A Beautiful Friendship by David Weber

A Beautiful Friendship is a revision and expansion of a novella published in 1998. It is a work of young adult fiction by an author who usually specializes in more mature military science fiction.
The Manticore star system has only been colonized by humans for a short time, and twelve-year-old Stephanie Harrington has moved there with her parents. The planet Sphinx has seasons lasting several terrestrial years, high gravity, a coldish climate, unfamiliar flora and fauna, and few human settlers.
Stephanie's parents forbid her to explore the bush on her own, since dangerous creatures roam the areas unfrequented by humans. But precocious Stephanie is determined to investigate a mystery that piques her curiosity, and this leads her to discover a hitherto unknown sentient species. The first treecat Stephanie meets forges an empathic bond with her, and this semi-telepathic link is what drives many of the plot elements as the novel progresses.
Of course, the discovery of a tool-using sentient species on Sphinx threatens certain business interests and investments. In addition, a greedy pet dealer arrives from outside the Manticore system because he sees the potential for huge profits from the capture and sale of treecats.
A Beautiful Friendship is a competently written and readable book, but I fear some of the young adults it is aimed at would not appreciate all of the lengthy conversations and infodumps which the reader has to plow through. The impression left in my mind is of a book which has a couple of very engaging high points separated by much more tedious sections. The best part is undoubtedly Stephanie's second meeting with the treecat Climbs Quickly (Lionheart), at which their friendship is cemented in a dramatic and moving way. The description of treecat culture and society is also very imaginative. I found the defeat of the unscrupulous dealer in the final part entertaining but somewhat cliched and predictable. Overall, A Beautiful Friendship was enjoyable and memorable, but not to the point that I feel compelled to go on to read the sequels.

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I have a habit of turning to young adult literature when I'm looking for something to relax to.

It's in part because the pacing is different in these books, and it's possible to approach this kind of book in a completely uncomplicated manner: there's no great requirement for thought and analysis, at least, not in the same way one might require when reading anything like Tolstoy or Proust.

There's another reason I prefer YA stuff, though, even in comparison with more analogous fare (meaning, books for light entertainment rather than mental stimulation): the themes, while familiar, still have the potential to be deeply interesting.

Questions about who we are, where we fit into the world, how we deal with both joy and hardship-- when dealt with well, these topics aren't just important to the developing identities of young adults, but rather address core aspects of the human experience.

And then you have books like this one, which want to do that, but don't. I find it pretty doubtful that this book would have held my attention when I was 12-- it utterly failed to do so today.

So, synopsis: A young girl discovers a new species on the recently settled planet her family has immigrated to. She eventually gets into trouble, and is rescued by these creatures-- which turn out to be sentient. The discovery of a new sentient species has planet-wide ramifications, causing much excitement and conflict.

Sound interesting? No? Well, to be honest I had a bit of trouble mustering up any enthusiasm while reading, and that may have colored my summary.

I picked up the audiobook during a buy-one-get-one sale awhile back, as the "get one". I had been hoping for some sci-fi inspiration, wanted something short, and the idea of conflict over a newly discovered sentient species seemed interesting.

The writing itself was acceptable, though a bit utilitarian, but the dialogue was often embarrassingly cringe worthy. The "Oh, isn't she so precocious?" attitude around the young protagonist, and the "Gee, I didn't mean to cause such trouble doing what's right!" attitude she held in turn seemed more in place in a Leave It To Beaver episode than in anything aimed at modern youth.

All those minor troubles could have been ignored if the story was actually interesting. I mean, contact with an utterly alien culture seems like a time that would be rife with big questions: what it means to be a thinking being, how to find commonalities when two groups are so different, what to do if those commonalities don't exist. That kind of thing.

Sadly, this book doesn't ask any big questions. It doesn't ask any questions at all. The "sentient" species in this series are, essentially, alien housecats. Even worse, you could replace these alien housecats with earth housecats and have very, very little impact on the story.

We're told that the book's "tree cats" are rational, thinking beings, and then get to watch as they fill the role of house pets. In any realistic context, that'd be horrifying-- here, it's just pathetic. ( )

This story introduces the Honor Harrington series to young adults by telling the story of Stephanie Harrington who had emigrated to Sphinx with her parents at age eleven. She is a bright only-child who has a burning desire to learn more about her new planet. Her mother gives her a mystery to solve: something is stealing celery from fields and green houses.

Stephanie is intrigued and comes up with a plan to catch and photograph the celery thief even though she has no idea why anyone would bother to steal a plant she only eats if her parents insist. Imagine her surprise when she discovers a small creature with a net full of celery. The net makes Stephanie believe that she has discovered a new sentient species - only the twelfth such species discovered since humans left Old Earth millennia ago.

She's young but even she knows that another sentient species on the world could cause all sorts of problems. Luckily, she has the support of her parents and some others to help her decide what to do about her new furry companion.

This story is also told from the viewpoint of Climbs Quickly - the celery thief - and we see his puzzlement about these beings who are mind blind but clearly can communicate among themselves. He is even more interested in those humans when he forms an emotional bond with Stephanie that lets him communicate with her a little bit. He can sense her emotions but not her thoughts and he isn't sure what she can sense from him.

The pair have adventures together including an encounter with the elephant-sized hexapuma who is a very dangerous predator and with poachers who are determined to capture some treecats both as exotic pets and to experiment on if it proves true that they are telepathic.

I enjoyed this story very much and especially enjoyed Khristine Hvam's narration. She is really good at creating distinct voices for the many characters. ( )

This is Young Adult Sci Fi set on a frontier planet in the far future with a girl-meets-treecat first contact theme.

The split view from human to alien and back was well handled, the action scenes are dramatic and pack an emotional punch and the whole thing is carried along by the excellent performance from Khristine Hyam.

The book kept my attention and some scenes were very powerful but I don't think it fully delivered as a novel. I felt as though I'd had the first three or four episodes of the first season of a promising show and then the thing had been taken off air.

Still, I enjoyed the read and I've bought book two to see where David Weber takes his ideas and his characters ( )

What a disappointment. This book was absolute "not like the other girls" misogynist nonsense. Such a cringe-inducing case of an adult man writing a teenage girl character in a way that shows how thoroughly ignorant he is of teenage girls' experiences. ( )