(Alistair) Well, you might be a little surprised at my liking for Off Armageddon Reef, given that I'm not so much in favor of worlds (or universes) in which Something Has Gone Horribly Wrong With The Plan.

And in this universe, oh, my, has something gone horribly wrong with the plan. Twice. First in the form of the Gbaba, the Extremely Hostile Aliens who pretty much wiped out all of humanity, everywhere except for the one special colony set up to evade them by not exceeding more than a low level of technology; and then second, by Certain Megalomaniacs involved in that very colonial mission rather exceeding their orders in re technological depletion, wiping out the people who disagreed with them, brainwashing all the colonists to believe they'd just been divine-fiatted into existence, and instituting an extreme theocratic regime with themselves cast as the Archangels.

Sounds like we're heading for a pretty crapsacky Crapsack World, doesn't it?

Fortunately, that distaste of mine doesn't seem to apply nearly so much when there is the promise of said world being fixed, and since in this case one of the good guys - or a mind emulation of one of the good guys, but that's the same thing - is left over as an ace-in-the-hole, and this is, of course, a David Weber book, one can look forward to the decent chaps winning out in the end.

But not before, coincidentally enough - and I remind you again that this is a David Weber book - some thumping good Napoleonic-era naval battles, although this time not in space.

Myself, I just love that kind of thing, and so found the book entirely satisfying even before you account for the major plot thread involves in literal and metaphorical terms beating the living crap out of a bunch of retrogressives, and you know how I feel about retrogressives, right?

Recommended.

(One other quirk worth mentioning: Weber does some interesting mutations on people's names - looks to be just people's names, which is a little odd - to show linguistic drift in the time the colony's been established over: Norman -> Nahrmahn, Jennifer -< Zhenyfyr, etc. I still haven't decided whether that's kind of neat or really irritating.)

( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/ce... ) ( )

Weber does it again, with a very solid start to what promises to be an Epic Scifi series.

If you like "lightweight" Scifi, this probably isn't for you.

In the first half this book does suffer a little from the introduction of many new Characters, most with difficult names, and it is made more confusing still by Weber's tendancy to interchange titles with names. For example one moment a character is called "Grey Harbour" (a Title for Earl Gray Harbor) or "Wave Thunder" rather than the Characters given name (such as Bhnzhamyn Raice).

Having said that, the book really takes off in the second half, once the background setting and character establishment is over, and delivers the sort of novel we've come to expect from the Author. It's full of well thought out and detailed intrigue, this time political and even religious, as it tells of a corrupted church having absolute domination over effectively a captive people kept under control by a rigorous restriction on the development and use of any sort of technology. Action is there too, in the form of Naval battles, and it makes me wonder how Weber visualises these skirmishes as he writes.

I can't wait to read the next in the series (Schism Rent Asunder) and see where it goes... ( )

If you are expecting something with the amount of action in a typical Honor Harrington novel, prepare to be disappointed. This does not, however make this a bad book. I liked the fact that it was something different from Weber's Honor series, although I enjoy them immensely, as well.

The struggles of humanity to establish a colony in the face of a interstellar race bent on utterly erasing human life from the universe. The corruption of the leaders of the expedition that changes the intended course of the colony. The growth of the first few towns into countries that encompass the whole of the new world. The curiosity of the human spirit that causes one country to set itself against the world spanning religion of the corrupt founders. The appearance of technology from the far past that will save that one country from annihilation and propel it and the whole world into an uncertain and unstable future.

This novel is much more about intrigue and political maneuvering than some of Weber's other works. I am very much looking forward to seeing where this series goes. ( )

Humanity spreads across the stars until meeting the Gbaba. The Gbaba are set on destroying all human life and make a good go at it. One colony fleet escapes and sets up on the planet Safehold. In order to avoid discovery by the Gbaba, advanced technology is forbidden in the new society. The colonists have all memory of their previous lives erased by their leaders who then establish an anti-technology religion with themselves as messengers from god. 800 or so years in the future we find a society dominated by the Church of God Awaiting, which has seen little technological development. Society remains in the pre-industrial era.

Into this society enters Merlin Athrawes, a Personality-Integrated Cybernetic Avatar (PICA), who was hidden away 800 years earlier by members of the ruling council who did not agree with the society that was being created. Merlin’s goal is to advance Safehold’s Renaissance-era society to one capable of defeating the Gbaba. To accomplish this he has to overcome the religious mandates against technology that have been ingrained for over 800 years.

To begin working towards his goal he travels to the Kingdom of Charis where he ingratiates himself with the King, Crown Prince, and other nobles through a variety of acts. Merlin has arrived in Charis in a time of troubles. A growing dispute between Charis and the Church points towards war and a vastly out numbered Charis is more then willing to accept the assistance of Merlin who begins introducing more advanced technology. Soon war begins and Merlin’s new technology is put to the test.

Off Armageddon Reef is really two books in one. The first is a science fiction story involving a technologically advanced human race traveling through the stars with aliens and space battles. The second is almost a fantasy story set in a pre-industrial world where advanced technology takes the place of magic.

I found the man made religion in this book very interesting. I think it says something about the man made aspects of all religions. There were similarities between the Church of God Awaiting and the Christian Church of Earth’s medieval period, particularly the corruption and the secular concerns and powers of high church officials.

While I enjoyed the there were a couple of issues I had with it. The first was the similarity of many of the names. On more then one occasion I had a hard time keeping track of who was who. Secondly, I started to get tired of Merlin’s superhuman abilities and his advanced technology. Granted he is superhuman and nothing he does is outside of the given abilities of a PICA and the spy technology was necessary to the plot however it began to seem overwhelming. This was primarily evident in the middle of the book and was greatly reduced as time went on.

At 600+ pages this was a bit long however I thought it was well worth the time invested. Overall I thought this was a good read and I look forward to reading the sequel, By Schism Rent Asunder. ( )

This book starts off painfully with the author using names that are difficult to pronounce and distinguish from one another. After this little hiccup, the name issue does resurface throughout the book, the story of the earth last decedents is intriguing. The last human to know the true history of earth civilization is not human at all and has the task of trying to teach humanity that which it has lost. This task is made more difficult by a strange religion that has been ingrained and could possiby keep the knowledge from ever being known. ( )