Book 1, Off Armageddon Reef: Safehold Series

David Weber writes great battlefield scenarios. This book is no exception.
Actually it is the start of a series of 5 books. We wander around in a daze of boredom from time to time while he endlessly debates what is going to on in people's minds about supporting the church, god, their country, and morals and ethics. I find myself skipping whole paragraphs to get back to the meat of the story. I've bought all 5 books so I'm interested in the outcome, but I think we could have gotten to the end in three volumes. Anyway, it is an intersting story with lots of twists and turns.

I enjoyed this novel very much. It combines the Science Fiction with the great old novels of English sailing ships and the Napoleonic Wars. It is similar to one of the earlier David Weber novels in that a religion suppresses technological progress. This novel is different enough that this is not a problem for me.

The premise is interesting, and at the same time, for me, utterly revolting. It's exactly why I despise religion. A person of faith is one thing, and it's really fairly impressive to see someone who truly has faith in something that they have no true tangible evidence of it's existence. A person who proscribes to a religion becomes a servant to the people who run that organization.

The problem is, so many more words than necessary. So many. I estimate that you could randomly strike 30% of sentences from every page in the book and not change the story! all the while making it far more readable.

My 2 cents at least.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The premise of the story is wonderfully novel. There are three levels of bad guys - those on a galactic scale, those from the original earth, and those in the actual time setting of the novel. The challenge of addressing all three levels of evil is huge, and David Weber does a marvelous job (as he almost always does) of presenting this challenge and allowing solutions to develop in novel ways. A great read, and I'm looking forward to the next in the series.

Warning this is fictional, historical, science fiction soap opera NOT a space opera. If you want to curl up on your coach and spend 60 hours reading a slow moving story with flat one dimensional characters that all sound the same, or you are a David Weber fan, this book is for you. Otherwise move on to something else.

The things I liked most about the Honor Harrington books and the Empire from the Ashes are present here but in a new and just as enjoyable form. I like having heroes who are heroes and who are interesting, likable, honorable, and deadly capable. I thought this book had a great mix of futuristic with ancient technology. I'm excited about where this is going to go. I can't wait for the next one.

This low rating for a usually highly rate writer reflects my taste in reading not his quality writing. I found one of my favorite fantasy and sci fi writers story slow and laborious reading. Excellent concept and basis for a good action story was too detailed in politics for my taste.

David Weber has a vehicle here for a science fiction story set in the age of sail. I didn't like it as much as the Honor Harrington series of even the Hell's Gate series, but I'm looking forward to the sequel.

Fun story, and if you're into long descriptions of sea battles you'll love it. The characters are likable, but without a lot of depth. Overall I enjoyed the book, but I'm probably not going to read the others in the series.

This book is excellent reading. Full of intrigue and fast paced action. The characters are very interesting. There are no dull moments in this one. I would recommend this book as five star reading. Falcon

I agree with readers of Webber's subsequent novels that it takes a really dedicated reader to mull through the rehashing of the details that he goes into which just clouds the reader's mind and slows down the full read.

I discovered Weber couple months ago and can't stop reading him. This is his his best book according to me. The only people who seems to have written bad reviews are probably very religious persons . If someone is fundamentalist probably is good idea to skip this book.

This book suffers from having to set up the entire series: primitive

warfare amongst humans, destruction/capture of the remaining human

advanced technology and (eventually) fight and defeat nasty static

alien culture. Fine. I can deal with that.

What I found annoying was the basically campy, over the top advanced

technology secretly applied in a primitive warfare environment.

If you've got it, flaunt it?

The main character, allow me to say android, changes sex at the

beginning of the book. Fine, obviously we haven't seen the last

of the female protagonist. Could have been handled better.

And the next paragraph is 1/2 a world away?

Maybe I've read too many of these series but I thought this was

awfully predictable and not nearly as interesting as others.

All in all it's okay but if you're going to follow an obvious

formula I think it demands more interesting writing. Hopefully

the follow-on books will cover less territory in each and be

more interesting.

How about this for a concept? An alien civilization outnumbers space-faring humanity many times over. They are also not interested in any sorts of communications with humanity. Once they encounter human civilization they immediately attack and destroy and kill all humans. No mercy is every given. Humanity fights back, but are overwhelmed. In desperation, a last ditch effort is undertaken which has a small portion of humans to a planet far away and establish them as a new outpost in an effort to keep a tiny bit of humanity surviving. Since the aliens scan for advanced technology to track humans, the new colonists have no technology beyond muscle power and wind. In other words, the planet has only galleys in the seas, and nothing more technologically advanced than iron foundries. To ensure that technology does not advance much further, the survivors establish a unified religion that is designed to ensure that any attempt to advance the technology is considered blasphemous.

However, there is one little quirk: not all the old human survivors buy into that image of the future. A fight breaks out between the two factions and while the religious faction wins, and kills almost all the others, there is one young woman who survives by having her consciousness embedded into a robotic body that is placed in hibernation. Almost 900 years later, this woman awakes. Her body is immortal. Her technology is far beyond what any existing humans can even imagine is possible. Her mission is to undo the religious fanaticism and find ways to encourage humanity to develop back into a technological society and in such a way that they can eventually surpass the aliens and seek revenge on them with new technologies and techniques. Nonetheless, the world that she awakens to is very much a feudal world. So, how to move it forward?

This is the main dilemma in this book.

Most of the 700 plus pages in this book follow her adventures as she decides to become Merlin Athwaite and inserts herself into the political intrigues of one particular nation. The intricate political dances that ensue between her chosen King and the other kingdoms on the planet, as well as the universal church, are the subject of most of the pages of this book. In addition, Merlin inserts some technological developments into his chosen kingdom to prepare them for the wars that will inevitable arise. Indeed, one of the wars starts as the apex of this book and occupies the last 100 pages or so of it.

As a concept, this is quite interesting. The flow of the narrative is quite compelling. However, there are two points that are somewhat negative that must be commented on. First, this is a world spanning story, populated by many diverse populations. Therefore, there are a lot of characters who come up. It is very hard – without keeping a notebook handy – to keep track of who is who and who works for whom. Secondly, Merlin introduces several technological improvements to his chosen society, but I had the feeling that it was too much too fast. Especially as some of what Merlin is forced to do is clearly so superior to current reality as to be considered magical. Or, in the case of this particular society, driven by demon power. Given that, how is it that one particular royal family is willing to accept it unquestioningly?

Nonetheless, this was a fascinating read. It does take some concentration. This is not the kind of book that you can read over a few hours at the beach. I think it is worth it and am looking forward to the next installment.

WARNING!

STAY AWAY!

The ONLY reason to read this book is if you are trying to catch up with the other 7 (so far) books which follow this one.

It's a GREAT premise, and this book is enjoyable, but the series is up to EIGHT BOOKS and pretty much no further along than it was at the end of the FIRST book. There are at least two more on the way.

Go read the reviews for the last couple of books in the series (the few spoilers won't make any sense to you, so don't worry about them). You will see a bunch of people gushing over them, but there are about as many people complaining about the plodding, slow pace of the series, the incomprehensible names, the incredible detail devoting to unimportant things (do you REALLY need four pages describing three different ways of converting a flintlock musket to a cartridge rifle?), disasters which are only there to keep the Good Guys from making any progress in their war against the Bad Guys, long talks between the Bad Guys which essentially boil down to "We want to do more Bad Guy stuff, how do we get the money to do it?" mysteries mentioned in the 4th book which have not been explored in the slightest by the 8th book, long passages devoted to how to build chuck wagons . . .not to mention several plot holes, again only there to keep things from moving forward.

At the end of the 8th book, there are nearly 100 pages just listing the characters, most of whom were only seen on a single page!

The pre-release blurbs for the 9th book say that it paves the way for the final battles between the Good Guys and the Bad Guys, meaning that BOOK 10 has been plodded -- er, I mean PLOTTED -- and it STILL won't bring us back to the fight against the outer-space aliens who are the REAL enemy . . .

SERIOUSLY. If this is the first of the Safehold books you're considering, RUN AWAY!

It would get 5 stars, if it weren't the beginning of a miserably long series that would have made a good trilogy. This is the series that you would read while listening to that symphony that will take 639 years to play.

Dont read this book. The plot and premise is wonderful and a couple characters are engaging. The problem is Weber is fascinated by his own writing and fully 30% of the book is useless trivia meant to cure insomnia. It's a 600 page book that would be more entertaining if he chopped out 150 pages. I rarely put down a book when it's badly written. I forced myself to read the 1st and second book -- at times they were fun. But in the end, page after page after page after page --get it -- of trivia. The color of his tunic, the paintings on the wall, the weave of the rug, the sky was dark and the streets slippery. Blah blah blah. This guy is nowhere near Sanderson's skill.
Then there's the idiocy of giving everyone two names: like Earl of Pines is really Wynstin Churchdale. So you have to memorize both names that he uses interchangeably. With the 70 or so characters per book having two names that he uses interchangeably, in every chapter you have to turn to the appendix to find out who the current person is. This was poorly planned. I gave up in the middle of the second book. The military battles are mostly fun. But the boredom and skimming you are forced to do isn't worth the cash.

This book makes no sense whatsoever. Read this paragraph:

"Partly that was the result of innate respect, the belief that certain people had to be above suspicion. That, Wave Thunder felt sure, was the category to which Seafarmer (just as Wave Thunder himself) had assigned Kahlvyn Ahrmahk, the Duke of Tirian, in his own mind. After all, the present duke was the only living son of the king's only uncle. Although his father Ahryn, Had been Haarahld VI's younger brother, he was actually a few years older than Haarahld, since Ahryn, like Kahlvyn himself, had married late. He and Haarahld had been raised more like brothers than cousins, and he was Cayleb's godfather, as well as his cousin."

How can Kahlvyn be older than Haarahld VII due to the fact Kahlvyn's father married late? Isn't Ahryn (Kahlvyn's father & Haarahld VII's uncle) Harrahld VI's younger brother? Did a fourth grader edit this crap?

In Off Armageddon Reef we have an advance human society pushed to the brink of extinction and forced to live without the benefits of modern technology in a last ditch effort to survive. Not only do they draw the line at pre-industrial revolution levels of technology but this idea of technological stagnation is culturally programmed to ever person on the planet. When a holdover from the past gets dropped into the equation the entire world is turned upside down. It is an amazing premise and really gives Weber a lot to work with. You have all the benefits of a solid sci-fi story mixed with a kind of historical fiction that just works.

While the writing of the book is as top notch as always the pacing is where some problems start to creep in. The pacing of this book is somewhat different then Weber's other works. While there is a good deal of very exciting action, including an amazingly epic finale, the book at times grinds to a very long winded halt. The political landscape that Weber has built is extremely complex and he spends a lot of time on the politics. There are large sections of the book that it feels more like a political thriller then sci-fi novel. Not that it makes the book bad as it does add an interesting level to the conflict, but if you prefer action packed science fiction then this is not the book for you.

While I recognize the slower than normal pace of Off Armageddon Reef might off-put some people it didn't bother me too much, but I also enjoy political thrillers. The other complaint however did get to me. Weber had some interesting ideas about language drift during the hundreds of years people were living prior to Nimue's return. The problem is this doesn't work well for the reader. Weber has Nimue and the reader compensate for the language throughout the book except for peoples name. So you get fully understandable and readable dialog told by people with names like Bryahan (Brian) and Nahrmahn (Norman). It is fairly distracting and I was never able to cope with it.

That being said, I loved this book. The age of sail navel battles, the political intrigue, the meshing of sci-fi and classical technology, it all worked for me. This is a series I cannot get enough of and I hope Weber keeps it going for some time.