David Weber’s On Basilisk Station is available on Audible as a 15 hrs 36 mins unabridged audiobook, narrated by Allyson Johnson.
Publisher’s Summary
Having made a superior look a fool, Honor Harrington has been exiled to Basilisk Station in disgrace and set up for ruin.
Her demoralized crew blames her for their ship’s humiliating posting to an out-of-the-way picket station.
The aborigines of the system’s only habitable planet are smoking homicide-inducing hallucinogens.
Parliament isn’t sure it wants to keep the place; the major local industry is smuggling; the merchant cartels want her head; the star-conquering, so-called “Republic” of Haven is up to something; and Honor Harrington has a single, over-age light cruiser with an armament that doesn’t work to police the entire star system.
But the people out to get her have made one mistake. They’ve made her mad.
A Note from Author David Weber
There’s been some confusion—not to say, um, energetic debate, readers and fans being readers and fans—about the correct pronunciation of “Manticoran.” The truth, alas, is that a stitch was dropped. An error occurred. A mistake was made… and it wasn’t Audible’s fault. It was mine. Before Audible recorded the very first Honor Harrington book, narrator Allyson Johnson and I not only corresponded by e-mail but actually spoke to one another by phone. She wanted to make absolutely certain she had the correct pronunciations for names, places, star nations, etc., and I tried to make certain all of her questions were answered. And so they were. Unfortunately, at some point in the process, I replied to one of her e-mails by telling her that “Man-ti-core-ahn” was pronounced “Man-tik-er-ahn.” Exactly how this happened is more than I can say at this point, except to blushingly disclose that the original e-mail remains intact, confirming to all the world that it was, indeed, my fault. I can ascribe it only to a temporary mental hiccup on my part and crave your forgiveness. If, however, you must blame someone for the mix-up, that someone should be me and not Audible, who have done everything they could to get it right.
Audiobook Details
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 15 hrs 36 mins
- Publisher: Audible Studios
- Release year: 2009
- Audible category: Science Fiction & Fantasy / Fantasy / Science Fiction & Fantasy
Listener Ratings
On Basilisk Station holds an average listener rating of 4.3/5 from 6086 Audible ratings.
On Audible, ratings for this title break down into narration performance and story separately:
- Performance (narration): 4.2/5
- Story: 4.3/5
- 5-star ratings: 52% of all ratings
What Audible Listeners Are Saying
3/5 stars — “Disappointing Narration”
I have been a huge fan of this series and was thrilled to see it show up on Audible. So I immediately bought it and started listening to it and was…disappointed. The narrator sounding like she was doing a feature on NPR and while I am a big fan of NPR it is not the voice and cadance that I would have liked to hear for this series.I found that scenes that should have had excitement and tension did not and when the speaker’s voice should have been a flat inflection as was indicated by the text it was not.
I find myself debating purchasing other books in this series which is a disappointment for me.
— Allison, Audible listener
4/5 stars — “Very Very Good!”
Stellar book! Just be warned, the entire series is not available from audible.com. Only the first seven books are in audio format.
The narrator is okay – not great, but not wretched. The book itself, and it’s heroine, Honor Harrington, is fabulous, and I encourage anyone to read this series in any format they can get their hands on.
I have not read much science fiction previous to this book, but I must say this is exceptional storytelling. I was afraid that I would not be able to follow the intricate strategies outlined in the series, and it only gets more politically complex as the series goes on, but found that I was up to the challenge. Honor Harrington is a well developed heroine. She has a special relationship with a Treecat, an intriguing species from her own planet with empathic powers and of high intelligence, which is what led me to download the audiobook. This is just one side of the well rounded person that is Honor Harrington. A gifted tactician, you will be drawn into her struggles to unite a less than enthusiastic crew behind her in the struggles she faces at Baslisk.— Stephanie, Audible listener
5/5 stars — “An excellent Science Fiction Adventure”
This is a well told story that has both an interesting story line and is well presented by the narrator. I found the series well into the later books, but it was a pleasure to go back an fill in the first part of the story because the development of the character of Honor Harrington is so well drawn. Allyson Johnson is amazing in the reading. Her voice is there carrying the story along and yet transparent at the same time. She is among the best I have heard in any of the dozens audiobooks I have listened to in the last three years.— Mindy, Audible listener
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