On Basilisk Station

Honor Harrington is a smart and feisty Commander in the Royal Manticoran Navy. She's just been given her first command, the lightship HMS Fearless. Unfortunately she is a bit too clever in simulated war games and upsets the wrong people and is banished to the backwaters of Basilisk Station. Her crew resent her, the senior officer on the station takes off as soon as she gets there, leaving her in command. She discovers that as well as a lot of unchecked smuggling, there is something else very strange going on at the station.

This space opera is lots of fun. Honor Harrington has been described as Horatio Hornblower in space. She is just as likeable and gutsy as Hornblower and protective of her crew, even if they don't like her very much. Despite this being about a Naval commander the descriptions of the technicalities of space travel and engagement with other ships is kept to a minimum(except for one notable battle) and the interest lies mainly in the interesting characters and the plot.