A Beautiful Friendship (novel)
A prequel novel about Stephanie Harrington and the first treecat bond.
A Beautiful Friendship, a young adult science fiction novel by American author David Weber, was published in 2011. It is set in the fictional Honorverse and acts as a prequel to Weber's main Honor Harrington series, occurring centuries earlier in that timeline. The story centers on Stephanie Harrington, an ancestor of the series' protagonist Honor Harrington, who had been referenced in earlier books.
The plot begins in the early 37th century, when the Harrington family relocates from the planet Meyerdahl to the newly established Star Kingdom of Manticore. Their eleven-year-old daughter, Stephanie, is unhappy with the move, finding little of interest on the planet Sphinx, especially with its much longer seasons. Her outlook changes when she investigates a mysterious thief stealing celery from colonists' greenhouses. She encounters a new sentient species: a six-limbed, arboreal mammal called a treecat, known to itself as Climbs Quickly. The two form an involuntary, nearly instantaneous psychic bond—what future generations will call "bonding"—similar to love at first sight. Climbs Quickly flees to his forest clan, which is revealed to be a telepathic, sentient society at a hunter-gatherer level, with only basic agriculture and no advanced technology. The treecats are wary of revealing themselves to humans, whom they recognize as far more advanced but unable to communicate telepathically. Days later, Stephanie goes hang gliding without her parents' knowledge to scout the forest where she believes Climbs Quickly lives. Through their bond, they sense each other, and Climbs Quickly runs from his clan's home to prevent its discovery. Stephanie crash-lands in a storm, and Climbs Quickly, compelled by their bond to protect her, fights a native six-legged hexapuma that approaches them. He is stunned, but Stephanie rises to defend him despite her injuries, buying time for the clan to arrive and tear the hexapuma apart. Her father, tracking her wristband, arrives and takes both to recover.
Two years later, the bond between Stephanie and Climbs Quickly—now named Lionheart by humans—has deepened, allowing them to share emotions and general meanings without clear language. Scientists have arrived to study the sentient treecats and constantly pester Stephanie for information. At a town event hosted by the mayor, meant to help neighbors accept her bond, a girl named Trudy a
- Author
- David Weber
- Published
- 2011
- Genre
- Young adult science fiction
- Nationality
- American
- Known for
- Prequel to the Honor Harrington series, introducing treecats and Stephanie Harrington
Lore & Background
The novel is split into two parts. The first part, Unexpected Meetings, encompasses chapters 1 to 12 and is largely identical to the short story, adding only details like a number of dates. The second part, With Friends Like These..., tells an entirely new story taking place several months later. In the second part, Stephanie and Climbs Quickly, named Lionheart by humans, deepen their bond. Stephanie attends an event hosted by the mayor to acclimatize neighbors, but immature children consider Lionheart a pet. Only one other live human, Dr. Scott MacDallan, has bonded with a treecat, whom he addresses as Fisher. They agree to disclose limited information to scientists, fearing treecats could be eradicated like previous sentient beings. Tennessee Bolgeo, an agent for Ustinov's Exotic Pets, Inc., arrives to capture treecats for sale as exotic pets. He sedates three treecats using celery-baited traps. Stephanie and Climbs Quickly investigate, and Bolgeo is apprehended by treecats and Stephanie. He and his accomplices are imprisoned, and Stephanie is accepted as a probationary ranger to guard the treecat population.
Reader's Guide
A Beautiful Friendship marks David Weber's first venture into young adult fiction and expands the Honorverse by exploring the origins of the human-treecat bond that is central to the main series. The novel received mixed reviews. Publishers Weekly considered the story to be one for fans rather than teenage readers. Liz Bourke, writing for Tor.com, felt the story disjointed and a pair of novellas and, compared to other examples of the genre, lacking a compelling adolescent voice. Despite this, the book provides a detailed introduction to the treecats as a sentient, telepathic hunter-gatherer species and establishes the ethical dilemmas of first contact with a technologically inferior but intelligent species. The novel's two-part structure, with the first part closely following the 1998 short story, allows readers to see both the initial bonding event and the subsequent challenges of protecting the treecats from exploitation. The book's significance lies in its role as a gateway for younger readers into the larger Honor Harrington universe, while also addressing themes of conservation, interspecies communication, and the responsibilities of advanced civilizations.
Did You Know?
- The novel is based on a short story of the same name first published in 1998 as part of the anthology More Than Honor.
- The treecat Climbs Quickly is renamed Lionheart by humans.
- Only one other live human, Dr. Scott MacDallan, has bonded with a treecat, whom he addresses as Fisher.
- The novel is split into two parts: Unexpected Meetings and With Friends Like These...
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