only real complaint.

The characters are fun and engaging. And the plot is a nice addition to the Honorverse. Weber did an excellent job taking a small event from long before Honor was born and turning it into a short and engaging novel.

This book can stand alone, or be added to anyone's collection of other Honorverse books. It's not the best Wever has written, but its definitely worth reading.

I read some of David Weber's early works with some disdain and have dismissed his later efforts as probably more of the same. That was a mistake. As a result, I am now enjoying a few of his other books.

Mr. Weber has tried to write a novel from the point of view of a female and a child/adult. It rings true as to the young perspective (as best as I can remember), but I can't speak to the feminine angle.

As a straight up opus of juvenile SF, it is wonderfully written. Since it IS a juvenile, it is a little shallow for adult standards -- the villains are really evil and the good guys are dependably ethical. It is also great fun. I truly enjoyed reading it and highly recommend it for adolescent reading and for those of us who remember that portion of our lives with some affection.

Weber has written a delightful young adult book. A young, very bright girl encounters the first other intelligent creatures on the planet she lives on. Stephanie is aware enough to realize that adults may not consider her discovery to be a good thing; she is astute enough to realize that this can't be hidden forever.

This book can facilitate discussion with young adults about so many things. Peer pressure. Xenophobia. The relationship between human beings and animals, intelligent and otherwise. The penalties and privileges that come with being very smart and/or very athletic and/or very anything different - especially when one is not an adult.
Sexuality can probably be worked into things, but it isn't an overwhelming concept in this book. Friendship, in all it's many permutations, is far more important.

David Weber is an exceptionally well-known writer among those who read science fiction, most particularly for his military science fiction series featuring Honor Harrington. The series spans Honor's career in the Royal Manticoran Navy from midshipman to Grand Duchess and Admiral. And wherever Honor went, she was accompanied by her treecat, Nimitz, usually riding on her specially-padded shoulder.

Honor was born on Sphinx, a planet in the Star Kingdom of Manticore-a world settled by colonists from Earth. Treecats were the native sentient species on Sphinx, six-legged, telepathic, and looking something like domestic cats with very long prehensile tails. Treecats and humans sometimes formed an empathic lifelong bond.

A Beautiful Friendship is the story of Stephanie Harrington, one of Honor's ancestors, and the colonist who made first contact with the treecats. This is a coming-of-age story, showing interactions between human and treecat even as Stephanie is growing up and trying to figure out what to do with herself and her future. It's a colonization story, set on a pioneer planet that still holds many dangers, with people exploring and learning about their new home. And it's also a classic "first-contact" story, handling the complicated twists and turns that occur when the colonists realize that they share the planet with another sentient species-and that species was there first!

Most of the story is told from Stephanie's point of view-this is her story, make no mistake. Occasional scenes and chapters fill in gaps using some of the adults as viewpoint characters where absolutely necessary to the plot. The other main viewpoint character is Lionheart, Stephanie's treecat, or as he is referred to by his clan, Climbs Quickly. The chapters from his point of view, explaining treecat society and motivations is a real treat. The treecats find "two-legs" very confusing. For those familiar with Carole Nelson Douglas's Midnight Louie mysteries, these chapters are a similar read to those from Louie's viewpoint (a Las Vegas private eye with four black paws).

While Stephanie is an exceptionally bright girl, she is also quick-to-anger, and fiercely protective of those she loves. When she is in trouble, she looks for a logical solution to the problem, and really tries to think outside the box. But sometimes there isn't an easy or quick solution, and she ended up frustrated, but that made the book a more satisfying read as she worked her way through more complex and layered problems.

I particularly enjoyed the insight into treecat society and their description of human activities-"Why should they need a nest place so large?" I also enjoyed the brief forays into the economics of colonization, and the concept of aided immigration: paying for your passage to the colony and earning the right to vote sooner versus having the government cover your passage and then paying taxes for several years before you voted in planetary elections.

While clearly aimed at and marketed as a young adult book, A Beautiful Friendship is suitable for people of all ages, most especially those who have shared a special relationship with a feline at some point in their lives.

A Beautiful Friendship is based on a short story of the same title, which appeared in the anthologies More Than Honor and Worlds of Weber.

A Beautiful Friendship (2011) is the first SF novel in a young adult prequel to the Honor Harrington series. It is set on Sphinx, the second settled world in the Manticore binary star system and the birthplace of Honor Harrington. It takes place eight decades before Honor's birth.

In this novel, Richard Harrington has degrees in both Terran and xeno-veterinary medicine. He was enticed to move his practice from Meyerdahl to Sphinx. He comes from a gengineered family adapted for heavy gravity planets like Meyerdahl and Sphinx.

Marjorie Harrington is Richard's wife and the mother of Stephanie. She is a xeno-botantist and is even more busy than her husband. She too has the heavy grav modifications.

Stephanie Harrington is Richard and Marjorie's twelve standard years old daughter. She is upset by the move away from Meyerdahl and her former friends. Two Forks is nothing like the metropolis of Hollister where they had previously lived.

Climbs Quickly is a six-legged treecat. His species is sapient and native to the planet of Sphinx. They are avoiding the two-legged newcomers until a decision is reached about the attendant risks of revealing themselves. He is assigned to observe activities on the Harrington farm.

In this story, the long -- seventeen month long -- winter is finally over. Now Stephanie wants to explore this new planet. But her father and mother forbid her to roam the forests as she had done on Meyerdahl.

Stephanie had just been accepted as an intern in the junior forestry program on Meyerdahl. Sphinx is too new and the forestry service is too small to have such programs. The Chief Forester would like to develop something like that in the future, but not anytime soon.

Her father points out that Sphinx has been only lightly explored. There are still many places, animals and plants that have not yet been investigated. There are also sufficient known dangers to preclude such activities.

None of the kids in Two Forks are interested in xeno-biology. They are interested in pets, but are very likely to abuse or neglect them. She is also more intelligent than almost every other kid.

Stephanie is inspired by a minor mystery in the horticulture community. Something is stealing celery from greenhouses. She studies the attempts to catch the thieves and notices a flaw in the plans.

Sphinx animals have a visual range extending into infrared. The lasers previously used to trigger cameras have also been in the infrared range. So she builds ultraviolet lasers to detect intruders in her mother's greenhouse.

After the devices are installed, Stephanie stays up late waiting for something to trip the beams. A signal is received and she goes out her window with a camera. She sneaks close to the greenhouse and catches Climbs Quickly coming out of the building.

Both are very startled, but Stephanie takes a picture of the treecat. Climbs Quickly scoots for the trees and Stephanie climbs back up to her window. Now she knows what is stealing the celery, but she is not sure what to do with the evidence.

Stephanie decides to tell nobody about the treecat. She remembers the problems with local pets. And she knows about the public reaction to the last discovery of a sapient species.

Marjorie tries to make more time for Stephanie, but her work load is too heavy. Richard enlists the mayor of Two Forks in a hang gliding club. Stephanie likes hang gliding and is the leading flyer in the club.

Stephanie also has another use for the hang glider. Since she found the treecat, she has been able sense the direction to the animal. When she gets a chance, Stephanie soars over the forest toward the treecat.

At three hundred feet, nothing in the forest can reach her. But she forgets that she has to come down someplace. She also forgets to check the weather report and finds herself in a storm.

This tale brings Stephanie and Climbs Quickly together again. She crashes in the storm and breaks some bones. He also senses her bearing and runs toward her. Then a hexapuma discovers Stephanie and Climbs Quickly.

This story invoked a sense of pride in the courage and determination of the heroine. Stephanie is very much like a younger and inexperienced Honor. The battles are smaller, but Stephanie is just as fierce.

This novel is based on a shorter story in the Honorverse volume More Than Honor. It also relates the problems that occur after treecats are revealed to the public. The next installment in this series has not yet been announced.

Highly recommended for Weber fans and for anyone else who enjoys alien intelligences, empathic talents and likeable youngsters. Read and enjoy!

-Arthur W. Jordin

Let me preface this by saying two things: 1) I've never read David Weber or his 'Honorverse' before. I had no idea this was part of that multi-book saga, as such I think the significance of somethings were lost on me. 2) It wasn't until I read another reviewer that I found out this was once a short story and had been expanded. That may account for some of the issues I had.

Going into A BEAUTIFUL FRIENDSHIP I was expecting something different I suppose. I didn't necessarily expect a book aimed at a (much) younger audience than myself, or that the writing would feel so...not amateur, but unsophisticated maybe. Many of the chapters ended abruptly--either with Stephanie exhibiting some emotion (irritation, excitement, fear) or just plain ended. I didn't feel there was s significant transition between many scenes and often had to re-read what I'd just read because suddenly we were a chunk of time later. Practically all of the beginnings after the treecats appear and the humans begin to study them/their interactions are glossed over in favor of jumping to an immediate threat. As I understand it the Honorverse novels are set quite a bit later then the Star Kingdom books, so then are the earlier forays into cross-species dynamics better explored there?

Stephanie was a well defined character. Not always likeable and often rather bratty, but she's demonstrates a keen intelligence and her situation (especially at first) is rather dreary so I could understand her sullenness. Its a bit like handing a child the keys to Disney World, but not letting them leave the hotel room. I do think some of her actions were at odds with her age, but I mostly chalked that up to the genetic enhancements she has (which are also glossed over). The undercurrent of peaceful cohabitation and not being reckless with the environment felt a bit overdone though.

While this may have been meant as a stand alone, the fact Weber glosses over information that is pertinent to the background of the world, but more than likely covered half a dozen times in his other books, makes this a little confusing to a new reader like me. Its possible though that someone younger (I'd say this is aimed at about 12-14?) won't notice these things and just jump right on board for the action and the amazing world. I would have at that age.

I've heard a lot of good things about David Weber's Honor Harrington series, so I jumped on the opportunity to read one of his books to review here. I was not disappointed.

The book follows Stephanie Harrington, a 14 year old girl living in a rural area in a recently settled planet. The planet has a sentient species, later to be called "treecats". The treecats have been hiding from the humans for over 50 years, so no one knows of their existence. The treecats communicate with each other through thought. They are able to sense the "mind-glow" of other species and that allows them to hunt easily. However, they have seen the weapons that humans carry and have been avoiding them.

Stephanie is a very smart adventurous young girl and she wants to explore the planet. As the title of the book suggests, Stephanie will eventually meet a treecat and develop a Beautiful Friendship. The first half of the book deals with how this comes to happen. The second half of the book deals with the issue of how to have a peaceful coexistence between two sentient species. I should point out that the book follows the points of view of Stephanie and of Climbs-Quickly, a treecat. Reading the point of view of an alien creature was a fun experience.

One of the things I enjoyed a lot about the book is how the author subtly considers how reading minds would shape a species differently. Lying is something that treecats have trouble understanding, as for them it is impossible to lie to one another (after all, they can read each other's minds). The author has other examples of this sort spread throughout the book in a way that doesn't take you away from the story. It feels natural and it works well to enhance the reading experience.

Overall, it was a fun read, however, it is easy to see that it is meant for young adults, by looking at the pace of the book. For young adults, I would highly recommend it. For adults in general, I think it can be avoided unless you're already a fan of David Weber or of adventure stories.

This new YA series by David Weber builds on one of my favorite short stories with the same name by David Weber. The book is out now but I am making this review based on the ARC so things might differ in details.

This takes place some three hundred years before the Honor stories. It is kind of an origin story in that it portrays how the Harrington family settled on Sphinx and how young Stephanie meets and befriend one of the secretly sentient treecats there. Stephanie's story starts like any ordinary teenage story with issues of parental control and resentment for her parents for dragging her off to the boonies.

It switches pov between humans and treecats mainly Stephanie and Climbs Quickly. It has the famous Celery thieves' episode I loved in the short story. It is over all an enjoyable read but I have some issues. Sometimes the story just stops abruptly. Like when scott was about to tell how the cats where communicating with him. It didn't disturb much since I have read that short story. But there is also a jump in the story from the first meeting to scott and his story, I felt the narration lacked a segue there. Giving me the feeling it is just a couple of short stories stitched together with the bare minimum of an overall storyline. This disappointed me.

I am also a bit disappointed that the inner life of Stephanie doesn't come out and play.

I am a great fan of David Weber and his works and it pains me that I found A Beautiful Friendship delightful in parts but lacking in the whole. Maybe Jane Lindskold will make better work with the sequels.

A Beautiful Friendship is a good book. Written by Honor Harrington series author David Weber, this young adult novel is the story of Honor's ancestor Stephanie Harrington and her discovery of the treecats on her native planet, Sphinx. In many ways this is also a coming-of-age novel: Stephanie experiences the pressures of growing up, trying to fit in, and doing the right thing when interest from certain adults threatens the treecats' way of life in the forest. Mr. Weber writes about all of this with a flowing narrative that doesn't talk down to his target audience, but rather encourages them to dare and dream. I hope that kids will read this book and be inspired.

I had not read the previous Star Kingdom books but this book stands alone. David Weber writes in such a way I can believe in the world he sets the story in and the characters than inhabit it.

When Stephanie's dreams of her future are changed due to her parents relocation, she has to make new goals and new friends. In her case, it's a move to a new planet, and she makes friends with a telepathic treecat. People don't believe her that the treecats are sapien, and some powerful people have strong motives that no one believe her or protect the treecats.

Meanwhile she also makes human friends and learns the ins and outs of her new home. Excellent YA fantasy.

To get that out of the way, "A Beautiful Friendship" is classed as and aimed at the "young adult" market, however, I have enjoyed quite a few science fiction books that were supposedly for young adults, and I suspect a lot of other "adults" might like this book too. Having recently finished reading and reviewing a book on a similar theme, Scalzi's "Fuzzy Nation," I would have to say that Weber does a superior and better job of handling this theme; the main characters have a little bit more depth, the dialog is better, and the plot more interesting and more well developed. Since this is the first book in a planned series, I look forward to coming volumes.

I chose this book because my brother recommended I read the Honor Harrington series. I started here because I noticed this one is set in the same world but earlier in time. It wasn't a bad story, but I found the plot to be extremely thin and the characters to be similarly shallow. Maybe if you read the Honor series first, the desire to get the treecat backstory would make it more interesting. That said, this is a clean, light sci-fi and the heroin would likely appeal to a teen. As an adult novel, I gave it 3 stars, as a teen novel it might rate higher. I won't get more in the series, but I probably will share it with my pre-teen daughter who will likely enjoy it.

This adventure is set on a recently colonized planet with a gutsy and intelligent heroine. I like Stephanie (later known as Death Fang's Bane) and it's a pleasure to meet a teenager who has a good relationship with her parents and doesn't behave stupidly. That doesn't mean that she doesn't plunge headlong into danger, but she has good reasons for doing so--and for not telling her parents. (It would scare the heck out of them.)

The book started slowly as it set up the background, but I was soon caught up in the story. Stephanie's relationship with Lionheart is real, and the treecats' culture is well developed, and their fear of the "two-legs" understandable. The villain's motives and cunning add to the excitement of the story, as do the hexapumas, which are a threat to the colonists. To the treecats--not so much.

This is the beginning of a series and I look forward to meeting Climbs Quickly (Lionheart), Sings Truly, and the rest of the Bright Water clan, along with Stephanie and the other "two-legs' again.

i haven't read any of the honor harrington series but the synopsis of this book definitely caught my interest! so much so that i requested the store to reissue it in print (it was only available as an audio book). after i finished the book, i realized that david weber is a wonderful writer. the details that he created in the treecats and their society, as well as the description of the planet and its colonization made the whole story come alive for me. to me this book can be read by adults as well as young adults, in that the character oof stephanie harrington is presented in mature way, she is not childish. i definetly will recommend this book to all those who enjoy a good sci-fi book that doesn't rely on gadgets or much violence to weave a good book!

Meet Stephanie Harrington: a young girl on a new world just trying to help her parents figure out exactly who is stealing the celery.

Meet Climbs Quickly: a tree-cat who discovered a clan of two-legs and has grown obsessed with watching how they work and interact.

When these two meet face to face one dark stormy night, both of their worlds are changed forever. These two unlikely characters form a bond allowing their species to interact in a way they had never thought possible. Now, Stephanie's only goal is to protect her new friend from those that wish him harm, while Climbs Quickly has the charge of convincing his people that the two legs aren't so bad after all.

Sounds like a great beginning of a book doesn't it? The problem is that the story never really grew to be anything more.

This was David Weber's first attempt at a young adult novel (and no I haven't read his other work to tell if it's similar) and I feel he missed the mark a bit. The story didn't read like a young adult novel. In fact, the only signs of young adult I really found was that Stephanie is a young adult. While I don't think this felt a ton like a young adult novel, it may be that I just haven't read many ya novels that are more on the scientific side of science. (I have read a lot of fluff pieces lately.)

I absolutely loved the varying descriptions of Stephanie and Climbs Quickly's bond to one another. The characterization of the two both separately and together was amazing. You really had a feel for the lengths the two of them would go to protect each other. However, I felt all other characters fell a bit flat. I didn't truly hate the bad guy or feel differently about the good scientist. In fact I didn't feel for anyone in this book other then the two main characters. That may have been the point, but for a book with so many different characters I would expect to feel more for some of them.

My biggest qualm with the book was that portions actually felt like sitting through a politics lecture. I understand that a lot of the description was needed to help the story along, but it could have been trimmed down a bit, or at least presented in a more appealing manner then how it was.

My second biggest qualm was that the action scenes didn't feel all that actiony. This might go along with some of the other things I've said with me caring too little about the characters, or too many words being used, but in the end I just felt a bit bored even during the climax of the book.

Overall I felt the book was just a bit dull for my taste with too many lectures and not enough characterization.

This book just piqued my curiosity more and more the further in I read. I absolutely loved it, and what's even more remarkable is how well Weber is able to seamlessly move between the viewpoints of the human Stephanie and "Climbs Quickly," the main alien character. I'm a sucker for interspecies contact stories, not to mention adventure stories or stories about unexplored planets and environments. I also have a big soft spot for young protagonists who outsmart and outwit those who underestimate them. All of which means, if any of those things sound good to you, then you're going to really enjoy this book. This was my first Weber read. I will be reading the next book in this series, and many other Weber books besides.

For anyone who might be thinking this is a repackaging of the short piece "A Beautiful Friendship" previously published in one of the "Worlds of Honor" anthologies, that story makes up only about the first quarter of the YA novel. The rest is new material and is not written in a particularly juvenile style. This book is perfectly readable for adult Weber fans as well as the YA target audience.

I just finished David Weber's expansion of his short story "A Beautiful Friendship" into a full YA novel of the same title. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, tho portions of it were published as two short stories.

David treats Stephanie Harrington and others as with respect and does in no way condescend to the youths in the story, nor to the YA readers, and has the adults act like adults.

I really love the Honorverse, and I hope this will bring many others to the series.

While not a "cat person," I wouldn't mind having a Treecat around. :-)

I highly recommend the novel to you."

First off, I am a fan of the Honor Harrington series for which this book is a prequel. That being said, I may have expected too much from this story of how the first human/treecat bond occurred. I found the tale slightly disjointed, and in many cases there were whole chapters that I barely skimmed because they seemed to be more setups for future books than telling the story of how Stephanie Harrington and Lionheart first met and bonded. Some scenes seemed to be there specifically for the purpose of giving you a look at a character who might be important in a sequel. I think there should have been less of this sort of introductory content and more meat.

Although I am glad to have read the book, I was disappointed with how little story there actually was. I am hoping for better from a sequel.

This book tied for the 2012 Hal Clement Award, an award given annually by the science fiction community for YA fiction and awarded at the WorldCon science fiction conventions.

I read it as an adult and thoroughly enjoyed it.

i had to read this for a competition that my school does and our library-in couldn't get past page 50. i read it all and hated it their was one exciting part. it was so bad my friend bought an copy just to burn it.

Narratively and stylistically, this novel is quite a disappointment. It started out well, deftly setting up the situation, the main character, and a pretty savvy selection of issues she, Stephanie Harrington, a pre-teen of considerable drive and energy, believed were of paramount importance as she faced life on her new world. It soon became apparent, however, that Weber was unable to get on top of the dreaded pad-out-a-shorter-previous-work syndrome, resulting in a mind-numbing amount of repetition and treacly bonhomie amongst the good guys that Keith Laumer and Robert Heinlein were notorious for dishing out in shovelfuls in their later novels. I found myself stopping so many times to fume, "I get it already!" that the story just stopped being at all compelling. I have to say that, for my money, this marks an unfortunate debut in the young adult market.

First off, let me say I adore and love David Webers work with Honor Harrington ever since "On Basklisk Station" came out in 1993. Having said that I'm kinda angry that these two stories have already been published before and now they've simply been put into another book for sales- and it makes me angry to pay twice for the same storys.

This was a great science fiction story that should appeal to both boys and girls. Stephanie Harrington comes to the planet Sphinx with her parents. She is twelve. She is disappointed to leave her home planet of Meyerdahl but is eager to explore her new home. However, her parents aren't so eager for her to explore because Sphinx is largely a wilderness with at least two major predators - hexapumas and peak bears - who would find Stephanie very tasty.

Climbs Quickly is a member of an intelligent native species. They have been watching the newcomers to assess their level of threat but haven't exposed their existence. His people are divided between wanting to make contact and wanting to flee deeper into the unexplored interior to get away from the strange two-legs. They are a telepathic and empathic, tool-using species. They also have a weakness for celery.

When Stephanie's mother puts her on the case of the celery thefts she is hoping to distract her from her desire to explore the dangerous wilderness. But Stephanie unexpectedly discovers Climbs Quickly and somehow bonds with him.

Later he rescues Stephanie from attack by a hexapuma after her glider crashes into the forest and she is badly hurt in the crash. In fact, they save each other from the hexapuma as they must fight it off until his clan arrives. In the fight, Climbs Quickly is badly hurt. Stephanie manages to contact her father - a veterinarian - who manages to save Climbs Quickly.

The story is filled with wonder as these two intelligent species try to learn to communicate with each other. They also have to deal with a lot of politics. There are many who don't want to admit the existence of an intelligent species on the planet because it would ruin their plans to sell the land. There are others eager to capture these new creatures either to sell to zoos and private collectors or to dissect to see if they can learn the secrets of their telepathy. Stephanie and her parents need to gather allies to keep their new friends safe from the dangers.

This was an exciting story. Stephanie is a smart and strong character. It is also fascinating to see the human invaders through the treecat's perceptions. I think students who like adventure will like this story. They will also be led to Weber's Honor Harrington series which deals with one of Stephanie's descendants and also has treecats.

I guess i just expected a different approach, it was an enjoyable read, but i am comparing to other books by Mr. Weber and I love him as an author, but it just didnt grab me the way the Honor series has. But i did buy fire season and thoroughly enjoyed that book but I am still trying to figure out the connection between this book and the Honor books and where they meet in the time line

I have read all of weber's books, which means I've already read 90% of this book.

It's really just two SLIGHTLY expanded short stories from previous collections.

Very disapointing.

If you bought his previous collections in the honorverse, there is NO need to buy this.

If you haven't bought the other collections, I'd buy them first, you get most of this book and a bunch of other good tales too.

This is not a `Young Adults' book at all it is really only suitable for 11 year olds, I have never read such a simple one-note book since I was that age, there is absolutely no complexity at all in it. It makes Harry Potter seem like `War & Peace' and Harry Potter was not written for `Young Adults' but for children. I think the author should really up his game if he is going to write more for YAs.

1) the store should hilight the YA genre more conspicuously
2) agree with previous review that the time jumps in the story of several years are disjointing
3) story contains several flashbacks and references to previous action which are also disjointing, prehaps they occurred in the above mentioned time jumps which were edited out , which required flashbacks to the deleted activity --very strange way to write a book

the subject matter of the book is firmly in the plot line of the series which should have done as an adult book as are the rest of the books
to introduce this material in a YA book serves no usefull purpose

Have you noticed how you often read a series and find that what you liked about the series gets thinner with each book? Weber does not have this problem. This is the first volume in a new series (Same universe as the 'Honor Harrington' books, but set earlier. These are likely intended for juveniles, but like Robert Heinlein, some of Weber's best work lies in that area!

Weber is an excellent writer - pick up any of his books and you will see that to be true. These are fun, even joyous in places, and are truly enjoyable to read. I recommended Weber to my wife and she read all the Harrington books, and then bought this series - and finished the three a few weeks ago.

You have already read the blurb review from the publisher, which tells you what the story is about. What it does not tell you is Weber's books (And this one) are character driven. You really will identify with the characters - probably even the Treecats (Especially true if you like animals, as we tend to anthropomorphize them). If you have read the earlier Harrington books, you will like these. If your looking for something fun to read - this would be an excellent choice. Looking for a gift for someone (Young or Old, it matters not) - consider buying this for thiem. Even if they don't read ordinarily, this might well make them do so - Yes, its that good.

Highly recommended!