Midst Toil and Tribulation

Safehold #6

by David Weber

David Weber's New York Times bestselling Safehold series of military Science Fiction adventure, which began with Off Armageddon Reef, continues with Midst Toil and TribulationWAR AND FAMINEOnce the Church of God Awaiting dominated all the kingdoms of Safehold. Then, after centuries of stasis, the island kingdom of Charis began to defy the edicts of Mother Church--egged on, some say, by the mysterious warrior-monk Merlin Athrawes, who enjoys the Charisian royal family's absolute trust.What vanishingly few people know is that Merlin is the cybernetic avatar of a young woman a thousand years dead, felled in the war in which aliens destroyed Earth...and that since awakening, his task has been to restart the history of the long-hidden human race.Now, reeling from the wars and intrigues that have cascaded from Charis's declaration of independence, the Republic of Siddermark slides into chaos. The Church has engineered a rebellion, and Siddermark's all-important harvest is at risk. King Cayleb and Queen Sharleyan struggle to stabilize their ally, which will mean sending troops--but, even more importantly, preventing famine. For mass starvation in Safehold's breadbasket is a threat even more ominous than civil war...At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Military Fiction, Audiobook, Space Opera, Science Fiction Fantasy

608 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 18, 2012

About the author

David Mark Weber is an American science fiction and fantasy author. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1952.

Many of his stories have military, particularly naval, themes, and fit into the military science fiction genre. He frequently places female leading characters in what have been traditionally male roles.

One of his most popular and enduring characters is Honor Harrington whose alliterated name is an homage to C.S. Forester's character Horatio Hornblower and her last name from a fleet doctor in Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander . Her story, together with the "Honorverse" she inhabits, has been developed through 16 novels and six shared-universe anthologies, as of spring 2013 (other works are in production). In 2008, he donated his archive to the department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Northern Illinois University.

Many of his books are available online, either in their entirety as part of the Baen Free Library or, in the case of more recent books, in the form of sample chapters (typically the first 25-33% of the work).

http://us.macmillan.com/author/davidw...

Reviews

[Kate · Rating 1 out of 5]

NOVEL STATUS: DID NOT FINISH
CAUSE: SEVERE FANTASY NAME SYNDROME

SAMPLE SYMPTOMS:
- "Zhasyn"; "Zahmsyn"; "Zhaspahr" [yes, those are 3 different characters]
- "Lywys Gardynyr"
- "Ehdwyrd Howsmyn"
- "Ahbsahlahn Kharmych"
- "Greyghor Stohnar"
- "Wahlys"
- "Domynyk"
- "Bryahn"
- "Cayleb"
- "Allayn"
- "Thomys"
- "Archbishop Wyllym"
- "Bishop Executor Wyslynn Lainyr"
- "Father Saimyn"
- "Princess Irys Zhorzhet Mahra Daykyn"
- "Prince Daivyn"
- "the Earl of Charlz"
- "Sir Ahlfyd Hyndryk"
- "General Sir Kynt Clareyk, Baron of Green Valley"
- "Lieutenant Hector Aplyn-Armahk (known on social occasions as His Grace, Duke Hektor of Darcos)"

And those are all before page 50. No cure is known for SFNS, although entirely removing the Y key from the affected author's keyboard can help.

[Annette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like most Weber books lately, I spent the first 150 pages desperately trying to get back into the story, and the last 350 genuinely wrapped up in the action - and the last page both surprised that it was over (a hefty - and necessary - apendix adds 30 or more pages to the book) and anoyed that it would be another year or more before I learn what happens next.
All the standard Weber frustrations apply: he is Too Wordy By Half. And most of his characters are too Good by half. A lot of page count is spent on one character or set of characters telling another why they're not at fault (morally, usually) for some atrocity or another. Fair enough, but it gets pretty repetitive after a while.
Still, quite a bit does Happen in "Tribulation:" in my husband's words, the plot begins to parallel the 30 Years War of 17th century Europe in some significant ways as a technologically superior but vastly outnumbered force attempts comes to the aid of a critical mainland realm midst full on Inquisition-level religious strife. And some of the characters' soul searching is thought provoking. I was especially interested in Irys' epiphany about 1/2 way through.
So, of course I'll be finishing the series... I could just wish that perhaps I'd started reading it after it was done so I didn't lose so much ground with year-long waits between books!

[Liviu · Rating 5 out of 5]

After a somewhat disappointing HFAF - had some great some stuff and the last 100 pages were very, very good, but a lot of repetition - I was wondering if somehow DW's decision to change Safehold series focus from a multi-generational saga leading to the final confrontation to the Gbaba (afaik that was the original pitch of the series) to a series focused on the transformation of Safehold in detail, so with each volume spanning a year or less and covering all the facets of the titanic struggle between the reformist Empire and Church of Charis and the establishment led by the Group of Four and the fearsome Grand Inquisitor Clinton, fat and womanizer just to rub it in, I mean Clyntahn (I alternate between hating the naming conventions and having fun decoding them as I only now realized that Clyntahn's second in command in the Inquisition, Rayno, could be construed as Reno in another obvious parallel to the 90's), would not make me essentially lose interest after a while as the story seemed more bounded than I usual tend to like (so the repetitions issues I had with HFAF and the general feeling that the author did not say too much new there).

Well, MTAT reiterated why DW is my top favorite author of today with a book that while only the beginning of the next chapter in the struggle, ending at a good tbc point but begging for more asap, and while missing a lot of the overt drama and twists and turns of the first 2 volumes, hit just the perfect balance between novelty and continuity of older themes, introducing or emphasizing new characters, while continuing developing older ones, as well as having a great mix between intrigue, technological development and battles with a last 150 pages or so of non-stop, must turn the pages to see what happens, action on multiple fronts.

Also MTAT clearly establishes the series as a total planetary action with characters and action starting to be spread out everywhere, all of course withing the context of the great struggle for the soul of the "new" humanity on Safehold

I will have more closer to the publication date, but a few tidbits:

- a lot of great scenes, many centered on faith and how each individual approaches that; as sf tends to be agnostic and even straight-out atheistic with few exceptions, this series is worth reading even only to show how you can write great stories where faith is a central point (and note that both the most admired and the most hated characters of Safehold are priests in Maikel Staynair and Clyntahn respectively)

- who knew Allayn Maigwair could be a competent army builder; well while this does not bode well for the Empire, it may even bode worse for Clyntahn himself as the usual tensions between the secret police and the military in a brutal repressive regime could surface here too; when the military loses as the Church navy tended to do, well it cannot do too much, but when it wins...

- it is useful to have princes and princess of the line, even adopted ones, for alliance through marriage purposes

- there are around 900 named characters in the character table at the end (41 pages long in my arc edition and about 22 on the page); a long glossary and a few more tidbits so the book clocks at about 540 pages of actual text out of 600+ total - at least as the arc goes but I think the final edition will be similar

- the book needs the maps the finished edition will presumably have, but for now the detailed online map below is excellent and indispensable to follow the action

http://jiltanith.thefifthimperium.com...

- lots of little details that may or may not turn important later

- finally, a much loved character returns

Just excellent storytelling, compelling, impossible to put down, info dumps manageable (easy to skim for the essentials) and the evolution of the series to its second level (all around planetary conflict) complete; I have no idea how long Mr. Weber plans to spin this series, but I am in for the duration

[Emms-hiatus(ish) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes I forget just which side people are on and which towns are allied with whom - which hasn't affected my experience much with this series. LOL I like the overarching story and it's a great background kinda thing.

[Serge · Rating 2 out of 5]

How often do you shrug?

David Weber is a prolific writer. In fact, he is almost as fecund as Alexander Dumas père was, now that I think about it. For that matter, Dumas père was much less fertile, considering his numerous assistants and collaborators, at any rate. He, David Weber, that is, has interesting stories to tell, the problem, though, is how he tells them. Probably every writer has his own favorite words or even expressions, for that matter. But Weber takes it to stratospheric level. His characters smile (with variations, from something that barely can be mistaken for a smile to showing their teeth to even grimacing a smile), shrug and give themselves a shake all the time. Or on every other page, at any rate. In fact, if you drink a shot of vodka for every “in fact,” “at any rate,” “anyway,” “for that matter,” “(al)though” and, “now that I think about it,” every shrug, smile and shake, I bet you will be under the table in about a dozen pages. All the protagonists of his books, except a rather seldom appearance of low-born characters, speak exactly alike, although, when you think about it, they shouldn’t . . . but they forced to, anyway, simply because their creator has no time to polish his style. In fact, I doubt he even re-reads what he writes, otherwise he would not use the same words again and again and again ad nauseam.

[Mary Holland · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this very much, but I'm a big David Weber fan. This is part 6 of a series and if you haven't read the previous 5, please don't start here. This one is more tightly plotted than some of his others and has more action and less discursive/rambling moral agonizing by the principal characters. The technology development and introduction of iron ships and steam power is the star here, and Weber does it very well. Reading reviews of his work can be very funny: we love them, we see the problems, we love them anyway because the strength of the story carries the reader with it.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another really enjoyable read, in this great series.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this series.

I love its exciting set pieces. I love its deep-dive nerdery into the scientific and engineering advances that have made our modern world possible. I love its shamelessly earnest approach to questions of good and evil, friendship and hatred. I love its characters, its setting, and its conceit (The Protestant Reformation - in Space!).

Yes, I’ve grown accustomed to the author’s quirks. When I read these books too closely together, they can begin to grate. Spaced out a rate of one every few months, however, those quirks take a back seat to an imaginative story well told.

What about this book in particular? It’s as good as the others in the Safehold Sage and, if you’ve already read books 1-4 of the series, you know what you’re getting into. This book maintains the high standards of its predecessors, and it’ll leave you wondering why the streaming services are all over the atrocious “Wheel of Time” series while leaving this one, inexplicably, alone.

[Cissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of the series I've been reading that I'm probably going to stop following.

I love the premise, with its combination of sf and alternative history. The clash between the corrupt but ruling Church and more progressive- or Protestant- beliefs is well-handled, and in light of many current politics, the struggle between fundamentalism and tolerance is timely.

A problem is that while this is the world in which things are happening, each individual novel seems to get longer and more tedious, with less actual progress to any resolutions of the basic plot arcs.

An additional problem is the writing itself.

The novel before this one spent excruciating amounts of time and pages detailing the intricate minutiae of sailing tall ships. There was not a glossary, or any help at all for those of us who know practically nothing about such matters and don't care; I was skipping 20 pages at a time, often.

This one does a similar thing with military tactics and armaments. I cannot keep them straight, and reading every last detail of a n engagement is boring.

And- the writing makes it especially boring. One chapter will contain the POVs of both sides of the combat- and it is practically impossible to figure out who is on which side. This is due to the cast of thousands- though there is a glossary in the back to help one keep trqack of all the various characters, it is not much help when their names are misspelled in one place or the other.

And, my gods, the name misspellings! While most of the characters have names that, sounded out, are normal northern European names... they are not spelled thus. "y" takes the place of almost any vowel, except where it would make the name easier to read, in which case Weber uses "ai" or such. "zh" reliably subs for "j", among others. And ALWAYS add a few gratuitous "h"s, just in case someone is not as confused! I suppose Weber found this very clever, especially since he was thus able to name a ruler "Norman Bates"! The reality is, these weirdo name spellings make it pretty much impossible to keep many of the characters straight- especially since he will refer to them randomly using their first name, their surname, and/or their title and/or military position!

It does not help at all that every single person with any dialog here sounds exactly the same- the cadence, the cliches, the word choices- all are identical between one and another.

It is also ridiculous that the Good Guys seem to have utterly NO discord in their ranks. All agree on the common good and enthusiastically support it! NO infighting, slightly different agendas, or anything else gritty to be seen! Having the Bad Guys engage in torture and rape does not really make up for this (although to be fair, these are mostly not intricately described).

This was over 500 pages of narrative. I think the gist could and should have been covered in maybe 200. All the military minutia, like the tall ships minutia in the preceding novel, remind me of the claim that Melville was paid by the word and so stuck a whaling treatise in the middle of Moby Dick.

I do not recommend the series, but if you are keen despite this, do not start with this book- it will make no sense.

[Ted · Rating 1 out of 5]

I recently wrote a review of Weber's "A Rising Thunder" which stated how I felt the book was a waste of time. Here is my first paragraph: "I think David Weber has reached the breaking point. "A Rising Thunder" is continuing a trend that I find distasteful -- the stretching of a multi-book storyline to a point where the reader no longer cares. In my opinion this book should have been condensed to maybe three chapters and put at the beginning of his next Honorverse book -- one that I hope puts an end to the whole arc."

Minor Spoiler Alert

This book does the same and even more so. The book doesn't significantly move the overall story along. It is mostly filler, but that wasn't what irritated me. What I found most annoying were two things. One was that in one of the marketing ads for the book, it said that Merlin discovers what is under the Temple. That is not true. Merlin speculates, but doesn't make any discoveries. The second was the cover art. It clearly shows Merlin on the ground while a air vehicle was moving overhead, clearly visible to those on the ground. Also something that doesn't happen. Both of these things convinced me to purchase the book, anticipating some major plot activity! I was even more disappointed when I reached the end of the book and felt cheated.

I looked at my bookcase and saw how many Weber books I own and while I will frequently re-visit many of those books, I will not be adding anything new by David Weber. I look at re-reading a book like a visit from an old friend. But "A Rising Thunder" and "Midst Toil and Tribulation" will not be on that list. At my next garage sale they will probably be sold for $1 to make room for other books in my constantly overcrowded bookcases, not $1 each, but $1 for both of them. David Weber has stretched my interest and patience far enough.

A Former Weber Fan!

[Audra · Rating 2 out of 5]

I realize this is military fiction but I'm really get tired of pages on pages of technical data on weapon construction, what variant of gunpowder is used, and the weight/size of bullets.

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is about like the other five books in the series that come before it. There's a lot of war with minute descriptions regarding politics, ship construction, and artillery construction.

Zzzzz.

Sprinkled in are some outstanding moments of science fiction. They feel like happy blips. I'm hoping as the series goes on we'll get more moments like those. I also like the moments of love and loyalty.

I shall press on with this series to satisfy the husband's desire to read something together.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Takie sobie. Zostały mi jeszcze "tylko" trzy części na czytniku 😅

[JBradford · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can I say that I haven’t said before? This is #6 in the Safehold series, and it is both just more of the same and just as good as the foregoing. In this volume, the forces of evil, as represented by the Church of God Awaiting, finally gets its own licks in, in a typically asinine way, by attacking one of its satellite countries from which a significant percentage of its own revenue is obtained. Despite that questionable success, however, the Charis navy manages to wipe out still another fleet produced by the Mother Church because of the advanced weaponry the innovative citizens of the Empire of Charis keep coming up with. There is an upsetting section describing how some of the Mother Church citizens are also becoming more innovative, to the point of designing a new type of ship that may give the Charis navy problems, but it does not happen-probably because Weber could not work it into the 548 pages of this book, so we’ll see it in the next one … or the one after that.
Meanwhile, the Empire is settling in with such minor new inventions as gun cotton and the steam engine and iron-clad vessels, and its leaders are traveling: King Cayleb goes to Siddarmark to remind them who is in charge, Queen Sharleyan returns to Chisholm for her half-year visit, and Prince Hector, now graduated to the rank of Lieutenant in the Charisian navy, discovers that the princess he rescued from exile is a truly beautiful young woman. All the major characters run through these pages, although some of them do not make it to the end of the book, but the novel also introduces an uncounted (at least I have not counted them, but I suspect Weber has) of new minor characters on both sides of the war. The wonderful story continues.
Do I have problems with the book? Of course! TOR had done its usual bad performance of typesetting and proofreading, leaving words out of sentences, etc., and Stephen Youll has produced an impressive bit of cover art that has absolutely nothing to do with anything in the book, demonstrating that he has never read it. But the story … the story keeps marching on! I’m almost surprised that Weber did not start the sequence with the original chaotic adventures of the Human/Gbaba war: all we got was the bare outlines of that war and of the interaction of the Archangels when Safehold was terraformed, nearly 1,000 years before the action in the Safehold novels. And to think that all of this has to be simply a prequel to the eventual meeting of Safeholdians and the Gbaba; I do hope I live long enough to read the final volume!

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have given this book four stars, giving the author the benefit of the doubt out of respect and admiration. I like David Weber's books. I always have. My experience with this book was a three-star experience, but that's not Weber's fault.

You see, I received this book as an ARC (advanced reader copy). Yes it was an uncorrected proof, and clearly labeled as such, but the editing lapses were so minor as to be a complete non-issue. The reason I struggled with this book is because it is Book 6 in a series I have not read. Ordinarily I would never have picked up this book without having read Books 1-5 first. But, recognizing my obligations as an advanced reader, I read the plot synopses of the first five books on Wikipedia and gave it a go.

Weber is nothing if not ambitious. The scope of this series takes the complexities of 300 years worth of European history and compresses them all into a tight epic that spans at most two generations. Widely ranging themes like the Protestant Reformation, the religious wars of the 17th Century, the emergence of nation states, and the entire industrial revolution are all packed into the narrative. The sheer cognitive mass of this series is breathtaking.

Reading this book felt a lot like reading the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Keeping track of scores of characters with unfamiliar names was challenging. Other reviewers of the Safehold series have mentioned Weber's unorthodox orthography for personal names. Having been a student of Chinese, I am familiar with three systems of Romanization used to portray that language in our alphabet. Weber's system bears many resemblances to those systems, and is reasonably regular and self consistent. Even so, because I am a subvocalizing reader, the strange spelling of the names generated some cognitive overhead and added significant friction to my reading enjoyment.

Weber's strengths as an author are apparent in this book. Grand strategy, political intrigue, and stirring battle action all abound satisfactorily. The only disappointment, and it was minor, was that the villain, the Grand Inquisitor, was rather one-dimensional where most of the other characters were convincingly well-rounded.

And yes, I'm now going to go back and read the first five books.

[Marius · Rating 3 out of 5]

I continue to be a fan of the Safehold Series but I have to admit that there is an undertow to the series that feels a bit like filler right now. That said, I did enjoy this book for the simple reason that we are entering a somewhat darker period over this book (and the last) than has characterized the series heretofore.

In this book we continue to learn a lot about the mainland realms....their geography, economy, demographics and so on. The Army of God is marching steadily across one of the main mainland realms and while in previous books Charisian innovation seems to lead to definitive defeats for the Temple, now the Temple's sheer numbers are taking their toll. While Charis halts the Temple's advance, there is a real sense that this is just a respite. It even feels at times that Charis may lose the war and so the mood of the series has changed significantly.

I would like to see the introduction of/more discovery of more information prior to the Day of Creation and we are due for a few revelations of what the energy source beneath the Temple might be. So I will continue on...but the zeal with which I will continue reading has dulled somewhat. Mr. Weber needs to pick up the pace somewhat. The fact that the author continues to use long winded, Victorian era verbiage adds to the sense that the series is languishing.

I will be awaiting book 7 but I can understand the view of those who feel like dropping this series. Wake up, Mr. Weber!!!!

[Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one I liked least.
The Sharleyn and Caleb relationship was just a rehash of the last few books as was pretty much all of the interaction.
The rational Merlin uses to not use his abilities to make a huge difference is simply not believeable.
He sets the future up by mentioning the people with lower technology will be more innovative.
Of course with what they are already doing Charisians should be able to destroy the church technologically,where are the machine guns,they are behind what they are already doing.

Weber does use interaction very well between his characters as a basis for his novels,but this one adds nothing new,it has been done in the previous Safehold novels and you could just copy and paste the interactions into this book and it wouldn't make it much different.

He actually writes this as good as any of the previous books,as long as you don't remember the previous books clearly.

I'm disappointed only because I know he can do better,it seems like he is just stretching it out to make it last longer in this one.

[Peter · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have either read or listened to all the other books in this series and mostly enjoyed them. I have tried to listen to the audiobook of this, but it is appallingly read. The reader inflects vast tracts with with over-the-top, breathy portent in an 'oh my god, isn't this just so terrible/exciting/important' tone that made me think I was accidentally channelling a local high school drama class. Added to that, Weber is now very much guilty of the excruciating 'padding' that multi-volume authors often resort to. Repeating basic plot elements over and over again it what appears to be an attempt to familiarise new readers with what has transpired in the previous x volumes is just an insult to readers. With a book, I can just flip through many pages of turgid retelling or descriptive passages that are achingly boring. With an audiobook, this is harder to do. I might try the paperback of this, but I am afraid that Mr Weber is doing what he did with the Harrington novels - writing around 150 pages of actual story and then going back and fattening it up with a load of rubbish.

[Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Great But Bad Choice for Narrator" Overall Performance Story I just enjoy David Weber's story telling. This for me is an epic story at its best. David shows us a war between good and evil, but which side is good and which side is evil. The author lets you decide for yourself.

Kevin Collins was a poor choice to narrate this book. Not that Kevin did a bad job, he brought about to much change to the book. First off I have gotten used to the narrators to the other five books. There were three other narrators all of them had different voices, but they used the same pronunciations for people and places. Kevin changed every name and places pronunciation. This would have been alright in the beginning of the series, but I had gotten used to the other pronunciations. This threw me off so bad that at one point I thought I was listening to the wrong book. Second, The other narrators had changes in their voices for different characters. Kevin just straight read the material. It was like listening to someone speak in monotone.

[Tom Gregorio · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another painful read. The signal to noise ratio is so low on this series now but I feel I must plow on. Don't worry, though, I certainly didn't pay for this godawful piece of tripe. As noted previously, Weber is just dialing it in at this point. The only thing more long-winded than his prose at this point is the philisophical meanderings of his characters: Not only must we not what person A thinks of topic 1, we need to hear in detail how and why they think that along with the thoughts of all the other characters on similar topics. Sitting in on one of the church sermon sessions is JUST LIKE BEING in church - but not illuminating or uplifting. Probably 90% of the book doesn't involve action, unless you consider traveling without incident as 'action', but, in all fairness, the little action that remains is probably the reason I have kept at this series.

I do wish we'd get back to what started this series - the Alien destroyers of humanity. Unfortunately we're still figuring out how to use gunpowers.

[Kim Conde · Rating 2 out of 5]

David Weber is arguably one of the best authors in this genre. I have great respect for his work and have read all the books in this series including "Midst Toil and Tribulation". The problem with this series and this book in particular is that most of the book is superfluous soap-boxing by the author. It drags on for page after page and chapter after chapter. Although I enjoy good character development, devoting multiple books and hundreds of pages to it is just tedious and makes for a ponderous and boring read. After reading all the books in the series, the events in the story have progressed only a few years and I begin to wonder how many dozens of future books will be required to tell the whole story and if I will actually live long enough to read them all.

[Robert Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always liked David Weber books and this series does not disappoint. I keep rereading the series when each new book comes out following different threads such as the assasination attempts on the Sharleyann and her response to it. However, it is killing me waiting for the next book - is this the year of Siddarmarks counter offensive or are we going to get hammered more? David quit going on trips and get writing.
Reread sep 2014. first read 2012

[Daniel Hamad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Possibly the best book in this series... or book by David Weber in general... yet. His story telling continues to improve and the mass of characters in these books makes sense. The scope continues to increase without overwhelming you. He also has not rushed this series to completion. I have no idea how many books are going to be in it by the end, but he certainly has not artificially limited himself like so many others.

[Doc · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this audio book in the car during my commute.
I found my attention wandered more than usual, and I had some trouble keeping track of which of the many, many locations and characters I was hearing.
Picks up at the end, once Weber really gets into the battles.
Definitely a middle-of-the-series sort of book.

[Matthew Bauman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, getting to the point where I just want this story to end.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review to come! :D

[Jon]

I am a huge fan of David Weber's writing. I doubt there are very many of his novels which I have not read, and I own copies of almost all of them. Yet it was a struggle, despite how much I've enjoyed the Safehold series, to push on through to the end of this one. It seemed to me that to "get" what was going on, you'd need a huge hex map of Safehold, and lots of little counters to represent each of the armies and their forces involved in the tale, as well as having your "cheat sheet" handy to keep track of the major players (though Weber does include a list of all characters at the back of the book) and what has happened in the past several novels to each of them.

The major threads of the story here seem to be, first, the plight of the Republic of Siddarmark and its people following the attack of the Sword of Scheuler which destroyed much of the food supply for the nation just before winter, as well as committing horrendous atrocities upon the "heretics" (aka Reformists). The Empire of Charis (Caleb, Sharleyan, Merlin and friends) is determined to do everything they can to get desperately needed relief supplies to the general populace and to reinforce the Siddarmarkian army with all the military personnel and supplies that they'll need to stop the imminent invasion by Mother Church.

Second, after being rescued from assassination by Clyntahn's agents, Princess Irys and Prince Daivyn of Corisand are welcomed by Caleb and Sharleyan back in Charis. Despite the fact that King Hector, their father, was an enemy of Charis, they are treated with the utmost respect, and it is hoped that they can be turned into Charisian allies in the near future.

The ongoing development of technology which doesn't technically violate the Proscriptions of the Church plays a major role here, as it has for most of the series, and Charis continues to enjoy a significant advantage in the machinery of war and commerce over its enemies, but the total numerical advantage of a great population and economy are difficult to overcome, especially when the Inquisition's spies are busily stealing the inventions nearly as fast as they are appearing. I suppose the suspense of the story couldn't be dragged out nearly as long if this didn't take place, but it's a bit annoying, you know?

Another annoying thing is that Weber will quite often introduce new characters, with a full backstory attached, and you never know whether to pay close attention to them, because they'll last for several books, or maybe the whole series, or whether they're going to just be around for this particular skirmish - dying horribly, or perhaps a few skirmishes, still dying horribly, but giving us a perspective on a bit of local strategy for a time.

For the most part, however, Weber's writing is engrossing, as always, and I'm still strongly committed to finding out what becomes of the Empire of Charis over the long haul.

[Steven Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sixth novel in the Safehold series picks up immediately where How Firm a Foundation leaves off. The Sword of Schueler, a plot to initiate a religious civil war in the Republic of Siddarmark, has utterly ravaged the country and created untold human misery. Our protagonists in the Charisian Empire must scramble to address the humanitarian and military disaster unfolding on the mainland. While the collapse of Siddarmark may be seen as a disaster, it provides Charis with its first mainland ally and a foothold to push against the Temple Loyalists, assuming they can survive the onslaught.

Another central element of the story is the fate of Irys and Daivyn Daykyn, the children of the murdered Hektor Daykyn, Prince of Corisande. Their dramatic rescue in the previous novel finds them increasingly under the influence of Charis.

Technologically the inventors of Charis create the steam engine and introduce ironclads.

I am a fan of David Weber's novels. My one criticism of David Weber's books is that he shows the entire story. This novel, aside from the technological advancements, and perhaps Irys' changing social relationships, could be much abridged. The pieces are moving into place to set up the next phase of the Jihad: a land war in Haven, increased civilian violence, and the inquisition's growing power and influence in the face of the crisis. The plot beats and big moments do not feel like the justify this lengthy novel to a certain degree.

I still really like the series and where it's going so I still enjoyed reading it. I think this novel just reveals the fatal flaw in Weber's series. As he goes forward every detail feels important so it it can't skip six months, or years, and pick up the story when the drama escalates. On one hand I think the escalation into a land war is a valuable move as the series was beginning to feel like a stalemate.

I will continue with the series.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it is helpful to know that the author is deeply interested in military history. As the Charisan empire continues to romp through waves of the Industrial Revolution and the Temple remains committed to the world view of Earth's Middle Ages the conflict on the battlefield is the real source of interest in the books. In the first 5 books we saw Charis' dominance as a sea power and now the story turns to land warfare. The Temple forces have overwhelming manpower and a vision of the world that justifies famine, vengeance, and brutality. But Charis has individual initiative and from that innovation and from that (plus a stellar communications network and access to historical documents that predate the age of Church dominance) rises technology. We could debate who would actually win in the scenarios presented in the book but we know where the series is headed so it is better to appreciate the scaffolding presented for the wins.

In this book you will see (at least) hat tips to the Monitor and the Merrimac (but both on the same side), the use of the Mississippi to support troops, the US Revolutionary troops using guerrilla warfare to face the ranked battle formations of the English, and the transition from medieval weapons (spears, pikes, cavalry) to guns.

Personally, my military history education has been mostly the greatest hits plus a tiny bit of supplemental reading. I've always wondered about the forces that shaped abandoning knights and plate armor but haven't had the discipline to search out the books that explain it. Reading this series has really filled started to fill in the gaps. I may or may not go read more military history following this, but I feel that I will have a better grasp of the broad sweeps -- how steam power and interchangeable parts and the dignity of individuals and global communication were necessary at the times they happened and how they shaped the world that followed.

[Phyllis Griffiths · Rating 4 out of 5]

War rages on. Now on the mainland, religious civil war has descended upon Siddermark with all the atrocities and horrors that pit neighbour against neighbour, family members against each other. Crops and warehouses destroyed to keep "the other side" from getting them. The Temple's orchestration of the "Rising"is designed to crush Siddermark, followed up with attacks from their Army of God. The aim is to remove all taint of heresy and remove any threat from the Army of Siddermark being used by the dreaded Empire of Charis, and to kill in the most horrible and terrible way those Temple Loyalists who left the empire to Siddermark because of their faith in those who planned to kill them. And kill them the good Temple Loyalists who called themselves Siddermarkians do with vengeance and glee. And winter was coming.

But the Group of Four did not think that their juggernaut of destruction could possibly be stopped. Not by the broken Army of Siddermark. Not by an Army of Charis. Army of Charis? Don't be ridiculous! They may rule the seas, but an Army? And they are thousands of miles away. What could they possibly do?

The Group of Four would not be pleased if they had any idea of what Charis could, and would, do. And they most surely will not be pleased when Charis does what it does best.