Stephanie Harrington always expected to be a forest ranger on her homeworld of Meyerdahl . . . until her parents relocated to the frontier planet of Sphinx in the far distant Star Kingdom of Manticore. It should have been the perfect new home — a virgin wilderness full of new species of every sort, just waiting to be discovered. But Sphinx is a far more dangerous place than ultra-civilized Meyerdahl, and Stephanie’s explorations come to a sudden halt when her parents lay down the law: no trips into the bush without adult supervision!
Yet 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 four books of the Star Kingdom series are a Young Adult prequel to David Weber’s popular Honor Harrington adult science-fiction saga. The first book was written by David Weber, the next three were co-authored with Jane Lindskold.

‘A Beautiful Friendship‘ is a Young Adult Science Fiction novel set on a frontier planet in the far future with a girl-meets–sentient-telephathic-treecat First Contact theme.

The split view from human to alien and back was well handled, the action scenes were dramatic and packed an emotional punch and the whole thing was carried along by the excellent narration by 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’ll be back for more I want to see where David Weber takes his ideas and his characters.