Like a Mighty Army: A Novel in the Safehold Series

Really nicely done military fiction with good character development, strong ideas and a pseudo realistic technology progression. In other words what's become standard fare for fans of David weber. But the entire book pales to the last paragraph. Don't cheat tho.......

The action in this installment has picked up a bit and it really kept me riveted. I think one has to understand in a novel as detailed as this there are a lot of details that have to be established and you have to have an interest in the background, in the, "How did they get here" stuff. This series has been well worth the wait and effort. This guy writes real books, meaning big, thick, and full of details that make a story come to life!

Excellent book, very engaging, and could be addictive. Start with the first book, Off Armageddon Reef, and continue through the series in order. A very complex story that weaves Star Trek, Outlander, Game of Thrones, the Borgias, Destroyermen, and several similar plot lines into one very interesting narrative. Weber's command of the details of land battles, sailing ships, weaponry, and court intrigue is phenomenal. A great read. I can't wait for the next one.

The only thing I don't like about this whole series is the wait between books. If only Weber could put out a new book every couple of weeks I would be in hog heaven.

One thing I would like to see incorporated is a better way to consult maps in the electronic versions. I find it more work than it should be to jump back and forth to the maps and then back to the text. Why not include the map in the chapter or a link that you could toggle back and forth. In the paper editions you could just keep a finger in the place where the map is. The addition of some additional info on the maps would also help, like the route of a march, up close rendition of the order of battle over the course of the fight, location of all places mentioned, etc.

jgblackburn

This story keeps the progression of the war going as expected. It was a great read, and as always, David keeps me wanting more.
Nothing really new here, except for a few surprises. I'd scream deux ex machina on them except, it was needed and he did an excellent job providing an "in" for them.

For the uninitiated, deux ex machina means "Device from God". if a story has a lot of them its generally a weakness in the writing. I particularly dislike that kind of writing unless its well represented.

A lot of detailed military movement and technical aspects of weapons, and not as much advancement if the plot lines as I could wish for. Did not anticipate the plot curve with Nimue. I hope the next book sees faster movement toward finishing the main plot line.

I gave it 5 stars only because I love the series. The story was good and I loved the inclusion of Hector and Iris into the circle, as well as their new 'protector'. The fighting could have been better and seemed to drag at times and there wasn't really a definitive action sequence this go around. Mostly seemed like filler but still worth reading.

This story does not begin here. I suggest starting with Safehold and reading them all. It is just amazing to me how David Weber continues it with all these characters and places! He must have a massive white board next to his writing instrument to keep it all straight! Enjoy!

The book was OK and continues the series. I enjoyed it but I was hoping for more action and less talking. The major characters appear now as narrators who recapitulate the events happening around the world in the story and less as movers and shakers who are out rocking the world. It is still a very good read.

Fun Fact: When David Weber tweets, he uses no fewer than 1517 characters.

About halfway though the first chapter, it dawned on me that I had no idea who the characters were, despite having read all of the previous books. Absolutely no clue who was a good guy and who was a bad guy. Three chapters in, I realized I didn't care. One hundred and thirty pages in, I started replacing all of the character names with "blah blah blah." When you need a Visio chart to keep track of the characters, you have too many story threads.

Perhaps part of the problem is that Weber seems to have no idea who he wants the main character to be. Is it Merlinimue? Is it Caleb or his Utah-named wife, however you spell it? Hector? Achilles? Dracula? Given that we are now forty-five books into the series, it's probably time that he stuck with one character and relegated the others to very short POVs - or preferably, no POVs. I mean, c'mon - did you have to endure the Lord of the Rings with a couple chapters where we explored Gothmog?

I kept thinking, who does this series remind me of? And then I remembered, from days of halycon youth . . . John Jakes and his neverending series with utterly forgettable characters. Although it's not that Weber's characters are forgettable, as it is that there is so many of them it's hard to care.

I like Weber. He's one of my favorite authors, although I would classify him as "very good" rather than "great." But I'm dumbfounded why he's put so much time into this series, when he has a much better series with Honor Harrington - or even Prince Roger. Perhaps he will take a break from rolling around on piles of money and explain this to us. (But why?)

You should re-read the rest of the series first, and then buy this book. This will have the benefit of both re-familiarizing yourself with some of the characters, and by the time you finish reading eighty-six thousand pages of prose, the price should have dropped as well.

Final Fun Fact: Duke Dheuk of Earyle makes a minor, but important, cameo in this book.

This is an ongoing series and is really a commentary on some of present day reality. Different readers will probably see it differently but it is an excellent read. Be sure to get the earlier books so you know what is going on. These are not really good stand alone books to read.

Loved it, got a new "angle" (charater) to the on going Safehold story. Lots of action for us action "junkies" and ties in well with the previous books in the series. Further character developement for some of the secondary characters. An excellent read for Weber fans.

To be honest I don't normally like books that have multiple viewpoints, I tend to enjoy following one character until the end of his journey. In this instance, I found it immensely satisfying to read about the same battle from opposing sides. The book is long like some previous reviewers have noted but I hardly noticed and was in fact saddened when the end came. The kindle on the computer actually ended at 85% which was a surprising disappointment to be honest. The real reason I am posting this review is that I wanted to weigh in and give my 2 cents, with regards to what people have been saying. If you enjoyed the previous novels, than this is a must have to continue the saga.

Weber has created a universe that keeps me wanting more. Given that the characters haven't yet settled their on-planet squabbles, and the super-villains (the Gbaba) are still lurking offstage, the possible story-lines seem limitless.

While I might wish not to have to phonetically decode the names of his characters, the amusement that often arises makes it a minor issue.

Other reviews of other Weber books have complained that too much time is devoted to the context that constrains or steers the action sequences; I beg to differ. Whether it's logistics or psychology, people cannot always do what they think they want to, in the timeframe they want. An editor could improve the motor-to-weight ratio of many paragraphs, but the information being conveyed to the reader in most scenes is crucial to the subsequent plot development.

Looking forward to the next volume in the series!

Made the mistake of picking up the second in Weber's Safehold Series, so had to go back and start at book one. Could not wait for paperbacks on the last three, and bought hard copies, something I do not do. Great story, great characters, great escape.

This is an ongoing series and is really a commentary on some of present day reality. Different readers will probably see it differently but it is an excellent read. Be sure to get the earlier books so you know what is going on. These are not really good stand alone books to read.

Loved it, got a new "angle" (charater) to the on going Safehold story. Lots of action for us action "junkies" and ties in well with the previous books in the series. Further character developement for some of the secondary characters. An excellent read for Weber fans.

To be honest I don't normally like books that have multiple viewpoints, I tend to enjoy following one character until the end of his journey. In this instance, I found it immensely satisfying to read about the same battle from opposing sides. The book is long like some previous reviewers have noted but I hardly noticed and was in fact saddened when the end came. The kindle on the computer actually ended at 85% which was a surprising disappointment to be honest. The real reason I am posting this review is that I wanted to weigh in and give my 2 cents, with regards to what people have been saying. If you enjoyed the previous novels, than this is a must have to continue the saga.

Weber has created a universe that keeps me wanting more. Given that the characters haven't yet settled their on-planet squabbles, and the super-villains (the Gbaba) are still lurking offstage, the possible story-lines seem limitless.

While I might wish not to have to phonetically decode the names of his characters, the amusement that often arises makes it a minor issue.

Other reviews of other Weber books have complained that too much time is devoted to the context that constrains or steers the action sequences; I beg to differ. Whether it's logistics or psychology, people cannot always do what they think they want to, in the timeframe they want. An editor could improve the motor-to-weight ratio of many paragraphs, but the information being conveyed to the reader in most scenes is crucial to the subsequent plot development.

Looking forward to the next volume in the series!

Made the mistake of picking up the second in Weber's Safehold Series, so had to go back and start at book one. Could not wait for paperbacks on the last three, and bought hard copies, something I do not do. Great story, great characters, great escape.

It is a very good series, this is a good continuation and I only hope that I live long enough to read the conclusion of the series. My only problem with the series is that the last 15% of the book was taken up by the list of characters.

This book is a continuation of the Safehold series (that somehow has come to include Out of Darkness--which has no place there at all). The entire series is good to great and this book is certainly among the better ones.

It's okay and if you're a Weber fan it won't disappoint... but it won't blow you away either and like everyone else says, the expositions can get a little long but unlike most people I'm not sure if that's necessarily a bad thing. Let me explain.

When I first heard about Safehold it sounded suspiciously like Dahak and the Alchuntunni. (sp) But I loved that series and he wrapped it up in 3 novels. My favorite novel was Heirs of Empire and you could tell there was so much more of that story hence the pitch to Tor and now we have Safehold. Which is great, it's an interesting take on the alternate history genre and it's written well. But like most Weber fans, I like Weber not for his writing but his skill at world building. The internal consistencies and how everything is thought out so well... us technical/engineering types appreciate the skill, thought, and care he builds into his stories.

If I think back to Nikue waking up in that cave to where we are now and to some point in the future when Charis defeats the church and it's about the Gbaba, I'm reminded that Weber is writing an EPIC and I'll appreciate far more the little asides and expositions about minor characters and why they're doing what they do. Because there's a lot of that here... and what's minor now will be something more later. Remember Gharvi? Look at him now. When I go back and re-read the Corisande campaign, I enjoy far more the character development I thought was inconsequential then.

My only gripe was I wanted more of Irys and Hector in this book.

Books ends with a little mystery that of course will have all of us dying for book 8. See you all in the forums.

Weber continues to delight in this series with the latest book taking us further along in this conflict of good and evil. Don't know how long this series will last, but I'm enjoying every step of the way.

I have followed David Webers series for years as they have been, for me, some of the most readable, enjoyable, and thoughtful books I have ever read. This one is no exception, it is as intricate and yet readable as the ones before it and I always am on the lookout for the next in the series.

I have been reading serious sci-fi for 40 some odd years and this series holds up with the best. The sheer amount of work he puts into to the background and history of this world holds everything together. Weber moves into the upper ranks of serious writers with this series.

Expansion and filling in of details for some characters, and addition of a new one. As always, I enjoyed the description of the broad planning and coordination leading to and the implementation and action of the battles.

Although Weber can be long on background this episode of the Safehold series is worth the read. The addition of a new PICA as a main character is great. Please don't drag this out and make it boring in the process.

I thought this was better than the last one in that it had more of the battles and less filler. My problem is that the story is moving forward at a glacial pace. At this rate it will years before we see the Temple defeated. I fear that we may never have a resolution to the Gbaba. Finally was it really necessary to have almost 90 pages of Character names and glossary?

The saga continues as Weber weaves his multitude of characters through the fascinating world of Safehold. Just as with the other books in the series. you won't be able to put it down and you will, when you finish. start counting the days until the next volume is ready. How he keeps the plots and characters under such control makes for a riveting read. Bravo.

The last book felt bogged down by details a bit, it was the set up for this one. Finally getting more references to why it's called "the Church of God Awaiting."it's going to be hard to wait for another hundred years... Or is it going to take that long? Mr. Weber is not a nice man to tease us so.

This book series is probably one of the best I have ever read, and this book is just as gripping as the others. I don't think I set it down once until I had read it cover to cover(it was the weekend so I didn't need sleep anyway).

IMHO of course. I've been a fan of science fiction since I was 12 and I'm now 65, so I well remember and am thoroughly familiar with the Grandmasters of Scifi. Weber is for me, most reminiscent of R.A. Heinlein but IMO exceeds him. The Safehold series (IMO) also surpasses Weber's superlative Honor Harrington series in imaginative inventiveness and the depth of characterization of far more characters than does the Honor Harrington novels. The Safehold universe Weber has created is also logically consistent, which for me is an important consideration. I find far too much inherent contradiction and implausibility in much of the modern scifi I encounter today. The Safehold series enfolds multiple challenges in its plot, which ensures that the series can grow and evolve as it's central character, a near immortal human/android-like PICA (Personality Integrated Cybernetic Android) works to overcome those challenges. Inventiveness, deep character development, profound moral and philosophical questions and challenges, historical references skillfully woven into the story, 'derring do' and romance. A unique blend of advanced technology in a pre-industrial era environment. Societal insights, religious dogma and spiritual insights examined, military conflict and individual actions and reactions to those issues. This series has it all. I can't imagine anyone who likes 'hard' scifi not loving this series.

This book continues the non stop action and adds a measure of suspense to the series. Excellent read. The only issue I had with the book was it ended too soon. I can not wait for the next book.
Chuck

The book is waaaay too long. It's 650 pages and not much happens, and when something occasionally happens - it's just not interesting. Basically, all battles follow the same pattern: Temple forces blunder forward and get slaughtered by superior weapons. And it does get tiring after a while.

Also, the number of dramatis personæ is exploding - just their list takes about 50 pages, so it's not really possible to follow the book. But that's OK, because stupid name mangling makes it difficult to even _read_ names and after a time one simply learns to gloss over them. It becomes so bad that in multiple chapters you can't even tell which _side_ is described in it.

And character development? In a Weber's book? Stop kidding me.

Unlike most of my generation, I like to think I have a good grasp of our history. Weber has forced me to reevaluate that opinion. This novel provides an in-depth view of WWI-style combat and tactics, provides an exceptional overview of political motivators, and even touches on the effects of religious warfare. This series has been an exceptionally good read, and is one I recommend to ALL readers.

This Safehold series has been a joy to experience. The many plots and excellent descriptions of both land and sea battles are some of the best developed in any story yet published. The characters continue to develop with the final battle with the Gbaba still in the far future. Please David get your next book published in a more quick time frame.

Things are really starting to develop. It's great watching the Characters grow. David Weber is keeping the story from lagging. So many long series start to slow down and get dull but, not this one.

From a diehard Weber/Safehold fan; can't wait for the next book! Please write faster. I'm 74! Anyone who enjoys military history and Sci-Fi will love this book and series, but you really need to start with book 1.

As most have, I have anxiously waited for this book. I probably should have re-read previous book first. Mr. Weber jumped right into battle with both feet and I felt extremely lost and confused. Having said that I very much enjoyed the book and once again have to wait for next one.

Another exceptionally crafted and satisfying tale that must lead to at least one more book in this great series. As usual, I'll hate waiting for it but will do so avidly. It hurts so good!
If you crave sci-fi and world-creation on the scale of Dune and require the military and political accuracy of Tom Clancy, you've found a brave new home.

I love the safehold series I just hope that David weber keeps these books as exciting in the future as I have read so far.because as David weber fans we all know that the honor Herrington series has seemed to of lost its excitement.wish it would pick it up a lot more than the last couple I have read.

I really liked the book. It covers military strategy, tactics, deception, logistics and the use of spies and deception to influence the outcome of a battle. A good read that kept me up until 4AM on a workday!

Some might say its too wordy and too many characters come and go, but that's life. Many characters in history are known for their part in a single battle. You saw the battle from the viewpoints of both sides. Each side had officers that made mistakes and officers that took advantage of circumstances.

The use of intelligence reminded me of the fact that intelligence is not just learning about what the enemy is doing, but also providing false information to get them to do what you want them to do.

The ending was a surprise and makes me look forward to the next title in the series. Overall a good book.

Have the whole series,one of my favorite authors, have not read a book I did not like, this is a great series can not wait for next book. A great read for everyone who likes depth of characters, all oh his books are very good, RJB.

I like a good long book (so long as it is not written in such a way that the author is getting paid by the word is obvious). Would be nice if next book in series could be a bit faster than current rate of one per year.

I don't know why I expected anything different after the last couple of books, I guess a case of hope over logic. Again dozens of minor characters that come and go. They seem to serve mainly as a view point on which to hang the endless portrayals of maneuvers and discussions of technology and logistics. Not nearly enough focus on the core group of characters and what they are doing. Scenes with those characters are so widely separated that the book just seems to grind along. The only redeeming points to me were the outcomes of the campaigns and the resolution of Irys and Hector's romance. One new character that should play a big role but not nearly enough attention paid to that character's viewpoint after the introduction, At this point I'm still curious about the final outcome but I don't think I'm willing to invest the time sloughing through more books like this. Maybe I'll get the last one at a library and read the ending.

Yeah, you have to read all the novels in the series....yeah you have to get all the details.....yeah ya gotta slog through it.

It is worth it if you want to continue reading the series. The ending blew my socks off when I thought I was paying attention!

Hah!

'Nuff said...this is a good read for those who can enjoy it and appreciate what is coming and try to outthink a Master who is paying attention to what he is doing (certain one-shot books aside).

Won't get into plot details because if you can't read it for yourself and put up with the heat in the kitchen - get out.

For me, it was very enjoyable and a rollicking read, despite the mud of details that DO matter if you think about it.

Take a chance and continue to read the series, I think it is worth it.

Better yet, if you got in in the middle of the fray, start at the beginning - I will envy you the experience.

I really liked the book. It covers military strategy, tactics, deception, logistics and the use of spies and deception to influence the outcome of a battle. A good read that kept me up until 4AM on a workday!

Some might say its too wordy and too many characters come and go, but that's life. Many characters in history are known for their part in a single battle. You saw the battle from the viewpoints of both sides. Each side had officers that made mistakes and officers that took advantage of circumstances.

The use of intelligence reminded me of the fact that intelligence is not just learning about what the enemy is doing, but also providing false information to get them to do what you want them to do.

The ending was a surprise and makes me look forward to the next title in the series. Overall a good book.

Have the whole series,one of my favorite authors, have not read a book I did not like, this is a great series can not wait for next book. A great read for everyone who likes depth of characters, all oh his books are very good, RJB.

I like a good long book (so long as it is not written in such a way that the author is getting paid by the word is obvious). Would be nice if next book in series could be a bit faster than current rate of one per year.

I don't know why I expected anything different after the last couple of books, I guess a case of hope over logic. Again dozens of minor characters that come and go. They seem to serve mainly as a view point on which to hang the endless portrayals of maneuvers and discussions of technology and logistics. Not nearly enough focus on the core group of characters and what they are doing. Scenes with those characters are so widely separated that the book just seems to grind along. The only redeeming points to me were the outcomes of the campaigns and the resolution of Irys and Hector's romance. One new character that should play a big role but not nearly enough attention paid to that character's viewpoint after the introduction, At this point I'm still curious about the final outcome but I don't think I'm willing to invest the time sloughing through more books like this. Maybe I'll get the last one at a library and read the ending.

I've only been waiting for about a lifetime. I finally got it. Now I've put it on a shelf. Should I start reading and wipe out a whole night, or save it until I really need to read something that will be excellent?

Like A Mighty Army is probably the best Safehold book since the first in the series (Off Armageddon Reef). If you liked the first and were wondering about whether to buy LAMA, you should.

I posted a critical the store review of A Mighty Fortress four years ago, calling that book “tedious and rambling, with extensive dissection of religious nuance and military logistics but little action or intrigue”: http://www.the store.com/review/R3MCSPNWPT3KQU/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

I’m happy to say that (and I write this as a fan of David Weber’s books) LAMA is a welcome change from the direction he seemed to be taking this series. There are actual naval engagements. There are actual, thoroughly plotted, army engagements. There are actual assassination attempts. There is an actual opportunity for Merlin to use his PICA abilities. And there are two or three tasty plot twists you won’t expect, including one that permanently changes the core cast of characters.

A few of the criticisms I lodged before are still true. Weber still needs to be edited more tightly: I’m not sure how learning the details of the “rediscovery” of the slide rule advances the story, and it never resurfaces later in the book. My preference would be to trim the painstakingly detailed descriptions of trench and siege warfare, which seem to fill at least half the book, but on the other hand longtime Weber readers may relish them.

On a different note, part of the problem an author has when developing a new universe and awarding the heroes the assistance of a god-like figure is establishing that character's limits. Superman has kryptonite. Green Lantern has yellow. But Merlin is merely concerned with straying too close to the Temple of God in Zion — a concern that doesn’t stop him from rocketing around the atmosphere whenever he chooses. So why doesn’t Merlin personally do more to intervene?

Merlin might say that Safeholdians need to learn to understand not just science and technology, but the scientific process itself, and, besides, the necessary unwinding of trust in the Church of God Awaiting takes years. Humanity needs to become aware and self-reliant. (Plus, it would make for an abbreviated series if it ended with: “The surviving members of the Council of Vicars surrendered hours after long-range V2 rockets launched from a base on Charis targeted their remaining encampments.”)

But there’s no in-world answer to why Merlin and SNARC remotes can’t immediately liberate the Temple’s quasi-concentration camps where women and children are tortured and starved. By Merlin’s own ethics, it’s a moral imperative. Or in one evening SNARC-assassinate all inquisitors who torture. And so on. Nor is there an obvious in-world reason explaining why one Cayleb Ahrmahk can’t take the fight directly to the city of Zion, which lies directly on the water within reach of Charis’ guns.

If Cayleb can build steam-powered ironclad ships, he can surely build those steam-powered ironclad machines that Terrans might call tanks. And if Charis’ armories can produce six-shooters and centerfire rifles with detachable 10-round magazines, they can surely produce Gatling guns (which date back to the 1860s on Terra, decades before modern rifle magazines) and Maxim machine guns (fully automatic, dating back to the 1880s) to equip armored columns with. Owl has all the blueprints. Sure, the armorplast-walled Temple may be impregnable, but Zhaspahr Clyntahn isn’t much of a threat if he’s hiding in the basement. Yet instead of dealing an immediate death blow to the Temple, which would save millions of lives, the heretic forces remain encamped in non-strategically-important Siddermark.

This is really a minor criticism and doesn’t really detract from LAMA's enjoyable read. But as Cayleb’s forces draw a bit closer to an eventual victory, the why-not-decapitate-now question is going to get more important. Here’s hoping the next Safehold installment is fast-paced, has as many surprises as LAMA, and gives us some land-based ironclads!

I would describe this book as a bridging book. As I read it - and previous comments that it focuses on logistical details and less on characters and action I judge as accurate - this is a book where we see the developing capabilities of the new empire as starting to cascade upon the church and the previous limitless resources of the church as starting to topple. This sets a stage.
This is not, however, a quick process.
Summary: this is entertainingly written in the style that has served the author well over many books. If you like his style you will like this book but it likely will not make the list of top books the author has written. It excells on the details of developing and launching expeditionary campaigns but falls short of fast pace, character development. It has sufficent witty dialogue for me and a decent number of battle scenes that the author handles well. It is a great book for airport and doctor's office survival (my 'standard' for reading - if it is better to set in an airport doing nothing than read a book then the book is bad indeed) and far exceeds those standards.
The book focuses mainly on the land war and the aspects of just what is required to make a land war happen. The book goes into some detail the logistical requirements of the campaign. If you find this interesting, and I thought the author wove the details in well, then this will be very interesting to you. If not - well there is some interaction with the characters and some battle scenes. One interesting part of the plot was a battle at the end where simply halfway decent leadership on the part of the church would have defeated the empires efforts and came close.
It will be interesting to see how the author weaves the aftermath in the next book.
I suspect that the author has to do something to provide some hope for the church as the technological and production capabilities of the empire are painted as pretty much an unstoppable juggernaut. The only thing the church can apparently do is hold on, suffer massive casualties, repeated defeats, and hope for a miracle. This makes for boring reading so there must be something in the plot to emerge and provide at least a challenge for the empire to overcome and be the basis of more really good battle strategies and writing.
I was a tad disappointed that the author did not develop the varied church personalities reaction to the success of the Charisians more - rage & panic of the zealots and probable despair of the more grounded in reality as the realization of the reality of what they are fighting sets in with succeeding defeats.
Speaking ofthe next book, it is my hope that the next book gets back to a swifter pace. It is clear that the church will be defeated and that this defeat is a matter of time and a couple of hopefully well crafted books such as the author has proven to be good at in the past.
But I have questions.
How will the empire handle the high tech facilities under the main church sanctuary? How will they get around the aerial bombardment platforms in orbit?
When will the author call an end to this series. Will he stop with the church defeated and mankind looking to overcome the space based weapons or will he move forward beyond that? It is clear that - barring a miracle of the mighty author pen - the current cast of characters will not live long enough to see humanity getting off of the planet. Will the author just create new characters in the future? Will he show in some manner humanity regaining the stars and defeating the evil aliens who came within a whisker of defeating humainty earlier?
I rather wonder and look forward to seeing what the author does for future books in this series.
As a parting note, I have enjoyed trying to figure out the English names for the characters. There are some clear puns there.

Finally we have a wargamer’s delight, the seventh volume of David Weber’s battle on Safehold against a corrupt church. Like a Mighty Army (hard from Tor) wipes out church armies that are poorly-led with less fire power to the edge of the Temple lands. There’s a lot of fun rooting for the side with the better weapons. There’s some neat battles between the incessant talking that sets up each battle. I missed book six and don’t think I missed anything. I’m still enjoying this long tale, but it’s getting harder to keep my interest up.Review printed in Philadelphia Weekly Press

"How was it? HOW WAS IT?! Good God man, speak up! Reminds me of that damnable Livingston right after we burst through the papyrus rushes at the headwaters. Turns to me and whispers; "See here old boy, I won't stand for second billing." In a voice so quiet and for the fourth time mind you! Irritating as hell! The man could turn a dervish into a sleep-walker. Take that time on the Ganges. Our canoe had just foundered and we we're stranded on the western shore of Shakumbhari island and still a good toddle from the Glacier, soaked to the cullions and bleeding from the gash in my leg that bloody crocodile had... What? No not Livingston - Caruthers! Good God man, keep up! Caruthers turns to me and remarks coolly, "We're bloody well rogered, Bragg." Speak of understatement - that man had ice in his veins... eh? Oh, yes, sorry. Well I turned to him - no not Caruthers - Livingston! I say old man, are you putting me on? (Harumph!) As I was about to say; "and say - `Old Boy?' See here my good man; it's been many a long day since I've seen short pants, but of course he interrupts me, in that irritating way Livingston has, with `the question'. Well I have no choice but to answer, what with the Namibians close on our heels - don't ask! 8500 miles! Single minded fellows those! Anyway, don't want to leave the chap hanging, you know; Egyptian - I reply! And what does the man have the gall to remark, and me with no tea to start the day mind you! Just that stale biscuit and brackish river water - uncivilized I tell you! The scoundrel has the audacity to suggest Egyptian cotton isn't `British' enough! As though I were some sort of `johnny' turncoat. I remind him that I own title to vast swaths of cotton farm holdings in Afghanistan. The bloody fool is probably wearing cloth loomed from my... eh what? Ohhh! Jolly good old man, lost my way again, I did, but that's the price of a life well lived. Well, the book was bloody awful! Long winded in an interminably circuitous, long-way-round sort of way - much like the Ganges itself... eh? Cullions? Bollocks, man, testicles, balls! The man has a bloody big set of cullions to foist this hot air balloon of a book on his audience. Reminds me of a fellow named Livingston; got lost in a search for the headwaters of the Nile - managed to pull his jewels out of the fire on that one, I did. Ever tell you the story? Three times? Four? Well a jolly good story deserves a jolly good rehash, much like this book.

I was looking forward to the next book in the Safehold cycle and was very disappointed in this offering. It is basically one dimensional, very little if any character development or growth. Very confusing movement between good guys and bad guys. I know more about rifles, revolvers, ammunition, etc than I could possibly want to know. I hope this book is an aberration in his writing, but I'm not going to bet on it.

Like a Mighty Army by David Weber

This is another book in the excellent Safehold series. Safehold is a planet intentionally hidden at a low tech level from an alien intelligence that has wiped out mankind except for Safehold. Safehold’s founders founded a new religion to deter industrialization in hopes of not attracting the attention of mankind’s nemesis. Much of the review here is the same for the whole series.

The aforementioned theocracy has become dominated by the gang of four. The gang of four, are four corrupt churchmen who will do anything, no matter how despicable, to remain in power. Mass murder, terriorism, torture and even instigating civil war and denying all progress, it still manages to trumpet it’s godliness.

As all of Weber’s works he has deplorable villains and laudable heroes. Weber works many of current society’s ills into his work. Fanaticism, jihad, corruption, facile politicians, evil empires; he manages to include or refer to through proxy.

Weber is one of those rare authors who can infiltrate your emotions with his characters and feel you full of empathy for their actions. This book shows the Charisian Empire again but focuses more on a next generation of characters. Merlin introduces a surprise character that is thought provoking. Religious warfare is shown in it's brutal reality. Something that has sadly been illustrated by current events.

Some reviews complain that Weber is wordy but each brush stroke can increase the depth and beauty of a work although in this book I did feel he got a bit effusive.

I recommend the book.

Just finished reading 700+ pages of... well... what exactly? Almost nothing happens. Armies move around. Some peripheral characters die (given the list of characters of almost 100 pages at the end of the book, that's a Good Thing). At the end of the book, we're almost a year further into the war between Charis and Mother Church. We don't seem to be an inch closer to fighting the Gbaba, the real opponent. At this speed, Weber will need another 30 books before we get even close to that. And many people have already remarked about the names. It's bad enough that characters are sometimes referred to by the name of their Duchy or Barony or whatever, but at other times by their personal names (necessitating you to browse laboriously in that appendix to find out who the hell this was again). But on top of that, all those weird names... Yes, I understand that the Safeholdian language has evolved in the almost 1000 years that humanity has been on that planet. But the conversations are written in current English, so why not "translate" the names, too? Zhaspar Clyntahn? Really? I'm starting to become allergic to the letters y and h...
The book still held my attention through all those pages, but barely. One more instalment like this, and I'll spend my money on other books.

As someone who has read every book of this series, I couldn't help but be disappointed with this book. I feel like nothing really happened in this book that moved the story along, and it will be at least another year until we see any progress... (hopefully)
Please pick up the story, Mr. Weber!

[Warning - plot spoilers]

Many reviewers have griped about this book. Too long. Too slow. No resolution. And: When do we get to bang on the Gbaba? Patience is my advice. Weber is writing a saga of a World War. Am I the only one who is fine about the pace of events? Think of this as a story that you do NOT want to end quickly. Like a bottle of the finest wine. Suppose Weber had followed your advice several books ago and brought events to a finale. Some would be pleased. But the rest would have missed the finer grained details that Weber can bring forth as he has actually done so.

Like how the technology gets developed. In logical steps. Applied of course to making better weapons. But along the way, we got steamships and the standardisation of measures. Now I am very sure the latter will put most readers to bed. But in the history of science and especially technology, it was absolutely critical. En route in this book is an education that you are injecting yourself with. What a concept! Weber is actually teaching us appreciation of our own history. Bringing up crucial details. Perhaps you can use this to broaden your own understanding of present and past.

Hey, we haven't even got to the full application of steam engines or electricity.

One criticism I have of this book though is how the Allies have won every encounter. Maybe making up for the earlier books when the Temple steamrolled across the planet. But Weber is possibly drifting into the comfortable trap of satisfying the reader at all battles. In a way, it is like how in the Honor Harrington books, she ended up getting promoted to too high a rank to credibly personally take part in battles. This straw dummy depiction of the enemy also happened in Birmingham's trilogy on an alternate world war, Weapons of Choice (The Axis of Time Trilogy, Book 1). Hopefully Weber will in the next book insert a few hard reverses. It is a good sign at least that he has depicted several of the Temple generals and bishops as being too smart to just throw their men away in fruitless assaults.

This book does have a surprise, at least to me. When I started reading, I looked at the cover, as did you. It shows 2 people. One is Merlin. The other is a woman in armour, and they are both looking at some map, presumably. That did not make sense at all. I wondered if she was Sharleyan, because that character was depicted in an earlier story as being in battle and she had learnt pistols. Instead, it is Nimue! Another download into tangible form as a PICA android.

Weber continues to innovate. The rest of the book, while interesting, is more or less a logical continuation of earlier events. But this is a left fielder. Now we have 2 androids, where the earlier Merlin plays the role of an elder sibling. Whether this be as brother or sister is still really unaddressed, though the narrative makes brief depiction of him as an older brother that the original human Nimue never had because of the Gbaba onslaught. (Many people in the Terran Federation foreswore children, whose only fate was to be exterminated.) Point is, just when we might have been nodding off, Weber tips over the table. The potential for plot complications has risen steeply. We now have 2 characters hailing from Terra. Resurrected to fight again for their race.

This plays into some of the oldest stories from many human societies and cultures.

Seventh in the Safehold military science fiction series revolving around a religious war while Merlin pushes this backward world into one that has a chance of surviving the future.

My Take
I never thought I'd say this about a David Weber, but this was a bit dull. At least for the first quarter at which point it picked up and became more interesting. But still, I don't feel as if we've made much headway in this installment.

Yes, there are some notable events: Hektor and Irys' trials, the new PICA, my realization that Merlin is quite serious about the entire world getting in sync with his plans—much to the military men of Charis' conceding dismay, and of course, the fairly easy time the ICM has of plowing through the Army of God. But mostly it's a rehash of improved weapons and battles.

Don't even bother trying to figure out which camp is currently being discussed in any chapter. It'll take awhile before a name will hit you and you know, ah, the enemy or this is a friend. Stumbling across Militant Bishop and someone saying Mother Church helps. Simply saying which country the camp is in doesn't help. Not me, anyway.

We do learn that the original Schueler appeared to the first Wylsynns and charged them with keeping Mother Church more true to the original mission.

The Story
I was gonna cheat and use the official book description. Unfortunately, even it can't get excited, lol.

Suffice it to say that battles are fought and won. The Imperial Charisian Army impresses and progress is made. I know, whoopee.

The Characters
I've only touched on the major players and have pretty much ignored what was happening out on the battlefields. I think you can look at the character list I made out for Midst Toil and Tribulation, 6, and get an idea of who's running what and where. While it won't be quite as up-to-date, not much actually changes.)

Major Merlin Athrawes is an avatar charged with bringing back the original mission parameters to Safehold. He has all the knowledge of the now-vanished, highly technical Earth, and it is the personality of Lieutenant Commander Nimue Alban, a woman dead these past 900 years, which has been downloaded into his circuits. Ahbraim Zhevons is one of Merlin's alter egos he created which enables him to be in several places at once as he cannot reveal his technological capabilities. The world of Safehold thinks all are seijins, powerful warriors from their myths. He's also Shilohian mountaineer, Zhapyth Slytyr.

Owl is a computer program with which Merlin and those he let in on the secret can interface. The SNARCs are small spy devices scattered throughout Safehold.

Cayleb Ahrmakh [Caleb Armak] is the Emperor of the Star Empire of Charis, King Cayleb II, and Emperor Cayleb I, with his beloved Empress Sharleyan [Shirley Ann] and their baby daughter, Crown Princess Alahnah [Alanna]. Sharleyan's personal armsman, Sergeant Edwyrd Seahamper [Edward], is still with her.

Flag Lieutenant Hektor Alply-Ahrmahk, the Duke of Darcos and an adopted son of Cayleb Ahrmahk, is betrothed to Princess Irys Daykyn of Corisande, who has come to accept the truth of her father's murder. Prince Daivyn Daykyn is her brother and the ruler, eventually, of Corisande. Lady Mairah Breygart is Irys' companion on the sea voyage home.

On the Charisian side of the Empire; Tellesberg is its capital
Ahlvyno [Alvino], Baron Ironhill, is the Empire's treasurer and worried about outgo. Trahvys Olhsyn [Travis Olson], the Earl of Pine Hollow (Nahrmahn's cousin) is First Councilor.

Prince Nahrmahn Baytz [Norman Bates] is still the Imperial spymaster even though he died in How Firm a Foundation , 5, and develops a great relationship with Owl, humanizing him. Dowager Princess Ohlyvya [Olivia] is Nahrmahn's widow and receives a great gift.

Archbishop Maikel Staynair [Michael Stayner] is a Charisian and leads the new Church of Charis. Father Paityr Wylsynn [Peter Wilson], the Intendant in Charis, is still in charge of granting patents and blessing/accepting each new invention to ensure it doesn't go against Church proscription. The Brethren of Saint Zherneau has guarded the journal of Saint Zherneau and is part of the inner circle.

The Royal College of Charis
Doctor Rahzhyr Mahklyn [Roger Maclin?], the Chancellor of the Royal College of Charis has full access to Owl. Doctor Sahndrah Lywys [chemistry; Sandra Lewis] is pure scientist, who is experimenting still with guncotton, and I think she's in love with Owl, at least his databases, lol. Ehdwyrd Howsmyn [Edward Houseman], a.k.a., the Ironmaster of Charis, is still hard at work. Styvyn Bruhstair is a master clockmaker and in charge of creating the tools and skills required for inspectors to guarantee uniformity of components. He's re-invented so many rules and gauges, it's not funny. Parsahn Sylz is a cheeseparing, taskmaster who's about to discover the error of his ways.

Charisian Navy
Sir Ahlfryd Hyndryk [Alfred Hendrick], Baron Seamount, is a navy admiral, the commanding officer of the Bureau of Ordnance, and doesn't have access to Owl. Captain Ahldahs Rahzwail [Aldus Roswell] is his executive officer and senior assistant. Admiral Sir Domynyk Staynair, Baron Rock Point and the archbishop's brother, is busy building ships.

Sir Gwylym Manthyr and his men were murdered by the Dohlarans and the Church in How Firm a Foundation . They have become a rallying cry for the allies.

On the Chisholmian side of the Empire; Cherayth is its capital
Paitryk Mahknee, Duke Lake Land, and Grand Duke Mountain Heart will discover a cost to their greed. Sir Lewk Cohlmyn [Luke Colman], the Earl of Sharpfield, is now the second-ranking officer in the ICN and looking forward to payback for his friend, Manthyr.

Corisande
Sir Rysel Gahrvai, the Earl of Anvil Rock, and Admiral Taryl Lektor, the Earl of Tartarian, are Prince Daivyn's co-regents and truly loyal. Anvil Rock's son, Sir Koryn Gahrvai [Corwin Garvey], is in charge of the city guard and terrified at the task of keeping Irys safe. Archbishop Klairmant Gairlyng makes his position on the Church of Charis and that of God Awaiting as well as the relationship Corisande is about to embark on with both Irys' marriage and Daivyn offering his loyalty to Charis perfectly clear. Charlz Doyal [Charles Doyle] is still here. Lieutenant Charlz Sheltyn [Charles Shelton] is a jerk who gets his comeuppance. From Captain Nimue Chwaeriau, who is assigned as personal adjunct to Hektor and Irys.

Siddarmark is under attack
Lord Protector Greyghor Stohnar [Gregor Stoner] is the ruler, grateful for the help of Charis and her Empire. Ahnzhelyk Phonda [Angelique Fonda], a.k.a., Aivah Parhsahn [Aiva Parson], continues to fund the acquisition of weapons and coordinates with her spy network.

Mother Church
The Church of God Awaiting was set up by some of the original Safehold command crew of Operation Ark, including Eric Langhorne and Bédard, whom the colonists quickly came to revere as Archangels with the Word of God. But by doing so, they changed the mission's intentions and angered fellow crew members: Pei Kau-yung and Pei Shan-wei (her name became a curse). Pei Shan-wei stored the original orders in a cave that became known as Nimue's Cave.

The Church is based in Zion and ruled by a Group of Four Vicars, with a Grand Vicar, supposedly over them: Zhaspahr Clyntahn (Jasper Clinton) is the worst, a psychopath willing to destroy everyone for his own desires, and in charge of the Inquisition (Archbishop Wyllym Rayno is in charge of Clyntahn's Rakurai and spies); Rhobair Duchairn (a French Robert) is treasurer and desperately trying to find the money for this war; Allayn Maigwair, the Captain General, is struggling with manufactories and grateful for Lieutenant Dynnys Zhwaigair's inquiring mind in Dohlar while Brother Lynkyn Fultyn is in Zion — if they can just keep both from Clynthan's notice; and, Zahsyn Trynair ([Jason? Trainer??] was the true power of the Council, the Chancellor, but even he is under Clyntahn's thumb.

The Army of God
Army of Justice
Sir Rainos Ahlverez is a Dohlaran, who ends up having a sea change about Thirsk; Merlin and company quickly come to regret the speed at which he learns. Sir Lynkyn Lattymyr [Lincoln Lattimer] is his aide. Fortunately (for our side), he's placed under Sir Ahlvyn Gahrnet [Alvin Garnet], the Duke of Harless, a Desnarian who thinks he's all that, right along with his second-in-command Earl Hankey; Earl Hennet is another commander who believes calvary can do anything. Sir Graim Kyr [Graham Kerr] is his grand-uncle's supercilious, idiot of an aide.

The Key of Schueler is a weapon programmed to detect and destroy technology that reaches a certain level. Rakurai are independent assassins for the Church.

The Cover
It's very much a Baen cover and cut into horizontal thirds with a dark band at the top showcasing the author's name in raised silver while the bottom band is bronze metallic with the embossed silver title. The central graphic banded in ribbons of purple is of Nimue and Merlin as they look over yet another new ship of the line.

The title is true enough, although I should think you could remove the "like", for this is not so much Like a Mighty Army, but is one.

I liked vol. 1 of the Safehold series, but after vol. 3 I've become gradually convinced that each new book is written by a computer (a PICA?), not by a human being. The situations are so boring and the style so repetitious that any sentient creature would be unable to survive the ennui of producing this kind of book... Seriously, there ought to be a law against writers exploiting their readers in such a shameful way!

Get serious, Mr. Weber, we are eager to meet the Gbaba! Give us the last tome and move to another series of books!

David Weber is one of my favorite SciFi writer's of all time. That being said, he is killing this series.

Personally I find that a terrible waste, both of his time and of a series which showed tremendous potential early on. You can read in many of these other reviews how there is too little character development in this book, that the descriptions and discussions take up way too much time and space causing the book to drag. You'll read that his naming conventions drive people nuts and that his characters are getting so numerous and flat that it's difficult to keep track of, let alone care about most of them. That is all very true, but it's not the biggest problem.

The biggest problem is that Mr. Weber set the good guys up with all of the cards. Reading this series lately has been like watching Mohamed Ali in the ring with a scrappy, viscous, mean, and ill tempered kid. Sure, the kid is nasty and obviously needs dealt with but watching it drag out is simply a bloody mess. The "Good Guys" have and will eternally have the tech advantage; worse however, is that they quite literally know almost EVERYTHING their enemies are saying or doing anywhere in the world as they do it, except for the top brass in one city. This takes away any sense of desperation or danger on the "Good Guys" part and simply turns the book into a bloody slog where one "bad guy" after another is subjected to yet another massacre. Boring and stupid Mr. Weber, Boring and Stupid.

I'm getting flashbacks to Wheel of Time. A brilliant premise, that is wasted because the author can't make himself move the story forward, gets caught up in minutiae, and introduces dozens upon dozens of characters, by name. (Barely pronouncable names, at that...)

There is a clear lack of progress throughout the book. Sure some engagements between large armies were fought, but we're not much nearer the end of the conflict than 600 pages ago. As if that wasn't annoying enough, Weber has suddenly adopted a tendency to describe the initiation of a conflict or battle, then giving us the climax through second-hand accounts after the fact.
Frankly, Webers big strength is world building and battle descriptions. His characters are two-dimensional stock personae, so skipping the detailed battle descriptions plays only to his weaknesses as an author.

I don't actually mind the descriptions of technology, and the story of how the world moves up the tech-tree - that was part of what caught my interest. But if the story itself is mired in quicksand, it's hard to stay interested.

Weber also introduces yet another couple dozen characters, most of whom have little discernable substance. This makes it exceedingly hard to follow the story.

Lastly, I'm REALLY curious how many books Weber intends to write in this saga. We're 7 books in, and they've gone from water-power to steam, from smoothbore muskets to breechloading rifles. So, who here will wager a guess how long until we advance to a point where they have interstellar capacity, fusion, energy weapons and a chance in hell of fighting the Gbaba - which seem to have been forgotten.
There's probably a couple books before we get a resolution of the church vs. Charis, and from there, they have a LOT of teching up to do...

(I'm guessing he'll pull a deus ex machina, and have Merlin simply bootstrap them up a dozen tech-levels, otherwise I have no idea how many books it would take to move through ~300 years of development, given each book covers a year or two).

All in all, I'd say I'll tough it out for another book, and if he's still unable to advance the story, I'll put the series in hibernation mode until I see whether he ever gets anything completed.

Mr. Weber seems to be adopting the same strategy for the Safehold series that he uses for his Honor Harrington series. He's apparently paid by the word and wow, is this book wordy. Not much story arc advancement, unlike the first several in the Safehold series. Lots of the continued awkward name spellings to make it a tougher read and harder to keep track of who's who. I don't anticipate the series ending anytime soon. Unfortunately, I also don't anticipate the next book advancing the storyline much faster given Mr. Weber's writing style of late. Too bad, he's a great storyteller - he just can't seem to move his (longer) series story arcs along at a reasonable clip after the first 5 or so books in a series. It's not a bad read, but is much, much, longer than the book needs to be for what it accomplishes.

Reviews by Kathryn Townsend,Terry Dean, Jean V. Dubois and Gabriel sums it up so I wont repeat what they collectively have said.

I'm so glad I bought the Audible version so I could do other things at the same time. If I had bought the book and invested the reading time I would be even less pleased. David, I love the story, premise and main characters however this is not Honor Harrington.( Which you left us hanging on that one.) You need to seriously speed this up or you are going to loose many dedicated consumers. As much as I love Cayleb,Sharleyan, Hektor Aplyn and virtual Nahrmahn it is time to move on and move forward. To be honest, I'm not sure I'm going to buy book 8. At this point, I would advise anyone who hasn't started reading this series, not to start and wait to see if you even finish it within the next 20 years.

I love the introduction of a new powerful character and wasn't surprised Nynian Rychtair a.k.a Ahnzhelyk Phonda a.k.a Aivah Pahrsahn has figured out certain realities in the final chapters. Sadly, not enough Mr Weber. If you have to end the war and jump this a whole generation bite the bullet and just do it already.

OK. This is the 7th book in the series. I liked the first book in the series a lot. It got me hooked. But Weber's writing style has worn on me. Too much time spent with characters telling me what will happen or what has happened; not enough of what is happening. Too many pages I skim through of technical data that shows Weber's research into black powder era technology. Although I am curious how the series will end, I think this is my last purchase toward that goal. This endless book series model of story telling and publishing annoys me.

When three quarters of the book is describing semi-relevant minutia one begins to wonder why they should continue reading by page 300. This page filler is uninspired writing which, if written better, would have been seamlessly woven into action and plot that moved the story forward by a better or less lazy writer. I can just as easily go to wikipedia and research post-bellum and pre-WWI technology with far greater coherence. The good guys always have witty banter to start a conversation, the bad guys scowl. The inundation of characters and difficult naming conventions make the one dimensional characterization nearly impossible to follow, in part, because the reader just no longer cares or is carried on by the story. The entire book could have been a compelling novella in better hands or less lazy ones. This edition of Safehold is a miss by a very wide margin.

600 pages and maybe 100 pages of it are actually part of the story. I am so tired of the excruciatingly detailed descriptions of every single piece of ordinance and every single step taken. Been there, read that, move on please. The story should be the focus. The details should be enough to set the stage. This is getting to the same point at which I quit reading Robert Jordan. I've already given up on Honor Herrington because of the unrelenting detail. I was hoping this wouldn't get to that point. On the bright side - at least I didn't buy the book - the library is a wonderful resource! I will probably try the next book - again from the library - but it will be the last unless he cleans up his act.

I like to thank the reviewers for the heads up. I skipped about 200 pages of Book 5 because it kept getting bogged down in minutiae. The concept this cool I like the idea of good versus institutionalized evil.
I even like some of the descriptions that Weber has provided that helps us to understand the details of weaponry and sailing. Much like other Weber books the reader gets full appreciation of what it takes to logistically carry out a war.

And like the rest of Webers books I find it difficult to keep rereading the same if not similar descriptors around how to rig, hoist, set sail; load prime fire primitive ballistic weapons; supply, march, arm battalions.

We get it.! You know a lot about early weaponry.

You want to do a fairly good job with writing plots and characters that you actually endure hundreds of pages of repetitive and sometimes ungainly information to find out what happens to them. Alas I won't be reading this book.

David if you read this, please allow me to rejoin the fold soon

This whole series is worth the read, that's for sure, but it has turned into what appears to be an income generator for the author/publishers. There's no doubt this is done well, but the whole series could have been brought to a conclusion volumes and years ago. Considering where the story stands now, it's not inconceivable that there could be 3-5 books in the future, or more! Really? Come on Dave, let's wrap it up. Let this be the second to last book.

Book number seven in a series of eight books. Please note that I believe that this series is a predecessor to the Dahak series in that this is the period after the first or second interstellar empires.

I really want the series and book to work well. That said, the book is a slog and wordy with hundreds of characters in a massive work to explain the rebellion. There is a character reference at the back but I still got lost after the twenty main characters.

The eighth book in the series, _Hell's Foundations Quiver_, will be out in September.

Sorry David, I'm a big fan, and loved the series. I was hooked after the first two books, and became enthused at upcoming chapters. Then book six but on the breaks, and now book seven.. I am litterally skimming chapters to get past boring details, details, details! We get to learn the bad guys are really great guys who hate having to follow their Hitler style leaders. We get chapter long descriptions of weapons. It gets a little confusing reading about different battles in different places that sound exactly the same. I have to skip back a few chapters to see if he was still talking about Siddermark or the canal zones. This may be a book that could be skipped and the reader wouldnt see much of a gap between books six and eight. Why not move the story along more? I'm a little afraid the final book will be the same until the last chapter when the bad guys are defeated and 2 pages are given to facing the gababa. Obviously, im a little dissapointed. How long until the final book?

David Weber books are most entertaining when the plot moves along. Unfortunately that's not happening here. Mr Weber's characters are typically one dimensional - not a criticism just a fact = so you are not going to get miss any motivations and the technology doesn't really advance significantly. In fact one could completely skip this book - read a synopsis - and you'd be good to go for the next book. Not sure what the publisher is thinking but someone needs to organize an intervention with Mr. Weber.

I really like the series overall, but the surprise comes on the Kindle @84% when it goes to the character/documents compendium. It was just getting exciting and then boom the 16% of telling about the characters that were somewhat overly developed for their short lived appearances. I threatened after the last book, because of price, to stop buying. I am disappointed and annoyed with what is a good story because of these issues.

Thank you my brothers and sisters! I am NOT going to subject myself to the hell of this series any longer. I really, really like the story but finding it amongst the excruciating pain of so much detailed fluff it a real bitch. Based on the reviews of this book it is more of the same so goodbye SafeHold. I would have loved to see what's under the temple but at 54 years of age I don't know if I will be around for the next 50 years for Weber to move the story along! Such a shame I am a big Weber fan. I have read every one of his books but now...we part company (at least on this series).

If you are a Weber fan do not even start this series as it will taint your faith in one of the greatest SciFi readers ever.

Just finished the book. Not the worst of the series, but not the best either.

Between the constant jumping between battles and non-battle narratives and trying to keep the names straight (I'm giving up on that, Mr. Weber, sorry) it became hard to keep all the story threads straight. At least for the first time there was some thought towards the Gbaba, but not much.

I'm disappointed that this has been so long in coming. I just hope that there is some resolution before I die of old age, or something. I swore I'd never read an incomplete series again after Terry Brooks "Shannara", and now I remember why.

Oh, and on the Kindle/kindle for the iPad, when you get to 87% done! you're then reading like 70 pages of names and descriptions of every character who ever blew their nose or ate a snack on Safehold. Really? I paid for that?

In this seventh installment in the "Safehold" series in which the major character up to now has been Nimue Alban, the land war in Siddarmark continues while people on both sides of the war are making more and more use of their own minds, something which the evil "Church of God Awaiting" wanted to stop. And there is one big surprise in the book, which the front cover nearly, but not quite, gives away.

Some people love this series and others hate it. If you read this author for his high-tech space battles, such as those in the Honor Harrington universe which kicks off with "On Basilisk Station (Honorverse)" you should probably leave the "Safehold" series alone.

A good test for whether you will like the "Safehold" series: if you play computer games or board games, the likelihood that you will enjoy this series is directly proportional to the pleasure you get from playing Sid Meier's Civilisation (link: Sid Meier's Civilization V) or similar games. The heroine of this series is doing just what the successful Civ player has to do: shepherd a nation surrounded by enemies one step at a time from a pre-industrial era with muscle-powered weapons and units such as swordsmen and galleys through increasingly advanced periods of history and up to the space age while balancing the competing demands of defence against hostile powers, economic development, and scientific research, and simultaneously juggling politics, culture and religion.

Like previous novels in the series this is another massive doorstop of a book, with several pages of maps and a few hundreds pages of story followed by another hundred pages or so of appendices (particularly a full character index of everyone in the first seven books.) The editing was a bit tighter than some previous installments, and the author is showing clearer signs that he knows how to move the story forward.

If you're going to read this series, don't begin with this book: start at the beginning and work through in order. The six "Nimue Alban"/Safehold books published to date are:

1) Off Armageddon Reef
2) By Schism Rent Asunder
3) By Heresies Distressed
4) A Mighty Fortress (Safehold 4)
5) How Firm a Foundation (Safehold)
6) "Midst Toil and Tribulation (Safehold)"
7) This book, "Like a Mighty Army"

Not all the ideas are new: the story is a re-working of concepts from Weber's earlier books, particularly the Dahak trilogy "Mutineer's Moon," "The Armageddon Inheritance" and "Heirs Of Empire" - the whole trilogy has also been published as "Empire from the Ashes". But IMHO Weber uses the experience he has gained in the meantime to re-use the same basic ideas more effectively and with some original twists.

For example, the alien attackers who are at war against humanity at the start of the first book, and the threat of whom hangs over subsequent books, will remind many Weber fans of the Kangas from "The Apocalypse Troll" and even more of the Achuultani from the "Dahak" trilogy.

The anti-technological church which the heroes and heroines are struggling against throughout the first seven books, and at least one or two to come before it is time to face the Gbaba, bears a striking resemblance to the church on Pardal in "Heirs of Empire," the third book in the Dahak trilogy. But in both cases the presentation of those ideas is better done.

None of the statements in this review are spoilers for "Like a Mighty Army" but the following comments about the setting of this seventh book may infer more than you want to know about the outcomes of the first six books if you have not read them yet. If that is the case I suggest you navigate to the page for "Off Armageddon Reef" or the first book you have not yet read (see links above) without reading further.

The basic idea for the series begins in the 25th century, when humanity finds evidence that other intelligent races have recently existed on nearby stars but that a xenophobic alien race is exterminating them. The Terran Federation has just enough warning to make a fight of it when that enemy, the Gbaba, finds us and attacks ten years later. The war lasts fifty years - but at the end of that time it is obvious that humanity is losing.

Operation Ark, a final desperate attempt to plant a colony thousands of light years away from the area patrolled by the enemy, is launched. If they succeed, the colonists will face a choice: try to build a civilisation powerful enough to defeat the Gbaba, or abandon any technology which might attract their attentions and simply hide.

The anti-technological faction in the leadership of the new colony win, and set up a totalitarian theocracy whose main aim is to stifle any technical change. For eight hundred years nobody on the planet knew that it was a colony, that humanity has a deadly enemy out among the stars, or that the real reason for the ban on technology was not God's command but to avoid attracting the attention of that enemy.

However, eight hundred years after the founding of Safehold, a cyborg was activated with the mind and memories of Lieutenant-Commander Nimue Alban, a brilliant tactician who had been one of the thousands of people who gave their lives that the colony fleet could get through. When the corrupt leaders of the church attempted to destroy the nation of Charis for being too innovative, Nimue adopted the persona of "Merlin Athrawes" a warrior mystic, and helped them to defeat the initial church invasion.

At the start of the fifth book, through a mixture of war and brilliant diplomacy Cayleb, the young King of Charis, had with Merlin's assistance created and consolidated an empire comprising most of the maritime island nations in the part of Safehold around his original kingdom. As Charis controls the islands and the seas, while the corrupt leaders of the Temple dominate the main landmass, we appeared to have the same sort of stalemate as when the Royal Navy of Nelson's time dominated the seas while Napoleon's Army dominated the land.

But then during the fifth book the villain of the series, Grand Inquisitor Clyntahn, attempted to overthrow the government of the Republic of Siddarmark on the main landmass. Beset by "Temple Loyalist" rebels and facing huge invading forces of the Temple's so-called "Army of God" the position of those loyal to the Republic of Siddarmark looks desperate. But if Charis can help them hold on, a foothold for the good guys in Siddarhark will provide them with an invasion route to the Temple itself. The sixth book described the first year's desperate campaigning in the massive land war which follows. But by the start of this book loyal Siddarmark forces and their allies from Charis have held off the "Army of God" for that first year - long enough for the dynamics of the war to change.

One of the things that David Weber is best at is describing events, both diplomatic confrontations and wars, from the perspective of various viewpoint characters on different sides. In this series there is a particular added element to this - the "Good Guys" don't just need to win the war, they also need to start people on the other side THINKING for themselves so that the people of Safehold may become ready to learn the truth about the massive lies they have been sold, the real history of the planet, and the true enemy of every human which is waiting out beyong the stars. Previous stories have had sub-plots showing various people on the wrong side start to think for themselves - sometimes paying a very heavy price for it, sometimes changing sides, sometimes beginning to walk a tightrope between what they think is right and bringing the wrath of the Inquisition down on themselves and their families.

Let's just say that one or two more characters who start out loyal to the temple and the old ways of doing things have an epiphany in this book.

If you are only interested in getting back to the space battles, you may agree with the other reviewer who referred to this book as "filler." If however you have any interest in land warfare between the 16th and 19th centuries, and what happened when different military technologies clashed, you may find it fascinating. At this stage of the story the good guys are still rolling out, training and equipping their forces with tactics and weapons roughly correspond to those between the American Civil War and late 19th century while the "Church of God Awaiting" has, mostly with the aid of captured and stolen Charisian designs, equipped their forces to roughly the technological level of the Napoleonic era. And one or two people working for the church have come up with their own new weapons, not necessarily inferior to those of Charis ...

The author's depiction of how the pressure of war might spur the two competing society to modernise their economies, war production, weaponry and tactics is covered in enormous detail. Personally I found most of this detail interesting, but had to skim through a few passages where the detail didn't do anything for me or appear central to the plot. There will be more than a few readers who find that all this detail makes the story far too slow.

This book will still probably, like the last two or three in this series or "Storm from the Shadows" in the author's "Honor Harrington" universe, be one of the books which a significant part of the author's fanbase hate because there are not enough space or high tech battles. But I think most of those who have enjoyed the previous books in this series will enjoy it.

David Weber would have to write 20 books to reach a satisfying conclusion regarding,Safehold, the Gbaba,etc..... and he won't. and ...as With Mr. Ringo (and many successful novelists of multi volume work) he will cobble on some sort of end to end the series.
And we will all be disappointed....)....
==========
How to expedite the series:****
#1 in a new volume- other advanced humans show up-and aid the rebels-the Church topples- the advanced humans help beat off the resurrected horrors under the mother church and Safehold, becomes part of the alliance to attack the Gbaba...
#2-The Gbaba are conatined, and Humanity meets some of their other victims and have new allies to keep them contained.
( Finito.).....................and David can go on to other interesting scifi stories.....
==========================================================================

Bad isn't good enough. I long since quit this series when I realized it was going south. Weber's reputation, which until this point was stellar, has been trashed with this series. i got this book from the library just to see if he had improved and it was as bad as ever. I read it by skipping every 5 pages and focusing on the battle scenes for which it gets a 1 star.I won't make this mistake again.

The characters in Weber's books are normally endearing, but in this series, they are so very endearing...the interactions of Narhman and Ohlyvya, Hektor and Irys. I truly love this series, even if the writing of Weber is long in the tooth. As many have complained about, Weber seems to be trying to compete for the most tedious writer award. Sure, he absolutely create a picture in the reader's mind, with his writing, but my goodness, he does it for SO many minor characters. I think we saw alot of foreshadowing in this book that things are picking up quickly, because after this series, we've got a whole another one to deal with.

Getting tired of this series and that is a shame. Enjoyed the first four books immensely but it has been "Groundhog Day the Sequel" for books 5/6/and this one. I have bought all of them after the first pre-order in hardback (and started replacing the hardbacks with kindle versions as well) I am not preordering #8 unless it has one STEEP discount. Between this "new" Safehold ongoing military trivia anthology (#5 #6 and #7) and the pathetic excuse of a supposed Kildar book telephoned in by a stranger who had never even met John Ringo I am wondering - What the #$&@ is going on at that "publishing" house?

I love David Weber's writing, and own almost everything he's written. However... This is just too much fluff, and not enough plot. It feels like a six hour action movie, where nothing is resolved at the end. Just six hours (or six hundred pages) of car chases and explosions.

Like others, I'll wait to see how the reviews are for the next one, but as of now this series is off my buy list.

Please don't get me wrong here, because I have been a huge fan of Mr. Weber, almost since his very beginning. But I have to confess that I can only play the linguistic masochist for just so long. And this entire Safehold series, while holding initial promise, is chock full of roadblocks for the average reader. And the main culprit is the constant ability of taking simple/common names, and twisting them into something that even a typical Russian would find a bit too much.

I am just a lowly physical anthropologist, and not a linguist expert. But I know that names, like other words, tend to become simplified over time, not the other way around. Its the way languages work out. And too, why do such words as 'colonel', 'major', or other ranks remain clear and easy to understand, while a person's name is so contorted and twisted, that the reader is required to stop reading, break down the coded name, and finally stumble on, only to have to keep doing this from front to back, while keeping a set of printed out maps available, just to know where the story is currently being played out, throughout the novel.

Its simply too much for me to endure. I haven't even managed the half way point here, and have to finally say "Enough!" I can't take this any longer. Mr. Weber, you are guilty of two sins of late. First off, you are a master of bloviation. I am reminded of my attempt to wade through T.E. Lawrence's "Seven Pillars of Wisdom". And too, you have turned this series into a special language course. I just don't have time any longer to read one installment, where I have familiarized myself with all the quaint names and locations on your maps. Then once finished, endure a prolonged breathing space, where I reenter the real world, and forget most of what you have forced me to adapt to. And then finally taking on another installment, where I am again forced to relearn everything, all over again. How many times must I endure this before finally realizing that you are simply being too cute by half?

The truth is that most readers read novels, including yours, in order to be entertained first and foremost. Granted some adaptation is in order. But this............this is quite simply masochism writ large. And not unlike the battered wife, who has had to endure a wayward, brutish, alcoholic husband, explain that she sticks with him because "He still loves my cooking".

Mr. Weber, it is past time for you to come back down to earth and rethink your position as a writer. Try going back and rereading your early works, and note how much easier the writing style, and then compare them to what you are currently employing. There is a world of difference in the two styles. And if not too careful, you may be writing yourself out of an unwitting following, and them not really knowing why they begin passing over your latest bible, for greener pastures.

I received the first book by happenstance - it was left on an airplane in the seat pocket and I happened to sit in the seat next. I can't get over how much I have enjoyed the series. As a hard-core sci-fi fan, I enjoy the high-tech aspects, but never imagined how well I would also enjoy the old-world feel of the sailing ships, and armies and the battles. David Weber does a fantastic job with meshing it all together. Since reading Off Armageddon Reef, I have delved into the Honor Harrington series and enjoy those books as well. I can't wait until his next Safehold Series book comes out

This book opened at #8 of the Publishers Weekly Hardcover Fiction list (just shy of 7,000 copies sold in under two weeks) and at 24 on USA Today's list of the top 150 books for the week ending 2/25/14. What should one take away from this? Well, that there are a fair number of readers who are interested in the storyline and are willing to pay the author a good amount of cash to get another 600+ pages of the narrative. Let's face it...David Weber is a serious, professional writer. He also appears to be a smart businessman.

Like many of the readers of this latest installment, I was left feeling very dissatisfied. The main arch of the story (such as we understand it) was hardly advanced at all. The political intrigue of the infighting among and between the vicars hardly discussed let alone advanced. The book opens with a technical discussion concerning an item and how to get at information contained therein--and then that item and the information is completely forgotten (not discussed again in the entire book).

There are more battles discussed, but the discussions are (with the exception of the first battle) told in a detached and summary manner that left me feeling cheated. One of the strengths of some of Weber's prior works in this series has been, from my perspective, the degree to which he is able to bring a reader into his battles by introducing characters actually involved in them and then speaking through their experiences in the front lines. In this installment, his later conflicts move away from the thoughts and reactions of front line soldiers, focusing, instead, almost exclusively on the actions and reactions of colonels and generals in charge of large formations. By focusing his narrative at this level (and spending an extraordinary amount of prose on the issues of supply when moving large armies), Weber actually dehumanizes the conflict. This dehumanization renders his extended prose regarding technological advancements on the battlefield and in the laboratories around Safehold significantly less interesting.

And, where the battles have become less interesting, the political maneuvering has become simply non-existent. This, of course, was a strength of his prior works. Not so, here.

It seems as though David is somewhat bored with where Safehold has gone and is going, but cannot help but churn out another 600+ pages so that he can reap the considerable economic rewards associated with the release of another novel in the series. And, as dissatisfying as I find this work, I freely admit that I will pay for the next installment when it is released. So, if like me, you have become addicted to Safehold, prepared to grin and bear it. It is a long, hard read with little to commend it other than it keeps the ball going.

I have to say that I love the safehold series. Unfortunately, this felt like a completely different series. The characters and plot lines that I really care about were probably less than 50% of this book. I understand the need to explain how things are going on the front lines, but there is only so much that I can handle before it becomes a chore to read.

Unfortunately, I reached my limit pretty quickly. It was really a labor of love to read through the meat of the book. There were alot of smaller skirmishes that were just predictable and superfluous. It got to the point where I knew if any character under the rank of Colonel was introduced, he was about to walk into an ambush of some kind.

Also, as much as I've enjoyed the progression of technology through the series, it got to be a bit much in this book. After 5 pages talking about the benefits of a new rifle, I was ready to move on.

All of that being said though, I did still enjoy the book. The characters I care about are still chugging along and I can't wait to see where they end up next.

I'm hoping that Weber sees some of the feedback this is getting and addresses it in the next book of the series because I think this series still has a lot of potential and room to run as long as it doesn't get bogged down in the technical details.

I'm a poor reviewer. I love this series and have a difficult time saying anything negative.
That doesn't stop me from wishing that David would restrain himself from demonstrating his encyclopedic command of blue water galleon sailing, and explaining and exposing plots and scenes in such excruciating detail......but I'm not complaining

If it took 7 epic-long-descriptive books to move from sword-spear-archer to rifle-mortar-ironclad.... THEN I EXPECT to see today's technology in 16 more novels; forget about going again to the stars and facing the Gbaba Aliens. I speculate that the Aliens will die by themselves of old age, or bored-to-death by David's unending-detailed-ignition-devices, and other little-insignificant-irrelevant-gadgets descriptions. His story telling has become similar to my grandfather ramblings; must be his age.

There is something very satisfying in watching a master storyteller setting the board for his tale's conclusion, and that is what David Weber does here, in "Like a Mighty Army." There is a significant amount of political, military, and technological positioning done in this novel, the seventh installment in the "Safehold" series that began with "Off Armageddon Reef." A lot of subtle notes are played here, and it seems that an amazing number of people aren't hearing them-probably because they aren't listening for them. Apparently there are a lot of people who can't (or won't) read maps, as well. And there's just no satisfying some people, either. Early on in the series, reviewers were carping about there being too much time and space devoted to the social and political structure of the various realms of Safehold, and not enough "action." Now the books are loaded with "action" (battles, individual combat, storms, assassinations, murders, etc.) and people are complaining that there's too much detail given in the description of the mayhem. (Insert theatrical sigh here.)

For those who do pay attention to the details, they recognize that a military situation is taking shape that is going to shiver the Army of God and its allies (and the how strategy that is being accomplished is explained in all of the exposition which Weber provides, the same exposition that so many reviewers are decrying "That's all sooooooo boring - we don't want to know how this stuff is done!", thereby missing the point that in explaining HOW something is being accomplished, Weber is also telling the reader WHAT is happening and WHY); there is a looming peasant revolt in Harchong (disposed of, so to speak, in one short, almost throwaway paragraph); the ICN and ICA are about to become for all practical purposes invincible. (The swabbies are about to be given the Charisian equivalent of Cressy-class armoured cruisers, and the ground pounders will be getting the first issues of the Charisian version of the SMLE in the next few months. To borrow a phrase from John Ringo (however much it grieves me to do so), Mother Church and her allies are SO screwed....) And the means by which humanity will be led to the day where it has developed, socially and technologically, to the level where it will be able to not just confront, but defeat the Gbaba is offered up. (I'm reminded of the story of an entire battalion of French infantry fleeing in terror from a pair of Highlanders from the Black Watch, crying in terror, "Run! Sauve qui peut! There are TWO of them!")

Then, to top it all off, Weber, with the VERY LAST WORD of the book, introduces a mind-boggling game-changer on a par with "Luke, I am your father!"

That moment is so stunning, so fraught with genuine import and potential consequences, and such a "WHISKY TANGO FOX?" moment, that it redeems all of the genuine faults in "Like a Mighty Army." You are literally left standing (or sitting, as the case may be) slack-jawed, buggy-eyed, wondering how in the name of Langhorne is Weber going to pull THIS one off?

And, yes, there are flaws in "Like a Mighty Army." Ever since David Weber began using Naturally Speaking software to write his books (he did so beginning with "War of Honor" in the Harrington series, I believe), his texts have become more ponderous and verbose. The editing is much tighter in "Like a Mighty Army" than in the previous book in the series, "Midst Toil and Tribulation," but it could still be improved upon. The appendices are really unnecessary-`nuff said there. And for those "critics" who despair of a lack of "character development" in this book, it's there, oh, it's there, if you bother to actually take the time to read it. But it takes place mostly in secondary and tertiary characters, and so isn't given as much attention and detail as that given to larger characters in earlier books. This is sad, not because "character development" is ever a major consideration for people who read science fiction (if you want "character development," go read "Wuthering Heights" - or "Hamlet," for that matter), but rather that the growth and change in many of these secondary characters, most often as a result of their (usually unhappy) experiences in the Safehold War are the sort of changes that would resonate with a surprising number of people, and deserve more attention. The telling of how Byrk Raimahn evolves, from being a dedicated Temple Loyalist who chooses to live in exile in Siddarmark rather than remain in his homeland which is now dedicated to heresy, to a grimly determined Reformist--all the while struggling to retain some semblance of humanity as he leads a battalion of irregulars in a brutal guerilla war in the northern mountains of Siddarmark is incredibly moving, especially for the "human-ness" that Weber depicts in Raimahn. The book, indeed the whole series, could profit from more such moments.

The greatest flaw in the novel is what is missing, that being, and the book is something the lesser for it, that level of insight and thoughtfulness into the nature of spiritual and temporal power, the relationship (if there is one) between Man and God, and the social contract between governed and governing that were presented and articulated in earlier books in the series. (I must admit that, while I realize why Weber included the Declaration of Independence in "By Schism Rent Asunder," I was also disappointed, since we all know that namby-pamby Jefferson merely plagiarized from the Declaration of Arbroath...but I digress....) And sooner or later, someone is going to have to raise - then answer - the question of whether or not humanity, when it finally confronts the Gbaba, are morally justified in extermination an entire race of sentient beings - or whether it has the inescapable moral duty to do exactly that. Weber has on more than one occasion in these novels made the point that warfare on Safehold has never been fought with utter "to the last round and last man" ruthlessness, that humanity has no idea of what is a war without any possibility of surrender. And that may well be something that will have to be faced in the resolution of the Safehold War: can there be anything even resembling mercy shown to the Temple diehards who will, inevitably, fight to the bitterest of ends? Can humanity afford to be merciful to those who willingly followed Zhaspahr Clyntahn? Can if afford to not be? I'm reminded of a remark made by Bertold Brecht after the Second World War: "Do not rejoice in his defeat, you men, for though the world stood up and stopped the bastard, the bitch that bore him is in heat again." At some point, Cayleb, Sharleyn, Staynair, Merlin and the rest are going to have to start thinking about a post-war strategy. On Safehold, the hinge of Fate, to use one of Churchill's metaphors, is turning: the war will not last forever-given the sheer volume of resources, human and material, it is consuming, it cannot - and once it is over, Safehold will, for weal or woe, be a very different place spiritually, economically, socially, and politically, and unless those who are fighting the war start to plan for the peace, they could lose that peace. It happened in human history, just outside of Paris, ninety-five years ago. It would have been enjoyable to see some of the characters musing over the idea of "What do we do when this war is over?" Hopefully that oversight will be rectified in the next book.

Finally, there are the names. Or rather, "the naymz." OK, people, will you PLEASE stop griping about the names? By the time some of you have registered your FIFTH successive complaint in your reviews of the novels, everyone pretty much has grasped the fact that you don't like them. Some of us understand what's going on with them and get it - obviously the rest of you don't. Apparently Weber thought it was a clever idea, to create a milieu where spellings of names (and the phonems used to create them) had drifted significantly, but not unrecognizably, from what were standard or typical in the Terran Federation; it probably seemed like A Good Idea at the time, a convenient way of being able to constantly remind the reader that Safehold was NOT Earth. It's likely, though, that Weber never thought the idea through completely, and so didn't realize now clumsy - and ultimately annoying - this mutation of name-spelling would become, especially given the sheer number of discombobulated spellings he would have to create. Now, though, he's trapped by it, and I strongly suspect that it's become something of a game with him, especially when he is red-shirting or tuckerizing a character. So we're stuck with it. Suck it up, cupcakes....

Bottom line, "Like a Mighty Army" does much to make up for the lackadaisical "Midst Toil and Tribulation" and does a surprisingly good job of setting up the approaching decisive confrontation between the Temple and the Empire of Charis - in no small part by causing the reader to understand that the form which that confrontation takes may be radically different than anything he or she has so far anticipated.

David Weber seems to have lost direction a bit recently. Sadly both his latest Harrington books and now this Safehold book seem repetitive, to jump around too many point of views and in general lack focus. Unless you're an absolutely dedicated fan, I would recommend skipping this and waiting for the series to complete before coming back.

Like a Mighty Army (2013) is the seventh SF novel in the Safehold series, following Midst Toil and Tribulation. The initial volume in this sequence is Off Armageddon Reef.

In the previous volume, Merlin had been awakened by Owl to witness an ambush of a Loyalist supply run by Wahlys and his band. The Loyalists were all killed, some after surviving the ambush. The Reformists had only three wounded. Wahlys took the supplies back to their starving families.

Merlin deplored the way the civil war was killing innocents, but the Loyalists had started the conflict. Zhan led the attack on Brahdwyn's Folly. Unfortunately, Wahlys was away at the time, but his wife and children were there. Now he was after Wahlys himself.

Then Cahner returned to Glacierheart. Of course, he and his entourage soon learned of the massacre in Brahdwyn's Folly. When Zhan went after the ambushers, Byrk's riflemen were waiting for them.

The Charisian rifles had a longer reach than the Loyalist muskets. They slaughtered Fyrmahn's vanguard. Then a series of explosions sent an avalanche down on more of Zahn's men.

In this novel, Merlin Athrawes is a PICA -- Personality-Integrated Cybernetic Avatar -- of Nimue Alban. She is over nine hundred years old and is masquerading as a male because females have less influence on Safehold. She is captain of Cayleb's guard and his secret advisor. Sometimes she takes other identities when he couldn't possibly be elsewhere.

Cayleb Ahrmahk is Emperor of the Charisian Empire. His empire includes the nations of Old Charis, Chisholm, Emerald, Zebediah and Tarot, with Corisande under Charisian occupation. The Empire is gradually nibbling away at the Mother Church. Cayleb is aware of the truth about Merlin.

Sharleyan Tayt is now Cayleb's wife and Empress of Charis. The former Queen of Chisholm is not a consort, but a co-ruler of the Empire. She also is mother of Alahnah, the heir to the Empire. Sharleyan knows the truth about Merlin.

Nahrmahn Batyz was the ruling Prince of Emerald. He was married to Ohlyvya. He was killed in a terrorist attack and is now a virtual personality within the computers in Merlin's Cave.

Hektor Aplyn-Ahrmhk is a Lieutenant in the Imperial Charisian Navy. He was adopted into the Ahrmahk family and given a duchy after trying to save the former King of Charis. Now he is serving on the HMS Destiny under Admiral Yairley.

Ehdwyrd Housmyn is the wealthiest and most innovative industrialist in Old Charis. He is in the inner circle and knows the true identity of Merlin.

Irys and Daivyn Daykyn are the surviving children of the assassinated Prince Hektor of Corisande. They are now protected by the Charisian Empire. Irys is very protective of her brother Daivyn.

Phylyp Ahzgood is the Earl of Coris. He was Prince Hektor's spymaster and accompanied Irys and Daivyn into exile within the Kingdom of Delferahk.

Rysel Gahevai is a Corisandan. He is Earl of Anvil Rock and the head of security for the Regency Council.

Taryl Lektor is Rysel's second in command of security. He is cynical about the Charisians.

Greyghor Stohnar is the elected Lord Protector of Siddarmark. He had been driven back to the immediate vicinity of Siddar and was running out of food. Now food is coming from the Charisian Empire and so are troops.

Aivah Pahrsahn is a Reformist who moved to Siddar. She is now the Imperial spymaster and a member of Stohnar's Council.

Zhaspahr Clyntahn is the Grand Inquisitor of the Church. He has instigated the civil war, but blames the Reformists.

Allayn Maigwair is the Captain-General of the Church. He commands the armed forces of the Church.

Ahlvyn Gahrnet is the Duke of Harless. He commands the Desnairian Army of Justice in Siddarmark. He is also commands the Dohlaran forces in the Army of Shiloh.

Rainos Ahlverez is the senior Dohlaran commander in Siddarmark. He is serving within the Army of Shiloh.

Owl is the cybernetic system running the equipment in Merlins's cave. He has developed his own personality.

In this story, Nahrmahn is sitting in his favorite chair talking to Owl. They are discussing the Key of Schuler. It is a very large data store that likely has information of great importance to the people of Safehold. Yet the probabilities of retrieving that information are very slim.

Nahrmahn notices that Owl is showing greater comprehension of humans. He is also asking more questions. He is definitely more self-aware.

Nahrmahn asks if Owl has considered the notion of virtual experiments. He also wants Owl to delve deeper into his data storage. Owl points out that the results on these efforts might be fruitless, but Nahrmahn convinces him to try.

In Siddarmark, Cayleb and Merlin are staying in the Royal Palace with Siddar. Cayleb is coordinating Imperial efforts with Stohnar and his Council.

Merlin and Aivah are also members of the Council. Merlin is now funneling Owl's data through Aivah, so she keeps Stohnar and the Council up to date. She is also running operations in Zion which are targeting Vicars close to the Grand Inquisitor.

Merlin is observing a meeting called by Bishop Militant Kaitswyrth with his subordinate bishops. They are discussing dispatches from Maigwair. Kaitswyrth believes that the Captain-General wants him to take the offensive.

Kaitswyrth tries to scout the heretic positions in the Ahstynwood Forest, but his men keep running into ambushes. He finally decides to go up the middle in a reconnaissance in force. His troops encounters landmines, rapid fire rifles, and then massed artillery. The counterattack drives his army back to Aivahstyn.

Still, the Army of God has more forces. The Dohlarans have about ninety thousand troops and the Desnairians have over a hundred and seventy-five thousands men. They are advancing toward Thesmar under the command of the Duke of Harless.

Ahlverez finds the Duke of Harless unwilling to listen to his experiences against the Charisians. The Desnairians are firmly opposed to any innovations in military affairs. Ahlverez quickly becomes frustrated with the Duke and his staff, but continues to support the Army of Shiloh.

When the Army of Shiloh reaches Thesmar, they find the town thoroughly fortified. After two five-days of moving guns and troops, they are ready to attack the entrenchments. Duke Harless decides to attack a hill on the flanks.

The Army of Shiloh secretly digs gun positions at night and three days later are ready for a night attack. The Charisians are also ready for them and respond quickly to the initial bombardment. Their counter-battery fire starts picking off specific guns.

Duke Harless sends his troop forward during the artillery duel. He soon learns about illumination rockets and angle guns. The first wave of troops are pounded by a massive bombardment and the Duke calls back the succeeding waves. The Army of Shiloh leaves a small group to maintain the siege and starts toward Fort Tairys.

In Chisholm, Irys and Daivyn are sailing on the HMS Destiny. Naturally, Hektor in also onboard -- since it is his ship -- but he is playing another role this time. He is going to Corisande as Princess Irys fiance.

Irys and Daivyn are returning home with the best wishes of Cayleb and Sharleyan. If everything goes as planned, Daivyn with be crowned as Prince of Corisande and will swear loyalty to the Charisian Empire. Moreover, Irys will marry Hektor in Manchyr.

In Corisande, the Regency Council is awaiting their arrival. Rysel is very nervous about security for Irys and Daivyn. Taryl is less anxious, but expects some sort of betrayal.

The populace is excited and enthusiastic about the returning royals. A large minority, however, is still angry at the Charisian conquest of Corisande. And there are Church killers in the city.

In Old Charis, Housmyn is increasing his production capacity and adding pneumatic machine tools. He is starting an assembly line for the new pistols and adding rolling mills for ten inch plates. He will be adding lines for the new rifle before Spring.

The new Office of Inspectors is doing well. They are producing tools to ensure standard measures. As these tools are distributed, more of the production facilities are producing interchangeable parts.

This tale brings three hundred thousand Imperial Charisian forces to Siddarmark. Church forces are now fleeing or dead. Siddaran internal food production is growing, but the Empire is prepared to continue food shipments.

The Empire is also pushing an industrial revolution in Siddarmark. They are talking to factory owners and providing machine tools and patents. The guilds are not very pleased with the changes.

The tide is turning in Siddarmark. The next installment in this sequence has not yet been announced on the store.

Highly recommended for Weber fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of religious wars, armed combat, and industrial revolutions. Read and enjoy!

-Arthur W. Jordin

as a bibliophilic masochist I just finished book 7 of the Safehold series. I found the ersatz spelling of names tiring. The story never progressed beyond more slaughters. Use your time better than I and skip the whole thing.

The story, writing, and plot, are all as well done as always; but, there are a few issues in my opinion:

- First, Weber is too in love with his name spellings. Not the oddness of the letterings, but the way he keeps using full names at every point: even when other characters are "thinking" of people, they use their full names in their "thoughts." You'd think he was getting paid like Dickens: by the word.

- Second, over fifteen percent(!) of the pages listed for this book are the usual glossary, definitions, and organizational fillings you find in all the books.

- Lastly Weber is spreading the story over a lot of characters. While veteran readers won't have too much trouble, though it seems a bit disjointed to me, anyone reading it out of sequence may find it harder.

Besides it being another good read, the good news is that Weber must have the entire plot-line laid out for the next book: given how this one ended. Likely, he's gotten the thing half written even with all of the other projects he has a hand in. Since he is such a great writer, it's a joy to us readers that he's so productive.

For fans of the series (and of Weber in general) there's a lot to recommend this book. For regular SF/Fantasy fans not predisposed to Weber's work, there's... less.

Personally I find myself between twixt and twain on this one. As a fan of the series I really liked most of it, but as others have repeatedly indicated - I could really wish some editor, somewhere, had reined him in.

This installment has all the great Weber battle scenes, the personal development and actions of the main characters that make them so likeable (if not particularly deep), and several new twists that keep things interesting and moving along. His story arc isn't moving at any great pace, but it's moving much better than in some books in the series. In short, if you're already at least partially hooked on the series you should definitely read it and I believe you'll like it.

Not wishing to beat a dead horse (or horses), but the lengthy exposition common to most later-years Weber books is still quite common. And the name shifting is just as distracting (some call it annoying) as always - especially when combined with the aforementioned verbosity. Such as spending several pages describing some new character(s) performing some painfully mundane task, only to have them suddenly killed or at least never heard from again.

Your mileage may vary, but 3.0 to 4.5 stars depending on your personal tastes and peeves with Weber books is probably just about right.

The draw back of reading the safehold series on kindle is the, (or atleast my) inability to flip back to the index and see who the hell I'm reading about. That and the lack of attention to the maim characters put me off for about 55% of the book. It turned around some and built to a much better story in the end. I'm hope with the way this ended that weber will move us along a bit faster to some of the painfully obvious direction this story should be taking. The detail is great but so much was just filler, we should have been this far in the last book.

A bit disappointed -- the military strategic and battle scenes are clear and writing solid, but in the end it just did not feel like much happened. There was just not plot surprises or new characters development. Worse, I am disliking the 'good' guys, because the superior knowledge of drones and combat strategy for new tech is just making it a massacre, they hide this truth from their own, and they are being motivated by having lost a friend/admiral/king to hatred and enjoying killing hordes of poor sorry bastard draftees on both sides.

Not satisfied with this read. Love the overall story, but this book did little to move the tale along. I will continue to read DW, both Safehold and HH, because he usually provides quality material. This time, not so good (for me).

Thanks for writing David. I really do appreciate the overwhelming majority of your stories.

Brujay

I first became aware of the Safehold series when I saw "Like a Mighty Army" in the bookstore earlier this year. What caught my eye was the ironclad on front (Huge Civil War buff) so I picked it up and looked through it. I then realized that this was Book Seven of a very involved series. That being said I started from the beginning and am now caught up and waiting on Book Eight.

I agree with everyone that the names are a pain but a suggestion would be audio books. I listened to the first book and figured out how most of the names were spelled and sounded out and that helped with the other books when I was reading them. And to be honest I never dwelled on it that much.

Many people cringe at the attention to detail but I love it. Granted, I still have no idea how a sailing vessel truly works but I know more that I did at the beginning of the series. And my grad school class dealing with the history of the British Navy has actually made this series very useful.

As to all the fans that wish for things to "move along" I think that Mr. Weber is going to going to give you a history of the world (albeit at high speed) and all of the conflicts that go with it. Keep in mind that the series so far has spanned the better part of a decade not to mention the thousand years that went by since the destruction of Earth and Merlin's awakening. When you look at it in that light we mere mortals should learn more patience. I for one am in no hurry for this series to end because nothing like this has been tried so successfully and good reads are becoming increasingly more difficult to find. And he is finally getting to the type of warfare (19th Century) that I understand so bring on the ironclads.

Now if Mr. Weber suddenly destroys Safehold due to global warming that would be kind of a downer but he continues to mention the amount of pollution being generated and the environmental impacts that result.....I wouldn't be surprised if this begins to factor in more heavily in the future books.

This book does get caught up in the intricacies of weapon developement, but as an engineer I liked it. The detailed discussions I feel did not really add to the story. At last the gbaba are being mentioned so I am looking forward to some space opera soon.

Weber is back at the top of his form. (If you haven't read the other books in this series, for heaven sake don't start here, start with Off Armageddon Reef.) I was quite worried this book would be another lump of committee meetings and agonized repetitive moral quandaries but it has lots of action, lots of military tactics and technology development, and some surprising characters.
Most of the action takes place in Siddarmark in the land war, with a minimal amount of naval action. There are maps, and the reader needs them to follow the action, there are battles and skirmishes and ambushes—it's a lot of fun. As always with Weber the baddies are bad and the goodies are a bit too goodie, but some of these baddies are intelligent and sincerely devoted to their cause, which adds a slightly grayer shade to the blacks and whites.
He's committed himself to the horrible and confusing name system, which continues to annoy just about all his readers, but there is a glossary. And all his good guys have the exact same sense of humor and it can take them a half page to stop the repetitive banter and get from the door to a chair, but this is an improvement on the three pages it has taken in previous volumes. (The bad guys have no humor. You'd think this would be a tip off.)
This book release has been delayed four times. Now, I think Mr. Weber has an editor who can rein him in and that's what caused the delays. Something has saved this series. Whatever it was, good for us. Now I have to read it again.

Another excellent chapter in the Safehold saga.
Mr. Weber really knows how to keep me entertained. It's interesting to watch his characters grow while keeping the same personality.
Can't wait to read the next Safehold book but will read a book in a different Weber series first.

I was hoping real hard that this installment of the series did not drag like so many of the last several. It certainly has a lot of the same kinds of detail and chronologically, it progresses only about ~6 months into the war between Charis and the army of god, but enough action and developments are interspersed to make this a very rewarding latest installment to the series. Highly recommend for fans of the series.

The scope of the book is breathtaking and you get such a sense of economic and technological development. Aside from being a great story there is such a lot information you get our of the books as well. Look forward to the next.

Quite a few average ratings.

But, Safehold is a wide world with lots of stuff going on in a very condensed timeline. And, he covers it! There is positive progress going on everywhere, for the Charisian Empire. Most of the major characters are in place and doing their jobs. And, there are surprises!

So, given the breadth of the storylines and the condensed timeline, I'm very good with the book. It made me even more anxious for the next in the series, more than the last couple of books.

I first became aware of the Safehold series when I saw "Like a Mighty Army" in the bookstore earlier this year. What caught my eye was the ironclad on front (Huge Civil War buff) so I picked it up and looked through it. I then realized that this was Book Seven of a very involved series. That being said I started from the beginning and am now caught up and waiting on Book Eight.

I agree with everyone that the names are a pain but a suggestion would be audio books. I listened to the first book and figured out how most of the names were spelled and sounded out and that helped with the other books when I was reading them. And to be honest I never dwelled on it that much.

Many people cringe at the attention to detail but I love it. Granted, I still have no idea how a sailing vessel truly works but I know more that I did at the beginning of the series. And my grad school class dealing with the history of the British Navy has actually made this series very useful.

As to all the fans that wish for things to "move along" I think that Mr. Weber is going to going to give you a history of the world (albeit at high speed) and all of the conflicts that go with it. Keep in mind that the series so far has spanned the better part of a decade not to mention the thousand years that went by since the destruction of Earth and Merlin's awakening. When you look at it in that light we mere mortals should learn more patience. I for one am in no hurry for this series to end because nothing like this has been tried so successfully and good reads are becoming increasingly more difficult to find. And he is finally getting to the type of warfare (19th Century) that I understand so bring on the ironclads.

Now if Mr. Weber suddenly destroys Safehold due to global warming that would be kind of a downer but he continues to mention the amount of pollution being generated and the environmental impacts that result.....I wouldn't be surprised if this begins to factor in more heavily in the future books.

This book does get caught up in the intricacies of weapon developement, but as an engineer I liked it. The detailed discussions I feel did not really add to the story. At last the gbaba are being mentioned so I am looking forward to some space opera soon.

Weber is back at the top of his form. (If you haven't read the other books in this series, for heaven sake don't start here, start with Off Armageddon Reef.) I was quite worried this book would be another lump of committee meetings and agonized repetitive moral quandaries but it has lots of action, lots of military tactics and technology development, and some surprising characters.
Most of the action takes place in Siddarmark in the land war, with a minimal amount of naval action. There are maps, and the reader needs them to follow the action, there are battles and skirmishes and ambushes—it's a lot of fun. As always with Weber the baddies are bad and the goodies are a bit too goodie, but some of these baddies are intelligent and sincerely devoted to their cause, which adds a slightly grayer shade to the blacks and whites.
He's committed himself to the horrible and confusing name system, which continues to annoy just about all his readers, but there is a glossary. And all his good guys have the exact same sense of humor and it can take them a half page to stop the repetitive banter and get from the door to a chair, but this is an improvement on the three pages it has taken in previous volumes. (The bad guys have no humor. You'd think this would be a tip off.)
This book release has been delayed four times. Now, I think Mr. Weber has an editor who can rein him in and that's what caused the delays. Something has saved this series. Whatever it was, good for us. Now I have to read it again.

I was hoping real hard that this installment of the series did not drag like so many of the last several. It certainly has a lot of the same kinds of detail and chronologically, it progresses only about ~6 months into the war between Charis and the army of god, but enough action and developments are interspersed to make this a very rewarding latest installment to the series. Highly recommend for fans of the series.

The scope of the book is breathtaking and you get such a sense of economic and technological development. Aside from being a great story there is such a lot information you get our of the books as well. Look forward to the next.

Quite a few average ratings.

But, Safehold is a wide world with lots of stuff going on in a very condensed timeline. And, he covers it! There is positive progress going on everywhere, for the Charisian Empire. Most of the major characters are in place and doing their jobs. And, there are surprises!

So, given the breadth of the storylines and the condensed timeline, I'm very good with the book. It made me even more anxious for the next in the series, more than the last couple of books.

A swift paced advance in technology with some actions that well anticipated. There plenty twists and turns with activities that keep you reading long after you should be asleep. I really like the closing sentence.

I loved this latest addition to the Safehold series. The last couple of books seemed to bog down, but in this one, the action picks up again. I really enjoyed it and look forward to the next volume in the series.

It all hangs together- operational details are as valid and detailed as in the real world. Weber' s strategic grasp is improving and his battle descriptions are a vivid experience. The book needs a map constantly at hand to read the author's plans but it is an enjoyable exercise.

David Weber is one of my all time favorite authors. I have read most of his books, especially the Safehold series. I have been looking forward to this book for a long time.

David did not disappoint. I know alot of people think his books are long and slow to get anywhere. I would disagree with that point of view. David writes his stories from every angle so you know what the protagonist and antagonist are up to. Not only does he provide great points of view but his character building and world building are outstanding. The thing i enjoy most out of this series is when I read a Safehold book I feel as if I am actually there and this world is really and the people in his world are real.