Like a Mighty Army: A Novel in the Safehold Series

Safehold #7

by David Weber

David Weber's Like a Mighty Army is the hotly anticipated seventh volume in the New York Times bestselling Safehold series

For centuries, the world of Safehold, last redoubt of the human race, lay under the unchallenged rule of the Church of God Awaiting. The Church permitted nothing new-no new inventions, no new understandings of the world.

What no one knew was that the Church was an elaborate fraud--a high-tech system established by a rebel faction of Safehold's founders, meant to keep humanity hidden from the powerful alien race that had destroyed old Earth.

Then awoke Merlyn Athrawes, cybernetic avatar of a warrior a thousand years dead, felled in the war in which Earth was lost. Monk, warrior, counselor to princes and kings, Merlyn has one to restart the history of the too-long-hidden human race.

And now the fight is thoroughly underway. The island empire of Charis has declared its independence from the Church, and with Merlyn's help has vaulted forward into a new age of steam-powered efficiency. Fending off the wounded Church, Charis has drawn more and more of the countries of Safehold to the cause of independence and self-determination. But at a heavy cost in bloodshed and loss--a cost felt by nobody more keenly that Merlyn Athrawes.

The wounded Church is regrouping. Its armies and resources are vast. The fight for humanity's future isn't over, and won't be over soon...

Safehold Series
1. Off Armageddon Reef
2. By Schism Rent Asunder
3. By Heresies Distressed
4. A Mighty Fortress
5. How Firm A Foundation
6. Midst Toil and Tribulation
7. Like A Mighty Army
8. Hell's Foundations Quiver
9. At the Sign of Triumph

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

912 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 14, 2014

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

[Synobal · Rating 3 out of 5]

At this point I'm reading to see "How stuff happened" and not what is going to happen or who is going to win. Because the tension in the story just isn't there. It's good stuff and people who have made it this far are thoroughly invested in it and will continue to read I don't doubt but it still feels like for the last several books it's been pages after page of meetings and some few battle scenes but with not much happening that changes anything.

[Kristian Brødsgaard · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Robert Ottoboni · Rating 3 out of 5]

As much as I like Weber and the Safehold series I found this one a disappointment. To be honest I don't know what can be done from an author's perspective to make a seventh installment in a complex storyline anything more than 'updates for the battlefield' which is what this book reads as.
There are so many fronts to cover and multiplying characters that there is only room in one book to give a few chapters to each. The plot has branched so many times due to the wonderful depth and reality of it that it no longer presents a compelling narrative and has become a current events update from Safehold.
I will continue reading this series because I still want the ultimate payback which was promised in the first book, but as far as a compelling read goes I think Weber is going to have to do something radical to fix the sprawling architecture he has created.

[Steven · Rating 1 out of 5]

I generally like David Weber's work and enjoyed the first volumes of this series, but have been consistently been disappointed at the glacial pace of the plotting and writing. Since about four books ago. When the cast of characters alone reaches 67 pages, that seems to me to be a good indicator of how much bloat we have to wade through. Is anyone at the publisher actually editing these manuscripts?

[Jonathan Scotese · Rating 2 out of 5]

This entire series (including the volumes yet to come) could be edited down into an awesome trilogy.

What bothers me is what others love, but so much space is filled with long explanations of technical processes or blow by blow accounts of battles. I read entire chapters and think to myself that the important ideas and events could have been handled in several paragraphs. I understand it is a matter of taste, and I just wish the idea behind the story was a bit less cool so I could quit the series in disgust rather than plow through book after book waiting for the return of the "archangels".

If you are a fan of military SF and Alternate history, you will probably love this series, though I'd recommend starting at the beginning. (I do realize it is not an alternate history, I just think there will be an overlap in interest.)

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're reading book 7, then that means you've read the previous 6 and so already know how this is probably going to go.

The problem is, some of the problems with the series are worse than they've ever been.

The name thing is annoying but bearable, but the sheer number of characters is getting beyond comprehension, which leads on to the second big problem with this book.
As I was getting to what I thought was the good 'cliff-hanger part (84-85% in my kindle app, with an estimated 105 minutes to the end), the Epilogue appears. WTF! Yes, there's then 12-13% of the book given over to character list - it's longer than the legendary 'John Gault' speech at about 75 pages! This covers not just this book, but the previous 6. It's shameless padding to make it seem longer and very disappointing, especially for an ebook where you can't easily flick to the end.
The third problem is that with the non-traditional spelling of names, there can be some confusion about exactly who someone is talking about, and what side they're on. It's why the end section is there, no doubt, but it really doesn't help, not with so many superficially similar names, and it really ends up detracting from the book.

literary foibles and appendix aside, there's one of big problem with this book, and that's it's lack of progression. The previous books have all had multiple major plot 'points', twists if you will. Marriages, pivotal battles, treachery; the important things that move the story on. This has two, and while one is big, the other isn't that major. The rest of the book is just detailing battles between armies in another region. Nothing in the overall story would have been lost if they'd been summerised, or just indirectly referenced.

Part of the problem is the massive production of books - as I write this, he's had 5 out between Jan 1 2013 and today (April 9 2014) which is a lot to write, so perhaps it's understandable that the story progression has suffered in favor of fights that can easily expand to fit the page count.
The character list needs to be cut down to those in this book only though, because the rest is a waste.

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring.
If you want to learn about the manufacture of civil war era weaponry, you might like this book. If you actually want to read a science fiction book, look elsewhere.

[Liviu · Rating 5 out of 5]

direct continuation of MTAT (would say part 2 of 3 or 4 depending how things will go in book 3 as tempo) and a sweeping epic of land war in Siddamark with lots of other things on the side - the real deal from the infamous snippet about Irys is excellent and shows once again DW's deviousness, while the instructor part from same only adds to the fun...

http://forums.davidweber.net/viewtopi...

Loved the ending too which is a little twist at the end, not that I did find it that surprising since after all (read the novel to find out what, but as a small spoiler, it's a request and the last word of the novel proper justifies said request) and I think that like in MTAT the balance between war and the rest is struck very well; emotional moments on occasion and a few surprises including one major new (ok more or less) character whom i expect to start becoming more and important as time passes by (another small spoiler - see the cover)

for fans of military history and technology, lots of new goodies

Covers a few more months of action and ends at a point where I expect about 2 more books to wrap up the current war, though of course it could happen at the end of the next book under some scenarios

maps to follow the action are a must and the 90 pages of characters, glossary and varia are quite useful too

Overall excellent stuff if you enjoyed the series so far and very similar to MTAT in structure, action etc while as usual a page turner that kept me awake very late at night and compelled an immediate reread to get the finer points

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have been a huge fan of this series, and all D.W.'s work to date, but did find this book to be a bit of a hard slog to try and get through.

This book seemed to diverge from previous books in that the focus didn't take place on all the previous primary characters, that readers had gotten emotionally vested in, but in a significant number of new minor characters that seemed to overly complicate and confuse the direction and understanding of the novel. As well as this, there seemed to be a significant focus on minute details that did little to add relevance to the book and there would have been the potential to cut a significant amount of pages from this book without any real detraction to the basic content. This resulted in having to skim significant portions of the book to keep invested in it and to try and keep it ticking over.

Overall, this led to a complicated and confusing book that was hard to keep track of what was happening and to whom it was happening. However, in saying this, the previous books in the series have done enough to want to keep me invested and see where this series may continue to go

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another really excellent read.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've read all seven books of this series, to my detriment. The quality has declined steadily, if gradually. I loved the first book and the next few weren't terrible. But at this point my interest has hit rock bottom. I have several main complaints about this book. The first is the author's penchant for writing at length about minor technical points of Safehold's technology. He spends pages and pages discussing NAILS. (Alright that's a slight exaggeration, but not by much) Also, he somehow manages to make his fight scenes just as boring as his tech lectures. I marvel at how he could manage to make these potentially epic and obviously incredibly gruesome conflicts TEDIOUS.

Additionally, I find fault in his characters. The one word that continually occurred to me while reading was "competent". Now I love a competent character as much as the next person, but Weber has really gone too far. Not only is every single good guy wearingly capable, so too are the bad guys. In fact, Weber seems to have some kind of conscientious objection to creating truly villainous villains. He is always so careful to portray every single character in a positive light I feel like vomiting. I am sick unto death of him giving every single tiny insignificant bumbling antagonist the benefit of the doubt. And the one character who has the potential to be a wonderfully monstrous villain, the Grand Inquisitor, is hardly in the book at all. Actually, I'm not sure if he's even in this one. When he is in it though I'm always disappointed. Such a big deal is made about his terrible rages and savage temper. Yet the reader never sees examples of this. All they see is him being steered around by his eminently reasonable colleagues and minions.

Also, I find the names tiresome. It's just standard eurocentric names, but with tons of random h's and z's thrown in. It's a little thing maybe, but it certainly builds up. Especially when the list of characters at the back of the book is practically 100 pages long.

In all fairness, there's on character Weber introduced (re-introduced is probably a better word for it) that I loved. However, I found myself skipping the rest of the book just to get to the few chapters that had her in them. Sad really.

Those are all of the complaints that I can think of right now. There are probably more problems that I've left out. Sorry for the rambling rant everybody. In case you skimmed through it as I'm sure I would, here's the gist of it: this book is boring. If you put any value on your sanity, don't read it.

[Mercuzio · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is simply immense, Weber did a grat job keeping the pace with every single event on the whole planet Safehold. While many may praise him for this, the extreme accuracy and quantity of details about the difficulties of organising supply lines, after forty terribly long pages I had listened the same supply lines issues not by one, but from all the characters of every faction, from the lowest grunt to every churchman in Zion. Weber has lately shown the orrible habit of writing entire chapters of these sort of business meeting to make the book hideously longer. Moreover they are mostly useless, even though one or two are needed to sum up all the thousand of things that have happened, their pages(wasted paper in my opinion) literally steal space from the development of the horde of now immense number of main characters. This tendence or "endless meeting chapters syndrome" seriously risks to ruin the Safehold series and gives me the suspect( I would rather call it fear) that their only use is to increase the lenght of the book. However I give this book three stars becouse it was well written, the battles glorius and the technical descriptions of everything, from economy to strategy and tecnological discoveries, incredibly accurate and belivable.

[Harry A · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the first time, I felt the force of criticisms I've read of Weber's recent books--basically, that he's too deeply involved in the worlds he creates, with the result that the novels are narcissistic developments of the world without an adequate story. This novel has lots of details, many battles, strategic and tactical discussions, ... and not a lot of story. He tries character development, but the characters and their stories aren't developed; the battles, tactics, and strategy are.

I'll keep reading his books, but I expect to keep finding them less enjoyable.

[Patrick Murray · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't say that I enjoyed this one, for the most part. It's really lacking as far as moving the story forward in a meaningful way. Weber seems to be the victim of his own success. Either that or he needs an editor that will tell him to wrap it up. I could not have told you if this was book 6 or book 7 for a good 80-90% of the book.

And if I read the phrase "in the fullness of time" once more, I'll puke.

[John Mellby · Rating 3 out of 5]

David Weber continues his land war in this excellent series, although the book takes almost as much time as a real war.
I enjoyed this a lot and read through it as soon as it was released.
I have to say I have the feeling that at least 20-30% of the book could have been cut out without losing anything of the content. There felt to be a great amount of extraneous detail that wasn't necessary.

[Kathy Davie · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 Tor 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.

[Scott Holstad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boy, I really don't know how I feel about this book or about this series anymore. On one hand, I love the series. It's an awesome, epic story told by a fantastic writer. On the other, like so many other people, I'm getting so damn bitter about the author and his stupid manipulations of us, the readers he obviously holds in disdain, so he can sell a zillion more books. His books move at glacial paces, almost nothing of note ever happens, no progress ever gets made, we're never much more further along in the story line than in the previous book(s). My God, at this rate, I'm easily going to die before the series ends!!! How in the world Weber expects to move from steam engines and breech loading rifles to plasma weapons and space ships to fight aliens in outer space in a few more books is beyond comprehension. It's literally impossible at his pace. His books go at about one year per book. This was his seventh book. We've come seven years. We've gone from cannon balls to artillery shells. Wow. Impressive. Not. At the same time, the story is so amazing and so compelling, that you just want to know how everything is going to work out, what's going to happen to Charis, to the Church, to Merlin, to the main characters. What's going to happen??? I want to know, dammit!

This book is no different from the last book. We're still fighting land battles in Siddarmark. However, at least, tides have turned from the last book and in this book Charisian forces are kicking the hell out of Church forces and their allies all over the Republic and it's sweet justice to see. Additionally, there are two or three big plot twists, which should and probably will prove interesting in future books -- all 45 of them, I'm sure -- and the very end of the book is pretty cool and makes me want to read the next book immediately. And it isn't due to be published until next month. Oh well.

The same problems exist in this book, only more so. The naming conventions are still a nightmare. Changing all the vowels to consonants is insane, but Weber does it, so you have names like Wyllyys and crap like that. And that's an easy one. He likes to throw as many "y," "z" and "r" letters into names as possible as replacements for "i" and "e," etc., and it is enough to make you want to kill the man. Then again, if you've made it this far in the series, I guess you're used to it. I'm still irritated at all of the titles though. Everyone is a baron, earl, prince, upper priest, vicar, bishop, duke, princess, etc, and adding that to the names is enough to drive anyone nuts. Then there are Weber's pet phrases that he uses repeatedly. Everyone "snorts." I've never seen so many people snort in my entire life. It's fucking insane. Everyone, including the women and girls, "bare their teeth." Um, excuse me? This is my pet peeve, I admit, cause I've mentioned this in reviews of previous books in this series, but WEBER, no one bares their fucking TEETH!!! Dogs bare their teeth. Wolves bare their teeth. HUMANS DO NOT BARE THEIR DAMN TEETH!!! And he has to have every character in the book do it at least three times on probably every other page through all 900+ pages throughout the book. I want to kill Weber for this alone. It's brutal. To make matters worse, everyone -- all of the bad guys and all of the good guys -- do the following: when they are talking with people and, no matter how serious the topic, like they're about to die in battle, they are for some reason possibly amused, their lips possibly "twitch." Twitching lips. Oh my God! I must have read about twitching lips some 150 times in this book. Seriously, sometimes I wish Weber would have a fatal heart attack so I wouldn't have to read this shit anymore cause as long as he writes these Safehold books, I'm going to read them, cursing his name the entire time. But as much as I resent him, I love these books so much. And I'm not the only one who feels this way. Go through the online reviews. Most reviewers feel like me. Most hate Weber for his naming conventions, for his plodding pace, for his making this into a 40 book series, for his overused phrases, but everyone says they have to keep reading because it's such an amazing story and they have to find out what happens and it's true. It is. And I do. I just wish I could sometime this century. I'm hoping the war in Siddarmark will end sometime in the next two or three books. That will mean it will only have taken five books to get through this damn war. Then we can move on to the Temple Lands and attack Zion and the Group of Four and unseat the Church. Sweet justice, then. Because of how this book ended, I'm anxious to begin the next one, as I said.

This book was good. There was plenty of action. A lot of battle action. A lot of tactics. Far too much about supply lines though. Far too much about gunpowder and the speed of bullets. Skip that crap, Weber, and cut down on the book's size for our sake, please. Just get to the action. Weber can do a battle like no other. He's a master. He just gets bogged down in the tactical details from all sides and it's agonizing at times. Also, one of the faults of this book is that there are so many minor characters and so many chapters and sections opening with minor characters that you have no idea who they are or what army they're with or who they fight for or anything until you've read a little while and it's annoying. Speaking of characters, again, there are far too many. At the back of the book, there are at least 80 pages of characters listed in an index, which is insane. I have no idea how Weber keeps track of them. I certainly can't. I've said this before, and so have many other people, but he seriously needs several editors, because he obviously has none. This is a five star book with three star problems, thus earning it four stars. Similar to several other Safehold books. I wish Weber would learn from his mistakes and/or listen to his readers. I guess he's too arrogant for that since he's obviously making tens of millions of dollars from us. If you're reading the series, the book is obviously recommended. If you're not, don't read it; begin with the first book. You won't understand it if you don't.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the book is like listening to someone play D&D while simultaneously giving a lecture on historical warfare and weaponry, so there’s precious little room for character development. However, I still want to know what happens to my favorite characters, especially those most recently introduced, so I’m not going to stop reading the series. But I might need to give it a many month break before slogging through another bookfull of excruciatingly detailed tactical and strategic brainstorming sessions.

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

On the whole, I've enjoyed the series. It's like a nice, soothing, background kinda read.

I don't care for the turn the series has taken in this book. One PICA who is known as 4+ people is bad enough. Now add in another PICA who is the same person as the first PICA without the memories of the 7 years the 1st PICA has lived on Safehold and... IDK. It seems like overkill.

[Deb]

As with the other six books, I love the science fiction parts. The military, war, and artillery parts are blah. I read those fast. We've already started the next book. My husband should love me for my willingness to read this series with him.

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

When “Like A Mighty Army” #7 in the Safehold series by David Weber was released on 4 Feb 2014 it hit the New York Times best seller list on the first day. It caught my attention as I had just put the book in my “wish list” on Audible. Anyone who wants to start this series I recommend you begin with book #1 “Off Armageddon Reef” or else you will be lost. The premise of the series is that a powerful and xenophobic alien race, the Gbaba, attacked and destroyed Earth. The survivors fled to planet, they called Safehold, where a faction of religious fanatics, the Church of God Awaiting, seized power and, in the name of keeping humanity hidden, buried all evidence of advanced technology and introduced a repressive medieval regime, complete with the inquisition to deal with dissenters. After about 900 year, a cybernetic avatar, Merlin Athrawes appeared and stealthily began to introduce advanced technology to the Island Empire of Charis, hoping this would lead to a war with the church. Weber has created a complex and fascinating epic about change, identity, and the nature of faith. Fans know Weber’s formula: plenty of rousing battle scenes, characters that gradually, over many pages, come into focus, along with seemingly endless torrent of detail, some rich and illuminating. In this book Merlin realized he cannot be everywhere. So he chooses to create another cybernetic avatar, loaded with a previous instantiation of his personality: the one he had when he first woke up to the world of Safehold, Terran Federation lieutenant-Commander Nimue Alban. The prior book ended with a war in Siddarmark and it is continued in this book with a long winter campaign. The book ends with no end it site to the war in Siddarmark, guess we need to wait for the next book in the series. I read this as an audio book downloaded from Audible. Oliver Wyman is back narrating the series; he did the first two books of the series.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Catching up on the latest of David Weber's sprawling Safehold series. It's a hard to explain series as humanity has been virtually wiped out after an alien invasion, except for one planet, Safehold, that a select group of human's escaped to. They locked themselves in a pre-industrial society with an all encompassing church ruling the lives of the millions of citizens, completely forgetting the alien invasion that brought them here. It's complex and involves a cyborg with knowledge of the past choosing a few kingdoms to try and reverse all this "church" has done...and up until this book I've loved the series.

This book has been the hardest to read though. Weber is fantastic at taking human history, the minutiae of how technologies and even cultures came to be and placing them in alternate histories...but he sometimes has a habit of getting too enamoured of recounting how those things work. In this book he seems to have lost sight of the characters we came to care about in previous books. In fact I was quite often getting lost as to who was who in the war taking place on this world...and the overarching story about the fact that these aliens are still out there. I do recommend the series but this latest book has been a disappointment to say the least...and a reminder to not get too lost in your own concepts and forget that you can easily lose a reader between too many characters that are far too similar.

[Rick English · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series has gone afar from where I thought it would go. It is an excellent example of military fiction set in a period just prior to the industrial age.

In general, I like Weber and have read (listened to) several of his books. One starts to notice some annoying stylistic patterns. For example, all of the characters use the phrase "on the other hand" repeatedly. In one of his books I remember reading "on the other hand" three times on a single page. I wish he would use a search and replace before he submits his documents.

This series could easily go on for many, many more books. However, using the premise set up in the first book, the series could end very quickly, very badly.

If you listen to audio version like me, then keep a map of Safehold handy

Don't get me wrong Weber keeps you involved despite the fact that there is incredible detail and a very large number of characters.

It is very clear that there will be an eighth book

[Hotrats]

Why does Mr. Weber have to go on and on about how fast per sec bullet fly and how many pounds of black powder it takes to throw shrapnel a set distance? Okay, it's impressive he knows this stuff or researches it but it does very little to move the plot forward. I really believe he needs a good editor. On who can trim down his moralistic speech making and get on with the story. I mean, this is the seventh volume and we are still a long ways from any type of ending.
What ever happened to writing a novel in one book?

[Marilyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've been faithfully reading every book in this series, but with this one I have hit the wall. How can a book have so much detail and dialogue with so little plot advancement? Then there is the problem with the names: not only are they difficult to track because of the bizarre spellings, but there are so many that this book includes a 67 page character list along with the glossary. Clearly I will have died from old age before we get back to space, so I am giving up and moving on to another book that really is SPACE OPERA!

[Edward Willett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I continue to enjoy this series, but this one seemed, despite a couple of major developments, a bit of a placeholder in what is a very long drawn-out tale. And Weber continues to write what I think of as gripping action sequences separated by long sections of talking heads: mostly people sitting at tables eating/drinking/talking.

Good stuff, all in all, but there have been other installments a notch or two above this one. Can't wait for the next, though!

[Jjab · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave this book a 2 because I finished it.

I have read all the books leading up to this one and they were fairly good. They flowed, and there was a sense of accomplishment and development with the characters and story line. This book seemed to just ramble. The points of view switched so often I never seemed to be able to get into the feel of things. I am overall disappointed in this book, because I generally enjoy this author's works.

[Ethan Daniels · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dying to read this. I believe it's the 6th book of the Safehold series. Publisher keeps pushing the release date back!

[Dawn Jacobs · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's supposed to be out in kindle in 2 days. Wish me happy reading! lol

[Matthew Bauman · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the love of God, when will this story end? There's not even a light at the end of the tunnel.