A Beautiful Friendship by David Weber Book Review

This book is a young adult novel in the honor Harrington universe at the time of the planet Sphinx's early colonization.  It is a good story about first contact with an alien race and some of the issues around that.  It also does a good job of playing to its intended young adult audience.  

The one thing I really didn't like about this book is that the main character doesn't fit in with her peers because she is smarter than them and arrogant about it.  That would be ok if it was a flaw that she needed to overcome, but in the book it is almost celebrated.  Other than this one annoyance though I really enjoyed reading this book, and learning more of the back-story on Sphinx's intelligent telepathic Treecats.

The story follows a teenage Stephanie Harrington from her first encounter with Climbs Quickly(a Treecat) through several issues around first contact.  The Treecat perspective on the whole first contact process is very interesting. The communication difficulties that arise because Treecats communicate telepathically and are bad at understanding vocal language in particular is a great concept that really makes you realize how much we take for granted about communication.  Through the story the relationship between Treecats and humans is tested several times and the communication barrier is a challenge that must be overcome, but in the end it is Stephanie and Climbs Quickly's courage and devotion that keeps the Treecats from disappearing into the bushes.

This book will appeal to fans of the Honor Harrington series, people who love frontier stories, and young adults searching for a way to fit in. You can purchase A Beautiful Friendship in print or as an e-book at www.amazon.com

Oath of Swords by David Weber Book Review

This is the first book in the War God series by David Weber.  As with his science fiction he creates a world, and populates it with extraordinary characters.  This series is a fantasy epic that centers around the conflict between the gods of light and the gods of the dark.  Unlike some fantasy stories however the main character does not want to be a hero, nor anything to do with gods.  The war god actually has to go through significant effort to get noticed by the hero, and when he does he is basically told no, and questioned as to why a god would need him.

The only thing that I didn't like about this story is that it didn't have enough explanation as to how their religious system worked, but since the main character comes from a race that feels that the gods have abandoned them it is understandable.

This story is the beginning of a heroic journey for Bazhell and his companion Brandark.  The two are unlikely hero's since they are Hradani.  Hradani were originally an elf like race that lived in harmony with the land, but in the last wizard war they were twisted by dark wizards to have the rage, which manifests as murderous fits that cannot be controlled by the person afflicted. Because they are basically ticking time bombs the other races exterminated them where they could and the survivors by Bazhell's time are one step above savages.  It has seemed that even their gods had abandoned them since they had not seen one since the war.  Time heals all things however, and the gods have been working to change the rage to something that can be controlled.  When Bazhell fights the servants of a dark god for the sake of a servant girl, the god of war and justice decides that the time has come to help Bazhell and the rest of the Hradani.  The problem is that Bazhell doesn't want the help he is quite bitter towards the gods, and the war god must prove to him that he is a captain worth following.  In the end when Bazhell is faced with an evil from outside his world he realizes that those who would stand for the light must stand together or be destroyed by the darkness.  During the battle he takes the god up on his offer.  The followers of the dark should be very afraid because when a Hradani that controls the rage is backed by the god of war the very world cannot help but change.

This book will appeal to fans of David Weber's science fiction work, Classic fantasy fans, and anyone who likes a good adventure.  Bazhell is a fun hero to read about because he never set out to be one, he only wanted to do what was right.

This book can be found at www.amazon.com as an e-book or in print.  It is currently free as an e-book since it is part of Baen's free library, which has many first books in a series.  Their hope is to hook you and that you will buy the rest of the series, but a free book is a free book.