★ Gordon Wyant Well, I just finished “A Beautiful Friendship” by David Weber and I have to say, it wasn’t what I had expected. Then again, it is hard to say what, precisely, I DID expect. I have never read a David Weber book prior to plucking this book off of one of my towering stacks of to-read books. I knew him to be an author of some renown (understatement of the week) in the sci-fi department; as such, I knew I would be in for some high-tech fun. I also could hazard a decent guess that the main character was a spunky teenage girl who befriends a cute cat like creature, due to the cover art. What I didn’t expect was to find myself so wrapped up in the story. At the end of the book, I found myself desperately wanting in the feline companion department and started looking at kitten adoption . . . okay, I admit it, also a good deal of goofy cat videos on youtube. I know, I know, how can I be a librarian without sharing my life with a cat, anyway? Well, that profound error may not go unrectified for long thanks to Stephanie Harrington and Climbs Quickly. But enough about me and a cat I may adopt that I will try to teach to poop in the toilet (I hate litterboxes), and likely fail; this is a book review. So, on to the point of this thing!
Amazon description:
Stephanie is a young woman determined to make discoveries, and the biggest one of all awaits her: an intelligent alien species.
The forest-dwelling treecats are small, cute, smart, and have a pronounced taste for celery. And they are also very, very deadly when they or their friends are threatened . . . as Stephanie discovers when she comes face-to-face with Sphinx’s most lethal predator after a hang-gliding accident.
But her discoveries are only beginning, for the treecats are also telepathic and able to bond with certain humans, and Stephanie’s find --- and her first-of-its kind bond with the treecat Climbs Quickly --- land both of them in a fresh torrent of danger. Galactic-sized wealth is at stake, and Stephanie and the treecats are squarely in the path of highly-placed enemies determined to make sure the planet Sphinx remains entirely in human hands, even if that means the extermination of another thinking species.
Unfortunately for those enemies, the treecats have saved Stephanie Harrington’s life. She owes them . . . and Stephanie is a young woman who stands by her friends.
Which means things are about to get very interesting on Sphinx.
The forest-dwelling treecats are small, cute, smart, and have a pronounced taste for celery. And they are also very, very deadly when they or their friends are threatened . . . as Stephanie discovers when she comes face-to-face with Sphinx’s most lethal predator after a hang-gliding accident.
But her discoveries are only beginning, for the treecats are also telepathic and able to bond with certain humans, and Stephanie’s find --- and her first-of-its kind bond with the treecat Climbs Quickly --- land both of them in a fresh torrent of danger. Galactic-sized wealth is at stake, and Stephanie and the treecats are squarely in the path of highly-placed enemies determined to make sure the planet Sphinx remains entirely in human hands, even if that means the extermination of another thinking species.
Unfortunately for those enemies, the treecats have saved Stephanie Harrington’s life. She owes them . . . and Stephanie is a young woman who stands by her friends.
Which means things are about to get very interesting on Sphinx.
My Review: 4/5 stars (or whatever clever thing I end up use as a scale for ratings)
My first reaction to the initial 50 pages of this book were a bit ambivalent, to be honest. The main character, Stephanie Harrington seemed to be the model most adults imagine when they think of a stubborn, impetuous, yet honest teen. The initial use of boilerplate futuristic teen slang put a bit of a sour look on my face. It seems every time someone writes words coming out of a teen's mouth in a futuristic setting we have phrases similar to “complete null.” It may just be me, but this sort of thing always reads false and leaves me feeling an awkward disconnect with the story. Stephanie’s interactions with her parents initially rubbed me the wrong way, as well. In addition to what felt like a good deal of extraneous exposition laden dialog between them, the back and forth seemed extremely false to me. Like bad actors portraying a loving relationship with their daughter. It all seemed too-good-to-be-true . . . almost like I was reading a futuristic take on Dennis the Menace.
My initial complaints soon gave way to a deep affection for Stephanie and a joy in the friendship between her and Climbs Quickly, the six-limbed arboreal cat with whom she forms a strong empathic bond. The dreaded “null” slang disappeared (or was simply instantly ignored without any conscious effort) and I found myself racing along with Stephanie on her adventures with Climbs Quickly, sharing her anger towards the people who would hurt or exploit her “tree-cat” family, and delighting with every interaction she has with her friend. Stephanie becomes every bit the character I was hoping she would be: the smart, resourceful, and unwavering troublemaker willing to do anything for the ones she considers friends. She is as tough and smart as Katniss Everdeen, but capable of making decisions for herself instead of reacting to others’ choices. She is as likable as Harry Potter, without his incessant whining and emo attitude. Her parents developed a bit beyond b-movie parents, as well, much to my relief; their concerns and interactions with their daughter feeling much more realistic and in line with parents who know her to be stubborn and apt to get into trouble, but respect her intelligence and semi-autonomy. Sure, there were moments where Stephanie would dip back into the Dennis the Menace mold or a scene with her parents would feel like the end of a Johnny Quest episode, but not for long. Though the ending scene is unfortunate in its everything-is-okay-and-isn’t-Dennis-such-an-adorable-menace-let’s-all-share-a-cheesy-laugh feeling, but, I can forgive these small lapses in light of the other good stuff.
The futuristic frontier setting was pretty infectious as well. It instantly put me in a similar place that the Firefly tv series did: futuristic wonders that are overshadowed by the setting’s remoteness and frontier attitude. A place where people have things like anti-grav units and flying cars, but are without grocery stores and fast food. It is a place where a person’s fortune can be made by the sweat of their brow and swiftly taken away by an unfortunate run-in with a hungry bear or puma. I always enjoy a futuristic novel where technology exists, but it is never the quick answer to problems. This was one thing I loved about Losers in Space by John Barnes; surrounded by amazing technology, but none of it able to miraculously save them from their situation. It is the same thing here, albeit for more remote colony reasons than cataclysmic failure/sabotage. Stephanie’s technology doesn’t allow for her to miraculously spirit her tree-cat friends away when danger strikes, nor is she able to miraculously prevent or instantly heal injury during the hang-glider crash that results in a fight with at giant predatory cat, an experience that cements the friendship between herself and Climbs Quickly. She may have some miraculous tools and tricks, but it is her ingenuity and bravery that save the day.
For most of the book, the antagonist is more of a general foreboding of how the colonists will respond to the discovery of a sentient species on a planet which they thought they were alone. As humans, we tend to judge the value of life solely based on ourselves. If creatures don’t function or behave in ways similar to ours, how can they possibly be sentient or intelligent? Could that lead us to devalue lives we should value as much as our own? In Stephanie’s universe, this arrogance/ignorance has already resulted in the extinction of one sentient species on a different planetary colony. She and her parents are willing to do almost anything to guarantee that doesn’t happen with the tree-cats. But how to show the intelligence of a species that communicates telepathically and is unable to vocalize beyond basic animal sounds? How to prove their ingenuity when they only use simple tools? How do they show the colonists that the tree-cats are more than cute fluffy things to be made pets? And how to avoid any backlash from powerful people who stand to lose a great deal of money if the tree-cats become protected as a sentient species? These concerns and feelings are only personified near the end by a kind of freelance agent/hunter tasked with capturing tree-cats for monetary gain and experimentation. He’s slimy and deplorable in every way, and the reader will delight in hating his guts along with Stephanie and Climbs Quickly.
In the end, we have a great tween-teen sci-fi book that is light on science and big on heart. “A Beautiful Friendship” is Weber's first YA book and it winds up being a distinctly readable story about love, friendship, and duty and the strength of those bonds. There is more than a little taste of eco and wildlife conservation in there, to round out the experience. All in all, a great book with a sequel (Fire Season) I will be picking up, as soon as I finish Neil Gaiman’s new novel, as well as looking into Weber’s other novels.
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