I'm giving up on this series. Who wants to read 8 pages in a chapter, learn the life history of a new character, only to have him killed at the end of the chapter and not advance the plot at all? Weber seems to be a master of not advancing the plot in this book. I loved the overarching theme of this series, but I don't love wading through 700 pages of repetitive, uninteresting dialog and thoughts. Maybe 1/10 of the book had any significant action in it, and the ending was disappointingly anticlimactic. ( )

The Safehold series feels like half science fiction, half alternative history. Weber usually brings a fair amount of history in to guide his science fiction; for example, the Honor Harrington books are based pretty heavily on Napoleonic politics. The Safehold books are, in a similar way, based on sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe and England (which has the fabulous side effect of letting Weber actually write naval battles on the high seas, which, if you've read the Honor books, you just know he's always wanted to do). Weber doesn't use the history to create one for one parallels--in fact, there are some MAJOR differences--but the similarities are striking.

The science fiction elements that make this NOT alternative history come from the fact that a) this isn't happening on Earth, but on the planet Safehold, where humanity's technology has been set back to the late middle ages/early Renaissance period--they have guns and ships, but not very good ones--because of an alien threat that has already destroyed the rest of humanity; and b) there's a nine-hundred-year-old simulacrum of a woman named Nimue (though the simulacrum has transformed itself into a man called Merlin) who is the only one who remembers Earth and what humanity's technology looked like. And she/he is helping along the social and intellectual changes and advances that characterized the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In other words, what takes two centuries in Europe is taking only a few years in the country of Charis (roughly parallel to England in the 16th Century, but with far more respectable leaders than Henry VIII).

One of the things that I'm really loving about this particular series is how Weber treats religion. Most sci-fi and even fantasy authors are rather abysmal at it: religion is either a source of evil (a la Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series), or a crutch for the weak, or just a cover for institutional magic (in the case of most fantasy). Sci-fi authors are more likely to take a look at religion in order to dismiss it: they like to take the lid off, poke and prod around as if it were another scientific object, and say, "see? not really God behind it after all!" and the only people who still believe at the end--if anyone ever really did in the first place--are the bad guys. Admittedly, there are some authors who manage to be more subtle or complex, and certainly there are sci-fi/fantasy authors with religious sympathies, but in the end, there just aren't many who pull off dealing with religion in any way that I can enjoy or respect. As a result, I usually just prefer my sci-fi authors to leave off religious questions and just deal with moral or ethical ones so that I don't get terribly depressed with how badly they do it.

Weber takes a much more complex view of religion in the Safehold series (as he does in the Honor Harrington ones, to a certain extent), and it is one I really do appreciate. Even in a world where there is PROOF that the religious system was manufactured by human beings masquereding as Archangels and Gods, Weber treats those who believe with a significant amount of respect--and as if they might be right to continue to believe. Unlike Pullman, he is able to offer significant critiques of corruption in church heirarchies without falling into the trap of dismissing religion or those who believe altogether. This is where Weber's decision to draw on 16th and 17th century England, in particular, seems to have helped him--or maybe his desire to treat religious schism and reform while maintaining respect for his characters who keep their belief led him to use the 16th and 17th century as a model. He allows religion to transform characters for the better--maybe not completely, but there are at least two corrupt religious officials who, upon starting to read "the Writ" again, regain their faith and start questioning the problems in their society. One dies a martyr, and the other... well, at the end of Schism, we don't quite know where he's going yet (though I have my suspicions).

Schism also focuses a lot more heavily on the interesting characters than the first book in the series did. In particular, we finally get an extended look at the one major female character besides Nimue: Sharleyne, the one female monarch who has managed to survive in a heavily patriarchial world. Weber is one of the very few male writers of military and hard sci-fi whose female characters I tend to really like; John Scalzi is the other one that comes to mind. It looks like book 3 of the series, By Heresies Distressed (which comes out in July!), will focus even more on Sharleyne, which makes me happy.

But my biggest annoyance with this book is that because Schism had such a cliffhanger ending, I'm going to have to get Heresies as soon as it comes out. I should have waited another two weeks before reading Schism so that I wouldn't have to wait! ( )

By Schism Rent Asunder is the latest in David Weber's other new endless series. The names didn't bother me as much here as in last year's Off Armageddon Reef, although it was kind of distracting that at least 3/4 of them have at least one 'y' (and the ones that don't almost invariably have an 'h'). As usual for Weber, there is a lot of political maneuvering and some battles, although here the battles are with ~18th century tech (sailing ships and cannons). There is surprisingly little fighting in this one, and it ends on a bit of a cliff-hanger; I'm wondering if it got so long it was split in two.

I like this series. My only complaint is that it is obviously going to be Yet Another Endless Series(TM). Unless Weber suddenly jumps ahead several centuries, there's no way this civilization is going to achieve space flight and kick alien butt anytime soon. ( )

Great sequel to "Armageddon Reef" so full of twist and turns, loved every moment of it. ( )

I have listened to approximately 80% of this audiobook, and it is getting tedious. In fact, I have probably skipped about 1 to 1/12 hours worth of the story without any seeming loss of comprehension. Unfortunately, this work appears to be little more than the meeting minutes of various fantasy councils. The characters meet, talk about what they are going to do ad nauseum, and on rare occasion do what they talkeda about. I am amazed that Weber is considered a good author or is as popular as he seems to be if the rest of his works are anything like this book and its predecessor, Off Armageddon Reef. He engages in more exposion than is necessary, repeats information, and fills chapters with tedious lectures on technological development, and gossip.

Weber appears to have attempted to write a novel of of political and court intrigue, but he fails miserably. This is no George R. R. Martin. And, given that this series is supposedly to be 8 books long, I would advise not even bothering starting it. If you want to waste your time on a overly drawn out work, consider Jordan's Wheel of Time series. At least its entertaining! ( )