…maybe a little too on the nose with channeling Horatio Hornblower and Jack Aubrey, there’s some truly problematic stuff with the native Medusans that goes all but uncommented upon, there’s some reactionary politics that may just be de rigeur for 20th century military sci-fi (I don’t know… would be happy to be educated), and the characterizations are almost beside the point, I guess.
On the plus side, the world-building is starting out pretty meticulous in a satisfying way (except for Manticoran dates, which is there for good in-universe reasons, but Weber seems to be using it to be the one ongoing reminder that this the distant future and not exactly England in Space), there’s a nice hyper-competence problem-solving ship’s crew vibe that will feel familiar to Star Trek fans, and the descriptions of actual shipboard action are very engrossing. Stylistically, there’s nothing to write home about, but it’s clear prose and allowing for the aforementioned weak characterizations, there’s nothing egregious either.
I am cautiously optimistic going forward, and if you had the budget (or could get an animated series greenlit), it seems to me that the universe and Honor herself could be spruced up and modernized into a really compelling space opera franchise that would be well-paced for TV.
Yeah, there’s no two ways about it, book 1 is Royal Navy in Space, and the Peeps are almost a drop-in replacement for (little-r) republican France. We’re not dealing with hard sci-fi here, but I did think the infodump 2/3 through that described how it got to be “Royal” was less silly than I expected, if (again) a bit on the nose.
I didn’t sense a ton of deep ideas forthcoming, but once I settled into letting the book be what it wanted to be, I enjoyed it well enough. Good airport/beach reading, and as I mentioned, you make Honor and the crew just a bit more compelling, and I think you’ve got a “brand” that could do really well in movies or TV. Master and Commander was a solid film that might have found a bigger audience if it were set on a star-cruiser.