Rosie Re-reads, Part 1: "On Basilisk Station"

Heh, I just did a reread myself. Looking forward to your fresh take.

roseandheather wrote:Hi all! Just dropping by to let y'all know I'll be starting my re-read in about.... eighteen hours, give or take

If you have anything in particular you want me to focus on/talk about/etc, please drop a line here! I'll be posting my reflections by chapter (unless said chapters are super short, in which case I'll do two or three at a time). Hope y'all enjoy!

you got me relistening to obs now. and the first time we meet Klus Haupman stands out.
Also himself uses cursing sparingly in his writing, but there are some parts in OBS that make you realise hes very good at using cursing WELL in writing which is sometimes hard tro do

One thing I noticed is that David's back story and political development seem to take progressively more pages as the book series continues, something that as an author I feel to be a weakness -- in a way "selling needless pages" that it takes too long to write anyway.

Let me know if this perception hits true for you during the reread.

SharkHunter wrote:One thing I noticed is that David's back story and political development seem to take progressively more pages as the book series continues, something that as an author I feel to be a weakness -- in a way "selling needless pages" that it takes too long to write anyway.

Let me know if this perception hits true for you during the reread.

As an absolute glutton for anything political, I doubt it will, but I can't say I don't see where you're coming from.

PSA: Rose is recovering from assault and battery by that nefarious entity known as "real life" and regularly scheduled reread recaps will resume within 48 hours.

roseandheather wrote:Hi all! Just dropping by to let y'all know I'll be starting my re-read in about.... eighteen hours, give or take

If you have anything in particular you want me to focus on/talk about/etc, please drop a line here! I'll be posting my reflections by chapter (unless said chapters are super short, in which case I'll do two or three at a time). Hope y'all enjoy!

I too have started to do a reread... I have a bad habit when I do a reread for the umpteenth time; I just read dialog... I do this when I reread any of my favorite authors. Do you are anyone else do this?

In case anyone was wondering:

I was kidnapped by the nefarious entity known as Real Life and horribly abused for the last several weeks. However, Stockholm Syndrome has now set in and said entity and I have come to an arrangement that will, God willing, allow me to continue my re-read and recap with a minimum of interference from the aforementioned entity, as well as spend some time on this forum on a regular basis.

So glad to be back.

SharkHunter wrote:One thing I noticed is that David's back story and political development seem to take progressively more pages as the book series continues, something that as an author I feel to be a weakness -- in a way "selling needless pages" that it takes too long to write anyway.

Let me know if this perception hits true for you during the reread.

I see differently. I see a parable about what could happen if the high-up powers that be, who sit in their cushy legislative chairs and send troops out to kill or die for political games, actually had to listen to someone who's been at the pointy end of the stick. Honor grows from one element in a vast military machine to a true mover, shaker and policy maker, but unlike many high ranking officers who go political, she does not forget her roots.

roseandheather wrote:In case anyone was wondering:

I was kidnapped by the nefarious entity known as Real Life and horribly abused for the last several weeks. However, Stockholm Syndrome has now set in and said entity and I have come to an arrangement that will, God willing, allow me to continue my re-read and recap with a minimum of interference from the aforementioned entity, as well as spend some time on this forum on a regular basis.

So glad to be back.

happens, my reread (relisten) has me on ashes of victory at the moment

I always loved the first 'real' introduction to Venizelos we get. When he his dispatched to the WH Terminus and starts kicking ass and taking names.

On an additional note, I think that the first time that White Haven ever 'officially' notices Honor (besides her pot-shot at Sebastian) is when he's discussing merchant and foreign complaints about Venizelos' "heavy handed" approach to customs!

Chapters 3 - 8

Oh, God, they're all such puppies.

That's been the running theme in my mind as I've read these six chapters. They really are puppies, all of them, all paws and tails stepping on each other in their basket. It's truly amazing, too, how many of these people will still be with Honor decades later - Rafe Cardones, Mercedes Brigham, Alistair McKeon, Andreas Venizelos... and how many of them won't be (Dominica Santos, Paul Tankersley, Venizelos and McKeon again....) Granted, that isn't all due to Basilisk - Yeltsin and Silesia are just as much a part of it - but that core crew got their start here in this backwater system.

In truth I'd forgotten just how rough their beginning was. Honor and Alistair hardly able to speak to each other, Venizelos and Cardones and Tremaine so young and green... and Pavel Young, the reprehensible slimeball, there to make all their lives miserable.

And then of course there's Sonja Hemphill, who really didn't kick Honor &co off to Basilisk in a fit of pique... but her reputation is so bad, Honor thinks she did anyway. In all honesty I wish so much of Sonja's story hadn't taken place offscreen, because she - the brilliant, tactless genius who Can't People - has always been something of a hero of mine, even back then (now?) when she was still fumbling in the dark, too far ahead of her time for any of her ideas to make true sense (yet).

Now, too, I'm even more impressed with Honor's way of pulling the crew together. When you dump impossible amounts of responsibility on someone's shoulders, they will either rise to it or crumble under it - and you have got to know which. I think that seeing what they could do was almost imperative before they could see what she could do. And without that, they wouldn't have survived the battle with Sirius.

Meanwhile, shout-outs to Paul Tankersley and Michel Reynaud. Paul in particular amuses me (in an extremely depressing way) given what we all know about his future relationship with Honor. I feel even sorrier for him this read-through than I did the first time, because I know now exactly what he's had to put up with. And as tear-jerking as thinking about him is, I can only thank God (RFC?) that he at least had true happiness before we lost him.

Next time: Rose goes into nuclear meltdown upon the introduction of her beloved Dame Estelle. Also, there is plot.