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Safehold #9
At the Sign of Triumph
At the Sign of David Weber's New York Times-bestselling Safehold series begun with Off Armageddon Reef, By Schism Rent Asunder, By Heresies Distressed, A Mighty Fortress and How Firm a Foundation.The Church of God Awaiting's triumph over Charis was inevitable. Despite its prosperity, the Charis was a single, small island realm. It boasted less than two percent of the total population of Safehold. How could it possibly resist total destruction? The Church had every reason to be confident of a swift, crushing victory, an object lesson to other rebels.But Charis had something far more powerful than simple numbers. It had a king, a crown prince, and a navy prepared to die where they stood in its defense. It had the Brethren of Saint Zherneau, who knew the truth about Safehold's founding. Who knew that the Church of God Awaiting was a monstrous lie. And it had Merlin Athrawes, last survivor of long-vanished Earth. Merlin, the cybernetic avatar of a woman dead over a thousand years, who was determined to break the Church's grip upon the human mind and soul.So after eight years of war, it is not Charis but the Church that stands upon the brink of defeat. But the Church still commands immense resources, and — faced with the unthinkable — it’s decided that it, too, must embrace the forbidden technology which has carried Charis so far.In the end, it is simple, for only one can survive. The lines are drawn, the navies and armies have been raised, and all of Safehold is poised for the final battle between those who believe in freedom and those who would crush it forever.Safehold Series1. 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 Triumph10. Through Fiery TrialsAt the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
765 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 8, 2016
513 people are currently reading
1635 people want to read
About the author
David Weber
322 books4,549 followersDavid 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...
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...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 258 reviews
November 21, 2016
A decent end to a series that went on for too long. I agree with some people that the ending felt rushed, but that's better than the snails pace at which the last couple of books crawled along.
The problem is that however well done it is, by now David Weber's formula is just painfully obvious and the books are just too repetitive.
About one hundred pages of this book is just characters standing around agreeing with each other, or making complimentary small-talk about how skilled and competent their junior/senior officers are and how much they appreciate that. Someone will make an remark in mock severity, while another character proclaims their innocence with their 'eyes twinkling', saying they have no idea what the other person is talking about.
Something unexpected will happen, but the heroes will persevere and overcome it, with everybody working hard and managing to exceed expectations and do better than anyone hoped. Thanks to the plucky work of a sergeant with far too many 'y's in his name, they'll uncover what the enemy is planning just in time to find a way to beat it.
It's agonising to go through each one of those same conversations twenty times in every single book.
Let's not forget the same phrases being used multiple times per book as well. Something difficult is a 'copper-plated bitch', while the heroes anticipating the destruction or major setback of their enemies have a smile as 'cold as winter/a glacier/ice', or 'a smile a kraken would envy/be proud of'. While these are fine phrases, they are overused so heavily that it becomes jarring and irritating to keep coming across them.
There is never any danger of the Charisians losing the war, and while that was understood and perfectly fine in the first half of the series, due to their secret, hyper-advanced technology, by this point it has just become fairly boring. The novelty of such an interesting setting has long since worn off. Part of what makes this book better than the last couple is that things don't all go in favour of the heroes and they start taking casualties.
You could probably shave at least an hours reading time off this book by not giving every name a weirdly drawn out pronunciation, with spelling to match, so the reader has to spend a second or two just mentally translating what the name is meant to be every single time they read it. Replacing every 'j' with 'zh' was completely unnecessary, as was swapping out half of the vowels for 'y's.
For all that, though, the last third of the book rolls along at a good pace, which leaves me with a better impression of the book than I got from the first two thirds.
Although this isn't truly the end, simply the end of this saga, as David Weber mentions in the Author's Note that Merlin Athrawes still has a roll to play, presumably finding out what form the 'Archangel's Return' will take in ten or twenty years time, and then advancing humanity to deal with the Gbaba. I'm not sure I'll be able to handle that, especially if the sequel series ends up as long and drawn-out as this one, but maybe the change in setting will result in a change of pace. I'm hopeful, anyway.
The problem is that however well done it is, by now David Weber's formula is just painfully obvious and the books are just too repetitive.
About one hundred pages of this book is just characters standing around agreeing with each other, or making complimentary small-talk about how skilled and competent their junior/senior officers are and how much they appreciate that. Someone will make an remark in mock severity, while another character proclaims their innocence with their 'eyes twinkling', saying they have no idea what the other person is talking about.
Something unexpected will happen, but the heroes will persevere and overcome it, with everybody working hard and managing to exceed expectations and do better than anyone hoped. Thanks to the plucky work of a sergeant with far too many 'y's in his name, they'll uncover what the enemy is planning just in time to find a way to beat it.
It's agonising to go through each one of those same conversations twenty times in every single book.
Let's not forget the same phrases being used multiple times per book as well. Something difficult is a 'copper-plated bitch', while the heroes anticipating the destruction or major setback of their enemies have a smile as 'cold as winter/a glacier/ice', or 'a smile a kraken would envy/be proud of'. While these are fine phrases, they are overused so heavily that it becomes jarring and irritating to keep coming across them.
There is never any danger of the Charisians losing the war, and while that was understood and perfectly fine in the first half of the series, due to their secret, hyper-advanced technology, by this point it has just become fairly boring. The novelty of such an interesting setting has long since worn off. Part of what makes this book better than the last couple is that things don't all go in favour of the heroes and they start taking casualties.
You could probably shave at least an hours reading time off this book by not giving every name a weirdly drawn out pronunciation, with spelling to match, so the reader has to spend a second or two just mentally translating what the name is meant to be every single time they read it. Replacing every 'j' with 'zh' was completely unnecessary, as was swapping out half of the vowels for 'y's.
For all that, though, the last third of the book rolls along at a good pace, which leaves me with a better impression of the book than I got from the first two thirds.
Although this isn't truly the end, simply the end of this saga, as David Weber mentions in the Author's Note that Merlin Athrawes still has a roll to play, presumably finding out what form the 'Archangel's Return' will take in ten or twenty years time, and then advancing humanity to deal with the Gbaba. I'm not sure I'll be able to handle that, especially if the sequel series ends up as long and drawn-out as this one, but maybe the change in setting will result in a change of pace. I'm hopeful, anyway.
November 14, 2016
All in all, I love David Weber's writing. I love his take on themes of feminism, oppressive religion, I love his ridiculously romantic views on monarchy and his Mary Sue protagonists.
I won't lie - I greatly enjoyed first couple of Safehold books. But, alas, they have suffered the same fate as Honorverse books - exposition, infodumping on epic scale, black & white characters... Since this book has 4+ stars on Goodreads, it's obvious that Mr. Weber has a lot of fans who disagree with me. I must admit, I do not belong to a culture with strong maritime tradition (any maritime tradition, in fact) so I'm probably missing something here.
I still love his writing - when he writes about the characters I care about and who are actual protagonists of his novels. To many pages are dedicated to deceiving the reader to care about some poor guy who's gonna get killed by artillery at the end of his segment.
Anyway, I would give this book 3/5 stars, but I feel that the ending was in fact rushed, almost as if he ran out of time. Not only rushed, but cut as if with a cleaver. Some things were glossed over -romantic relationship of the main character, for instance, as well as several potentially interesting moral conundrums that arose during the series.
Anyway, I would give 3/5 stars to the series as a whole, but with a warning that you should really be Weber's fan to enjoy it.
I won't lie - I greatly enjoyed first couple of Safehold books. But, alas, they have suffered the same fate as Honorverse books - exposition, infodumping on epic scale, black & white characters... Since this book has 4+ stars on Goodreads, it's obvious that Mr. Weber has a lot of fans who disagree with me. I must admit, I do not belong to a culture with strong maritime tradition (any maritime tradition, in fact) so I'm probably missing something here.
I still love his writing - when he writes about the characters I care about and who are actual protagonists of his novels. To many pages are dedicated to deceiving the reader to care about some poor guy who's gonna get killed by artillery at the end of his segment.
Anyway, I would give this book 3/5 stars, but I feel that the ending was in fact rushed, almost as if he ran out of time. Not only rushed, but cut as if with a cleaver. Some things were glossed over -romantic relationship of the main character, for instance, as well as several potentially interesting moral conundrums that arose during the series.
Anyway, I would give 3/5 stars to the series as a whole, but with a warning that you should really be Weber's fan to enjoy it.
November 9, 2016
DW finishes a series, hooray! - sort of of course as the Gbaba are out there and Safehold still hasn't learned the full truth - but yes the arc started in OAR in 2007 and 890 YoGA ends in 2016 and YoGA 898 (with an epilogue in 899) and the story has a feel of completeness and a great ending; a few surprises but the general outline of the ending was clear from a while ago
overall a superb series and an excellent ending for now
- added later: after a first breathless read to see what happens, I am now almost done with the leisurely re-read (I read the ending a few times already as I am really looking for clues about how the next series will proceed - again the outline of the big reveal and a shorter but considerably more brutal war fought with modern weapons is highly likely based on the author's comments, but the details matter and in this first series I got the ending more or less right by the previous book)
a few more comments - extraordinary pacing and bringing together the threads from earlier volumes; I still think that book 1 (OAR fantasy feel and extraordinary adventure/newness, larger than life characters, incredible tense moments from the confrontation with the duke to the spear throw to the truth detector to the final battle) and book 2 (BSRA with its jaw dropping revelations and emotional content from the letter to Zion to the execution of the former archbishop to the marriage proposal to the realization of the main local antagonists that Charis is there to win...) are still the best in the series, while book 5 the weakest and bleakest with books 6-7-8 getting better and better, but this one book 9 gets as close as possible to the original sense of wonder and awesomeness of those first 2 volumes (though of course its large scale nature makes it a very different kind of novel than those)
have no idea how DW will close the Honorverse especially after the fairly disappointing next to last novel recently out (SoV), but Safehold part 1 shows that the author can do awesome closure and not only awesome starts, so i have high hopes there too
overall a superb series and an excellent ending for now
- added later: after a first breathless read to see what happens, I am now almost done with the leisurely re-read (I read the ending a few times already as I am really looking for clues about how the next series will proceed - again the outline of the big reveal and a shorter but considerably more brutal war fought with modern weapons is highly likely based on the author's comments, but the details matter and in this first series I got the ending more or less right by the previous book)
a few more comments - extraordinary pacing and bringing together the threads from earlier volumes; I still think that book 1 (OAR fantasy feel and extraordinary adventure/newness, larger than life characters, incredible tense moments from the confrontation with the duke to the spear throw to the truth detector to the final battle) and book 2 (BSRA with its jaw dropping revelations and emotional content from the letter to Zion to the execution of the former archbishop to the marriage proposal to the realization of the main local antagonists that Charis is there to win...) are still the best in the series, while book 5 the weakest and bleakest with books 6-7-8 getting better and better, but this one book 9 gets as close as possible to the original sense of wonder and awesomeness of those first 2 volumes (though of course its large scale nature makes it a very different kind of novel than those)
have no idea how DW will close the Honorverse especially after the fairly disappointing next to last novel recently out (SoV), but Safehold part 1 shows that the author can do awesome closure and not only awesome starts, so i have high hopes there too
November 21, 2016
Love the series and worldbuilding, but the last three books had about one book's worth of plot between them.
September 15, 2020
Quite worthwhile, it wraps up major story lines. A must read for fans of the Safehold series.
August 13, 2024
My favorite book of the series. So many satisfying resolutions.
December 8, 2016
Better than previous books in that the biggest problem of all - a character list that comprised 13% of the last book - Hell's Foundations Quiver - was omitted, along with the rest of the 'apocrypha'. Now, it ends around the 96% mark and not the 76%.
Also, there's generally less characters, although because of all the silly names (or their spelling) it's still hard to keep track of most of them. And there's times I couldn't keep track of which side of the battle I was reading about. But again, less of a problem this time than in past books. But it's disconcerting to go from one random earl on one side talking about troop movements, to suddenly go to some random corporal at an'army of the whatever' (and there's some thirty of these armies it feels like, across both sides) who's moaning about the suppression fire by the other side and how it's making their suppression fire job harder, and can they also have some coffee (cherrybean tea) and some hot food.
My big problem though is that this is billed as 'the last book', and it
I really hope there's going to be a book 10, and that it focuses more on the main players, and doesn't spend 5 pages introducing us to some random low-level character right before they're then killed or otherwise never seen again. This happened more than once in this book, where 8-10 pages of story about someone end 'and then a shell landed on them and they were blown the F**k up into itty bitty pieces'. It's quite irritating and needless padding.
If you like the series, you'll like this, although it's mostly these short vignettes of death. The Archbishop of Charis, one of the main characters from the start, gets maybe 5 lines total this time, and the same is true for most others as well. In addition, previous books taught so much about many things, from gunpowder development, to rifle design and shiphandling. This has none of that. Every new invention is added to the field as a fait accompli, and everyone 'knows' about things. There's no development or detail about how things were tried out or developed, or soldiers trained in everything from
If I were to try and sum this book up, it's 'The vietnam scenes from Full Metal Jacket', mixed with 'the Hitler rant scene from the 2004 film Downfall' (the one which has produced so many parodies). It was clearly written on a deadline, without some of the care of the past books, and such is admitted at the end. Past books have blended the scifi elements of Nimue and the Federation Tech, with the challenge of advancing safeholdian technology in an explainable way, and also some battles; absent those elements it's almost like reading a WW1 novel.
If you liked the series, you'll probably like this. If you didn't mind it, you may not enjoy it. It's more of the same from the previous books, but only of the middling stuff, not the good stuff that really made the earlier books.
Also, there's generally less characters, although because of all the silly names (or their spelling) it's still hard to keep track of most of them. And there's times I couldn't keep track of which side of the battle I was reading about. But again, less of a problem this time than in past books. But it's disconcerting to go from one random earl on one side talking about troop movements, to suddenly go to some random corporal at an'army of the whatever' (and there's some thirty of these armies it feels like, across both sides) who's moaning about the suppression fire by the other side and how it's making their suppression fire job harder, and can they also have some coffee (cherrybean tea) and some hot food.
My big problem though is that this is billed as 'the last book', and it
I really hope there's going to be a book 10, and that it focuses more on the main players, and doesn't spend 5 pages introducing us to some random low-level character right before they're then killed or otherwise never seen again. This happened more than once in this book, where 8-10 pages of story about someone end 'and then a shell landed on them and they were blown the F**k up into itty bitty pieces'. It's quite irritating and needless padding.
If you like the series, you'll like this, although it's mostly these short vignettes of death. The Archbishop of Charis, one of the main characters from the start, gets maybe 5 lines total this time, and the same is true for most others as well. In addition, previous books taught so much about many things, from gunpowder development, to rifle design and shiphandling. This has none of that. Every new invention is added to the field as a fait accompli, and everyone 'knows' about things. There's no development or detail about how things were tried out or developed, or soldiers trained in everything from
If I were to try and sum this book up, it's 'The vietnam scenes from Full Metal Jacket', mixed with 'the Hitler rant scene from the 2004 film Downfall' (the one which has produced so many parodies). It was clearly written on a deadline, without some of the care of the past books, and such is admitted at the end. Past books have blended the scifi elements of Nimue and the Federation Tech, with the challenge of advancing safeholdian technology in an explainable way, and also some battles; absent those elements it's almost like reading a WW1 novel.
If you liked the series, you'll probably like this. If you didn't mind it, you may not enjoy it. It's more of the same from the previous books, but only of the middling stuff, not the good stuff that really made the earlier books.
April 29, 2017
This was not a good book.
Spoiler but I don't care: at the end, one of the major villains discovers that everything he's been fighting for is a lie. That's how I felt reading/finishing this series.
What started with an interesting premise of humanity being forced into pre-technology society to ensure they weren't discovered by aliens bent on their destruction turned very quickly into a bait and switch where each novel was basically a rehash of warfare from the Age of Sail up through around WWI (though taking place only over a couple years in the books).
This creates a giant schism between those that embrace the slowly developing technological advances and those that have been raised that technology beyond a certain point is evil. While this bears some superficial similarity of a religious war, it's only superficial. We get a lot of references to "heretics" and "jihad" but there's no real philosophical or even intellectual dimension to it. Every page is just devoted to dryer and dryer discussions of percussion caps and ironclads.
This has been true for the previous 8 volumes to the point I'm actively ROOTING for the aliens to return and kill everyone.
Let's face it, Weber is not a great writer. He can fill pages, but it's more like reading a technical diagram and there is never any passion, drama, suspense, or even clever turns of phrases. Instead, we get introduced to a slightly better piece of military technology than currently exists in the world, some doubt as to its utility, its deployment, the other side's shock that it worked and their own attempts to counter. Repeat for THREE THOUSAND PAGES.
What's also bothersome is that the technology is not even new or creative, it's simply mid-late 18th century technology that Weber's deus ex machina character introduces that Weber invariably describes using modern parlance "flame-thrower" but then insists on his characters giving it some cutesy name "the soldiers called it Mr. Mxyzptlk's cigar lighter."
Also, there are no characters in this book. Oh there are PEOPLE, but there are no characters. They bear less relation to actual humans than they do to index cards tacked up on somebody's bulletin board. Though index cards have more depth.
I mentioned the series aping the conventions of a holy war but when your "Grand Inquisitor" is repeatedly uttering curses "friggin!" you're dealing with the Mel Brooks version of Torquemada and there's zero threat.
Eventually, mercifully, the series ends with the aforementioned realization and absolutely ZERO resolution of the initial premise of the series (aliens). Regrettably, I own several Weber books on my shelf and I'm not sure what to do with them now.
Spoiler but I don't care: at the end, one of the major villains discovers that everything he's been fighting for is a lie. That's how I felt reading/finishing this series.
What started with an interesting premise of humanity being forced into pre-technology society to ensure they weren't discovered by aliens bent on their destruction turned very quickly into a bait and switch where each novel was basically a rehash of warfare from the Age of Sail up through around WWI (though taking place only over a couple years in the books).
This creates a giant schism between those that embrace the slowly developing technological advances and those that have been raised that technology beyond a certain point is evil. While this bears some superficial similarity of a religious war, it's only superficial. We get a lot of references to "heretics" and "jihad" but there's no real philosophical or even intellectual dimension to it. Every page is just devoted to dryer and dryer discussions of percussion caps and ironclads.
This has been true for the previous 8 volumes to the point I'm actively ROOTING for the aliens to return and kill everyone.
Let's face it, Weber is not a great writer. He can fill pages, but it's more like reading a technical diagram and there is never any passion, drama, suspense, or even clever turns of phrases. Instead, we get introduced to a slightly better piece of military technology than currently exists in the world, some doubt as to its utility, its deployment, the other side's shock that it worked and their own attempts to counter. Repeat for THREE THOUSAND PAGES.
What's also bothersome is that the technology is not even new or creative, it's simply mid-late 18th century technology that Weber's deus ex machina character introduces that Weber invariably describes using modern parlance "flame-thrower" but then insists on his characters giving it some cutesy name "the soldiers called it Mr. Mxyzptlk's cigar lighter."
Also, there are no characters in this book. Oh there are PEOPLE, but there are no characters. They bear less relation to actual humans than they do to index cards tacked up on somebody's bulletin board. Though index cards have more depth.
I mentioned the series aping the conventions of a holy war but when your "Grand Inquisitor" is repeatedly uttering curses "friggin!" you're dealing with the Mel Brooks version of Torquemada and there's zero threat.
Eventually, mercifully, the series ends with the aforementioned realization and absolutely ZERO resolution of the initial premise of the series (aliens). Regrettably, I own several Weber books on my shelf and I'm not sure what to do with them now.
April 1, 2017
It's pretty sad when a series that started with as much promise as this one did leaves you with the feeling "Thank God that's over."
December 16, 2016
Ninth in the Safehold military-religious science fiction series revolving around the once-tiny country of Charis embattled against the entrenched Church of God Awaiting.
My Take
You'll be pleased to know the war comes to an end in this…and it's about time! However, Weber promises that this isn't the last we'll see of Merlin Athrawes. And now I'm curious as to where Weber plans to take Merlin. North Harchong or into space?? Wait for the return of the archangels?
The Allies are quite organized these days, and the story is mostly a waiting game while the enemy is adapting, learning from the heretics. There are bits and pieces that perked me right up, including the message and aid they get to Lady Karyl. Felt quite chuffed about what they did to the rebels, *snicker*
As for those broadsheets…*guffaw*… They were a long-term strategy and will pay off big time in this. I had hoped that Nahrmahn's porcelain idea would have come about, lol.
I do enjoy how mixed the population is with their combination of Hispanic, French, German, etc., first and last names, but it would have been so much more effective if Weber had simply left the names alone!! And I really hate how hard it is to tell which side I'm reading about. I keep having to hunt for clues and finally started marking an "E" for enemy and a "C" for Charis so I could keep track.
There are some interesting parallels between Safehold and the U.S. in how losing men to war is affecting how women function in society. Also in why politicians should not be in charge of directing battles, as those churchmen are too much like politicians who have no clue on how to fight a war.
The Charisians have incorporated so many innovations in both technology and how the military thinks. Soldiers will fantasize about how sweet it could be.
Truth will out, eventually. And the Temple soldiers are beginning to wonder, calling this "Clyntahn's War".
The Story
The mission for which Nimue Alban died, and for which Merlin Arthwaes was revived, is to overturn the Proscriptions and Eric Langhorne's shackles, proclaim the truth about the Archangels, and prepare the Safeholdians to defend against the Gbaba.
That means the Church of God Awaiting must be destroyed. Before the "Archangels" return.
The Characters
I have the hardest time keeping track of who's who and on which side sometimes, so this character list helps. And it is very, very, very long, and I don't guarantee the accuracy as to who belongs to which platoons, companies, brigades, etc. as it was simply too confusing. I tried… I also tried to figure out what their names were without all the silly extra letters Weber stuck in. I got to wondering afterwards if Weber used these awkward spellings to cover up that so many of them were the same.
So if this list would be useful, you'll have to check it out on my blog.
The Cover and Title
The cover is metallic from the black band at the top with the silver embossed author's name to the narrow gold bands framing the graphic in the middle band, and the copper at the bottom with its silver embossed title. The picture in the middle is a collage of events within the story with Merlin and Merch O Obaith standing on a ship's ramp watching a pitched battle.
The title could refer to several things — Clyntahn's revelation, the rioting, the messengers sent to the Allied armies, or... — for each event is occurring At the Sign of Triumph.
My Take
You'll be pleased to know the war comes to an end in this…and it's about time! However, Weber promises that this isn't the last we'll see of Merlin Athrawes. And now I'm curious as to where Weber plans to take Merlin. North Harchong or into space?? Wait for the return of the archangels?
The Allies are quite organized these days, and the story is mostly a waiting game while the enemy is adapting, learning from the heretics. There are bits and pieces that perked me right up, including the message and aid they get to Lady Karyl. Felt quite chuffed about what they did to the rebels, *snicker*
As for those broadsheets…*guffaw*… They were a long-term strategy and will pay off big time in this. I had hoped that Nahrmahn's porcelain idea would have come about, lol.
"It was almost worth having died to be able to play the Great Game at this level, he decided."Repression is never a good idea. And it's bad in Zion these days. All you have to do is know someone, and you must be guilty.
I do enjoy how mixed the population is with their combination of Hispanic, French, German, etc., first and last names, but it would have been so much more effective if Weber had simply left the names alone!! And I really hate how hard it is to tell which side I'm reading about. I keep having to hunt for clues and finally started marking an "E" for enemy and a "C" for Charis so I could keep track.
There are some interesting parallels between Safehold and the U.S. in how losing men to war is affecting how women function in society. Also in why politicians should not be in charge of directing battles, as those churchmen are too much like politicians who have no clue on how to fight a war.
"…that means fighting to the last drop of everyone else's blood."It is fun to watch the Dohlarans back in Gorath begin to see the light and how they challenge the Church.
"'I think we should by all means begin that discussion about how to defend this city.''And against whom.'"Weber makes this huge tome and the battles more personal with short paragraphs in which we get to know members of platoons…before they get killed off. Makes me think of John Scalzi's Redshirts .
The Charisians have incorporated so many innovations in both technology and how the military thinks. Soldiers will fantasize about how sweet it could be.
Truth will out, eventually. And the Temple soldiers are beginning to wonder, calling this "Clyntahn's War".
The Story
The mission for which Nimue Alban died, and for which Merlin Arthwaes was revived, is to overturn the Proscriptions and Eric Langhorne's shackles, proclaim the truth about the Archangels, and prepare the Safeholdians to defend against the Gbaba.
That means the Church of God Awaiting must be destroyed. Before the "Archangels" return.
The Characters
I have the hardest time keeping track of who's who and on which side sometimes, so this character list helps. And it is very, very, very long, and I don't guarantee the accuracy as to who belongs to which platoons, companies, brigades, etc. as it was simply too confusing. I tried… I also tried to figure out what their names were without all the silly extra letters Weber stuck in. I got to wondering afterwards if Weber used these awkward spellings to cover up that so many of them were the same.
So if this list would be useful, you'll have to check it out on my blog.
The Cover and Title
The cover is metallic from the black band at the top with the silver embossed author's name to the narrow gold bands framing the graphic in the middle band, and the copper at the bottom with its silver embossed title. The picture in the middle is a collage of events within the story with Merlin and Merch O Obaith standing on a ship's ramp watching a pitched battle.
The title could refer to several things — Clyntahn's revelation, the rioting, the messengers sent to the Allied armies, or... — for each event is occurring At the Sign of Triumph.
December 28, 2017
This is book 9 of the Safehold series and concludes the war between the Kingdom of Charis and the Church of God Awaiting. There is obviously more to be told in this world, given the original mission set up in the first book, Off Armageddon Reef. But for now this wraps up a the story about the war.
Although I appreciate the ending and the way things wrapped up I am only giving this book 3 stars for a couple of reasons. First off, this reads more like an alternative history of WW1 for the most part. There's an endless stream of minor skirmishes and battles that, although interesting and well written, drag the book out way to much. Second, there are just too many characters with weird and similar names. For many of the chapters I did not recognize the characters and had no idea which side of the war they were fighting on. I had to read on and could eventually figure it out. Unlike previous books in this series there was no index of characters so it wasn't possible to look them up. Closely allied with my second point is that the main characters had very minor page time in this book. These characters were what made the first few books in the series and I thought they should have been more involved.
If you are interested in alternative military history then this series is probably a good fit. Try the first 2 or 3 but be warned that the pace slows down a lot once the naval action gets mostly resolved and the war turns into a land based slog.
There are several loose ends that need to be tied up and I hope David Weber does that in 1 or 2 more books. If he intends this series to eventually end up with Humanity confronting the Gbaba then he will have to accelerate the time scale up from the glacial pace of the last few books.
Overall I would give this 9 book series 4 stars. There are some awesome parts but too many dragged out books in the later half.
Although I appreciate the ending and the way things wrapped up I am only giving this book 3 stars for a couple of reasons. First off, this reads more like an alternative history of WW1 for the most part. There's an endless stream of minor skirmishes and battles that, although interesting and well written, drag the book out way to much. Second, there are just too many characters with weird and similar names. For many of the chapters I did not recognize the characters and had no idea which side of the war they were fighting on. I had to read on and could eventually figure it out. Unlike previous books in this series there was no index of characters so it wasn't possible to look them up. Closely allied with my second point is that the main characters had very minor page time in this book. These characters were what made the first few books in the series and I thought they should have been more involved.
If you are interested in alternative military history then this series is probably a good fit. Try the first 2 or 3 but be warned that the pace slows down a lot once the naval action gets mostly resolved and the war turns into a land based slog.
There are several loose ends that need to be tied up and I hope David Weber does that in 1 or 2 more books. If he intends this series to eventually end up with Humanity confronting the Gbaba then he will have to accelerate the time scale up from the glacial pace of the last few books.
Overall I would give this 9 book series 4 stars. There are some awesome parts but too many dragged out books in the later half.
October 12, 2018
What a complete waste of time this entire series was! I like David Weber for the most part, but this was long, drawn out, overwhelming. Turns of phrase kept reappearing, time and again. I kept finding spelling errors in the book, which given my own challenges there is remarkable. In one aspect he succeeded, by the end of the book I was as sick of this war and this setting as any of the characters.
November 9, 2016
I found that this a was a staple in the safe hold series. But this is the end of the series or the end of an arc of the series and it's conclusion is not really a conclusion
March 11, 2017
It is sad that he felt he had to make each book of epic length because the padding becomes trite and boring. The first few, in which he was building the world, needed that length but most of the others could have been cut down by a third. The last could probably have been cut in half and would have had much better story flow. The whole series would benefit from a faster pace, then the ending would not have seemed so sudden. After dragging out this series, it seemed as though he just got tired of writing it and shut it down. I wonder if he ever uses beta readers?
November 26, 2016
This series had such promise when it started but it's apparent that Weber spent more time on cutesy "evolved" spelling of names (Gairybahldy? Really?) than on plot development.
March 21, 2020
Does he get paid by the word? Needs a good editor, one who keeps the story moving forward.
June 1, 2018
Weber tried to write this book like the others.... adding new characters and trying to put a human face on the epic military conflict, but with it being the conclusion of a truly epic (we're talking close to 9000 pages) series, I found myself often just wanting him to hurry up and tell me what happens.
I would have MUCH preferred a good map or two than another 10 chapters of valiant soldiers who are gonna die anyway. (apparently, there's maps online, but I read to get away from the screens, no lok at them more)
Of course, it's been clear exactly HOW things were going to end for 3 books now, so there was no surprise, but certainly some satisfaction in seeing a series actually reach a logical conclusion. (I'm looking at you, Patrick Rothfuss and George RR Martin).
On the plus side, things were wrapped up pretty neatly, and the only plot threads left dangling were on purpose, for a potential follow up series.
I have mixed feelings about that... on the one hand, if they series only moves forward in time slightly, and other conflict will feel small and insignifigant in comparison. And while visiting old friends is always nice, it really would be more nostalgia than anything.
A big time gap to the time when the remnants of humanity fight the Gbaba could be all too similar to the Honor Harrington series (heck, I could even see a 'bridge' type series that turns this into a PREQUEL to the Honorverse), and would, of course, mean leaving all our Charisian friends behind.
Overall, I'd say the general consenus I see of 'good series gone on too long' is pretty accurate. I think a good 3 books worth of editing probably could have done wonders, but I'm happy to have read it, and will most certainly visit again if and when another series begins.
I would have MUCH preferred a good map or two than another 10 chapters of valiant soldiers who are gonna die anyway. (apparently, there's maps online, but I read to get away from the screens, no lok at them more)
Of course, it's been clear exactly HOW things were going to end for 3 books now, so there was no surprise, but certainly some satisfaction in seeing a series actually reach a logical conclusion. (I'm looking at you, Patrick Rothfuss and George RR Martin).
On the plus side, things were wrapped up pretty neatly, and the only plot threads left dangling were on purpose, for a potential follow up series.
I have mixed feelings about that... on the one hand, if they series only moves forward in time slightly, and other conflict will feel small and insignifigant in comparison. And while visiting old friends is always nice, it really would be more nostalgia than anything.
A big time gap to the time when the remnants of humanity fight the Gbaba could be all too similar to the Honor Harrington series (heck, I could even see a 'bridge' type series that turns this into a PREQUEL to the Honorverse), and would, of course, mean leaving all our Charisian friends behind.
Overall, I'd say the general consenus I see of 'good series gone on too long' is pretty accurate. I think a good 3 books worth of editing probably could have done wonders, but I'm happy to have read it, and will most certainly visit again if and when another series begins.
May 31, 2017
tl;dr: It's David Weber. FTWLTSOT,TITSOTTL
1
I finally slogged through the entirety of David Weber's Safehold series. "Slogged" is exactly the right word. These books are doorstops bar none. I vaguely guess there's somewhere between 3 million and 3½ mililon words total in these nine books, most of them clocking in somewhere between 700 and 850 pages. They're so full of David Weber tropes it's almost like Weber fanfic: war, blood, heroism, swashbuckling derring-do, angelic heroes of the most upright standing and mustache-twirling villains of foregone depravity.
It's not a spoiler to reveal the setting and basic plot: It is The Future. Humanity has all but been wiped out by mindless alien xenophobes, and Safehold, the last human colony has been hidden far away from the interstellar warfront. To make it even more invisible, the colonists have been mindwiped and dropped into a 15th century tech level with a book, The Holy Writ Of The Archangel Langhorne and his Archangels, which explains how God wants them to live: healthily (the books explain everything: animal husbandry, antiseptic would care, terraforming, even some cognitive psychology) but simply (there are proscriptions against invention and innovation, with absolutely hideous death-by-torture punishments for anyone daring to experiment with electricity, backed up by an automated orbital death machine that will rain down Mjolnir-level destruction on any city that starts to use electricity extensively), the better to avoid putting out the radio and neutrino signals that the aliens used to track Terran vessels down. It's a conceit that lets Weber have his beloved sailing ships and broadside-to-broadside battles, but it reads like "Hey, what if someone wrote Honor Harrington but like, on water, with sailing vessels and stuff?"
A thousand years later, into this mess awakens Nimue, the last surviving woman of the Terran Federation. She's been reincarnated in a robot body (Weber does a lot of handwaving about posthuman technologies to explain why H. sapiens hadn't NerdRaptured™ to deal with the aliens), and learns that the "hideous torture" part wasn't actually in the original plan. There was a coup among the colony commanders, and the "No tech, ever" team murdered the "We'll have to deal with the aliens eventually" team. She formulates A Plan to invalidate the Holy Writ, and touches off a massive World War™ between the liberal (read: England and the better, more Protestant, parts of Europe) and conservative (read: The nastier, more Catholic, parts of Europe, plus a few Chinese thrown in for good measure) parts of the planet. Without using electricity, Nimue bootstraps the most liberal political entity (the one that had banned slavery and adopted universal literacy, etc. etc.) on the planet from rowed galley ships to, well, now that would be spoiling.
The problem with the Safehold books is twofold. The first is what David Brin calls the spearcarrier problem. Safehold is a Great Game story. A few people in positions of power send millions out to die in their battles. We get names of many soldiers and sailors who get killed within one or two chapters, with details about their wives, friends, parents, and children thrown in to remind us that these are real people who get killed when the Great Gamers start to roll the dice. They still get killed nonetheless.
The second problem is one that's familiar to readers of long series from Weber: While we want the heroes to win, we don't want the winning to be easy. The winning on Safehold is easy. The main characters are rarely, if ever, in any real danger of losing. Nimue is an immortal, nearly indestructible, well-trained killing machine who can provide satellite-based, world-encompassing reconnaissance, complete with audio and video recordings of (almost every) conversation the enemies are having to her allies, and who has a very large library stashed away in her Fortress of Solitude, including all the war history and every technological improvement she can supply. Most of our World War One was fought without electricity, after all, and by the end of the series her generals and commanders are quoting Patton and Clausewitz at each other. Despite the overwhelming numbers of soldiers the bad guys have, the good guys always pull out a technological advance that wins that day.
Weber is reluctant to kill his angels. Almost none of them die, all of them have the author's hand of forebearance atop them. The main characters of the first three or four books become distant givers-of-orders, and the last five books are a painful series of watching ordinary people go out and get killed for them.
One thing that might turn off people is how Weber uses religion. He is a Methodist by training, and his characters engage in a lot (and I mean a lot) of talking about What God Wants. The God of Safehold is a deliberately twisted, distant syncretic deity meant to supply the post-mortem muscle behind what the coup survivors wrote in the books of their Writ (the major leaders of the coup: Langhorne, Bedard, Schueler, Chihiro, etc., all have their own books in the Writ), and Weber's point is that "the real, human knowledge of God will shine through even their twisting of it," as the first Archbishop who comes to know Nimue and the true origin of the Writ says while retaining his faith. Nimue in passing mentions that she is a Christian, but it's never belabored much, and she says she'd be thrilled if she could get past all the brainwashing and let all Safeholdians know about Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and all the rest. It isn't badly handled; in fact, I rather enjoyed how deftly Weber made his Case For God without ever once having to rely on supernatural intervention as a reason to believe.
If you like Weber, you'll probably like Safehold. If you haven't read Weber, you probably shouldn't bother.
1 For Those Who Like This Sort of Thing, This Is The Sort Of Thing They Like.
I finally slogged through the entirety of David Weber's Safehold series. "Slogged" is exactly the right word. These books are doorstops bar none. I vaguely guess there's somewhere between 3 million and 3½ mililon words total in these nine books, most of them clocking in somewhere between 700 and 850 pages. They're so full of David Weber tropes it's almost like Weber fanfic: war, blood, heroism, swashbuckling derring-do, angelic heroes of the most upright standing and mustache-twirling villains of foregone depravity.
It's not a spoiler to reveal the setting and basic plot: It is The Future. Humanity has all but been wiped out by mindless alien xenophobes, and Safehold, the last human colony has been hidden far away from the interstellar warfront. To make it even more invisible, the colonists have been mindwiped and dropped into a 15th century tech level with a book, The Holy Writ Of The Archangel Langhorne and his Archangels, which explains how God wants them to live: healthily (the books explain everything: animal husbandry, antiseptic would care, terraforming, even some cognitive psychology) but simply (there are proscriptions against invention and innovation, with absolutely hideous death-by-torture punishments for anyone daring to experiment with electricity, backed up by an automated orbital death machine that will rain down Mjolnir-level destruction on any city that starts to use electricity extensively), the better to avoid putting out the radio and neutrino signals that the aliens used to track Terran vessels down. It's a conceit that lets Weber have his beloved sailing ships and broadside-to-broadside battles, but it reads like "Hey, what if someone wrote Honor Harrington but like, on water, with sailing vessels and stuff?"
A thousand years later, into this mess awakens Nimue, the last surviving woman of the Terran Federation. She's been reincarnated in a robot body (Weber does a lot of handwaving about posthuman technologies to explain why H. sapiens hadn't NerdRaptured™ to deal with the aliens), and learns that the "hideous torture" part wasn't actually in the original plan. There was a coup among the colony commanders, and the "No tech, ever" team murdered the "We'll have to deal with the aliens eventually" team. She formulates A Plan to invalidate the Holy Writ, and touches off a massive World War™ between the liberal (read: England and the better, more Protestant, parts of Europe) and conservative (read: The nastier, more Catholic, parts of Europe, plus a few Chinese thrown in for good measure) parts of the planet. Without using electricity, Nimue bootstraps the most liberal political entity (the one that had banned slavery and adopted universal literacy, etc. etc.) on the planet from rowed galley ships to, well, now that would be spoiling.
The problem with the Safehold books is twofold. The first is what David Brin calls the spearcarrier problem. Safehold is a Great Game story. A few people in positions of power send millions out to die in their battles. We get names of many soldiers and sailors who get killed within one or two chapters, with details about their wives, friends, parents, and children thrown in to remind us that these are real people who get killed when the Great Gamers start to roll the dice. They still get killed nonetheless.
The second problem is one that's familiar to readers of long series from Weber: While we want the heroes to win, we don't want the winning to be easy. The winning on Safehold is easy. The main characters are rarely, if ever, in any real danger of losing. Nimue is an immortal, nearly indestructible, well-trained killing machine who can provide satellite-based, world-encompassing reconnaissance, complete with audio and video recordings of (almost every) conversation the enemies are having to her allies, and who has a very large library stashed away in her Fortress of Solitude, including all the war history and every technological improvement she can supply. Most of our World War One was fought without electricity, after all, and by the end of the series her generals and commanders are quoting Patton and Clausewitz at each other. Despite the overwhelming numbers of soldiers the bad guys have, the good guys always pull out a technological advance that wins that day.
Weber is reluctant to kill his angels. Almost none of them die, all of them have the author's hand of forebearance atop them. The main characters of the first three or four books become distant givers-of-orders, and the last five books are a painful series of watching ordinary people go out and get killed for them.
One thing that might turn off people is how Weber uses religion. He is a Methodist by training, and his characters engage in a lot (and I mean a lot) of talking about What God Wants. The God of Safehold is a deliberately twisted, distant syncretic deity meant to supply the post-mortem muscle behind what the coup survivors wrote in the books of their Writ (the major leaders of the coup: Langhorne, Bedard, Schueler, Chihiro, etc., all have their own books in the Writ), and Weber's point is that "the real, human knowledge of God will shine through even their twisting of it," as the first Archbishop who comes to know Nimue and the true origin of the Writ says while retaining his faith. Nimue in passing mentions that she is a Christian, but it's never belabored much, and she says she'd be thrilled if she could get past all the brainwashing and let all Safeholdians know about Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and all the rest. It isn't badly handled; in fact, I rather enjoyed how deftly Weber made his Case For God without ever once having to rely on supernatural intervention as a reason to believe.
If you like Weber, you'll probably like Safehold. If you haven't read Weber, you probably shouldn't bother.
1 For Those Who Like This Sort of Thing, This Is The Sort Of Thing They Like.
January 30, 2021
Final freaking done.
At least this arc.
More of the same really. Not that my opinion matters much but I still feel like this is a great idea that was just dragged out WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too long. For this book, its honestly only the last 100 pages or so that matter.
I desperately want the "next" story in the universe to be a little less.... involved, but I guess I'll find out there.
At least this arc.
More of the same really. Not that my opinion matters much but I still feel like this is a great idea that was just dragged out WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too long. For this book, its honestly only the last 100 pages or so that matter.
I desperately want the "next" story in the universe to be a little less.... involved, but I guess I'll find out there.
May 27, 2024
This is much like the previous books in the series. It almost feels like a kind of conclusion in some ways. A certain aspect of the story wound up too quickly for me.
I'm guessing Book 10 is going to be like a long epilogue. Again, I love the science fictions parts. I really like some of the characters. I felt woefully bored by most of the war chapters.
Oh! After I saved the first part of this review, I just read a few other reviews. It looks like this book was originally thought to be the conclusion of the series. It makes me more interested in Book 10. I hope it has a more satisfying ending.
I'm guessing Book 10 is going to be like a long epilogue. Again, I love the science fictions parts. I really like some of the characters. I felt woefully bored by most of the war chapters.
Oh! After I saved the first part of this review, I just read a few other reviews. It looks like this book was originally thought to be the conclusion of the series. It makes me more interested in Book 10. I hope it has a more satisfying ending.
May 29, 2018
rather quick and soft finish to a very long series. Lots of unanswered questions and loose ends.
April 1, 2019
All in all I was pretty fed up with this. I had some fun with 15 or so Honor books but this series never delivered the same. I realize that the book only closes one major arc and there's still the Gbaba. Still, I declare that I have wasted enough of my time on this.
November 25, 2016
At the Sign of Triumph continues on from the previous book Hell's Foundations Quiver with the armies of Charis poised to finally end the war! :D The books kick off literally straight after the previous book with Merlin's appearance in Earl Thirsk's house and continues straight on from there! :D
As ever Weber move the storyline all over the world of Safehold which means you do have to keep track of where everyone and everything is but this adds to the depth of the story with events taking place on an epic scale! :D The main focus of the storyline is naturally on the ongoing war but at the same time there is focus on the conspiracy being run by Duke Rock, Lady Rebkah Rahskail and co which plays through dealing with the conspiracies that have been abounded in a brilliant way! :D This really goes to show the humour of the book as well with fifty 'invalided' marines all somehow ending up in Lady Karly's land! :D The way the 'siege' is handled has humour laced throughout it has well so this works brilliantly with the gunpowder and explosions going off throughout! :D
The main battles though are brilliantly portrayed both at the strategic and tactical level and as they go on you can't help but feel sympathy for the Charisians opposite numbers as the shoe begins to drop and the light bulb goes off to haw royally (or Empirically! :D ) they have been outflanked! :D This of course sets things up with Rainbow Waters and Silver Moon as they are left in charge of quite a sizeable army and in the political landscape of Safehold this will shake things up in Harchong! :D This is great set up for future books and is rather unexpected as well especially given the the scale of the battle you expect the Harchongese army to be lost so adds a very clever twist to events! :D
The end of the war occurs in the book but in a brilliant but unexpected way that at the same time manages to preserves the mysteries that have abounded throughout the first few books with leave many plot points hanging but as alluded at then end their are more books to come but it does produce a great character moments that will have you cheering out land! :D The scene with Merlin and Nimue arresting Clyntahn and then there subsequent rubbing it in is brillaintly handled and a fitting justice and revenge on a character that truly deserves it! :D The fact the a lot of the 'baddies' actually get their comeuppance will have you cheering away! :D
At the heart of the stories though are the characters and throughout At The Sign of Triumph there are characters moments all over the place and these are often used to put a new light on scenes or to make a break from the non-stop action the birth of Hektor and Irys children and the senior people assigned to nappy changing will have you stitches and really at the same time serves to reinforce to the reader who the good guys really are! :D This is clever and works brillianlty with all the politcs that also surround all the characters giving everything a very three dimensional feel and making the world of Safehold very vivid! :D
The book does suddenly take a dramatic plot change as the book progresses but this has the advantage of letting the book wrap up the war storyline but at the same time preserve all the other elements for future books! :D This allows these future books to build from a solid foundation and a the same time enables Weber to through in surprises that you would never have seen coming! :D
At the Sigh of Triumph is a wild ride full of brillaint action, adventure and mysteries with characters and huge dramatic scenes at it heart! :D At the Sign of Triumph at the same time it sets things up brillaintly for future books and adds many more mysteries and and sets things up for the next leaps they will have to undertakee in order to get back out in space to pay a visit to the Gaba! :D At the Sign of Triumph will certainy make you lose sleep trying to get it read as it really does make it hard to put down! :D Brilliant and highly recommended! :D
As ever Weber move the storyline all over the world of Safehold which means you do have to keep track of where everyone and everything is but this adds to the depth of the story with events taking place on an epic scale! :D The main focus of the storyline is naturally on the ongoing war but at the same time there is focus on the conspiracy being run by Duke Rock, Lady Rebkah Rahskail and co which plays through dealing with the conspiracies that have been abounded in a brilliant way! :D This really goes to show the humour of the book as well with fifty 'invalided' marines all somehow ending up in Lady Karly's land! :D The way the 'siege' is handled has humour laced throughout it has well so this works brilliantly with the gunpowder and explosions going off throughout! :D
The main battles though are brilliantly portrayed both at the strategic and tactical level and as they go on you can't help but feel sympathy for the Charisians opposite numbers as the shoe begins to drop and the light bulb goes off to haw royally (or Empirically! :D ) they have been outflanked! :D This of course sets things up with Rainbow Waters and Silver Moon as they are left in charge of quite a sizeable army and in the political landscape of Safehold this will shake things up in Harchong! :D This is great set up for future books and is rather unexpected as well especially given the the scale of the battle you expect the Harchongese army to be lost so adds a very clever twist to events! :D
The end of the war occurs in the book but in a brilliant but unexpected way that at the same time manages to preserves the mysteries that have abounded throughout the first few books with leave many plot points hanging but as alluded at then end their are more books to come but it does produce a great character moments that will have you cheering out land! :D The scene with Merlin and Nimue arresting Clyntahn and then there subsequent rubbing it in is brillaintly handled and a fitting justice and revenge on a character that truly deserves it! :D The fact the a lot of the 'baddies' actually get their comeuppance will have you cheering away! :D
At the heart of the stories though are the characters and throughout At The Sign of Triumph there are characters moments all over the place and these are often used to put a new light on scenes or to make a break from the non-stop action the birth of Hektor and Irys children and the senior people assigned to nappy changing will have you stitches and really at the same time serves to reinforce to the reader who the good guys really are! :D This is clever and works brillianlty with all the politcs that also surround all the characters giving everything a very three dimensional feel and making the world of Safehold very vivid! :D
The book does suddenly take a dramatic plot change as the book progresses but this has the advantage of letting the book wrap up the war storyline but at the same time preserve all the other elements for future books! :D This allows these future books to build from a solid foundation and a the same time enables Weber to through in surprises that you would never have seen coming! :D
At the Sigh of Triumph is a wild ride full of brillaint action, adventure and mysteries with characters and huge dramatic scenes at it heart! :D At the Sign of Triumph at the same time it sets things up brillaintly for future books and adds many more mysteries and and sets things up for the next leaps they will have to undertakee in order to get back out in space to pay a visit to the Gaba! :D At the Sign of Triumph will certainy make you lose sleep trying to get it read as it really does make it hard to put down! :D Brilliant and highly recommended! :D
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 5, 2017
Meh.
That's my thought. Meh.
Just as a general observation, when the immediate response to finishing a ten-year, multi-million-word, 9 novel-long series is "Meh", that's a bad sign.
The ending was rushed and severely lacked emotional payoff, the book was a massive slog, full of characters that were introduced, had their backgrounds repetitively info-dumped, and then killed off, while the characters that the readers were actively invested in went for hundreds of pages between appearances--and, when we did see them, they spent little time actually doing anything.
Also, plot points continued to get rehashed repeatedly from multiple angles; while not as bad as The Sword From The South, which, at one point, had, IIRC, five characters all review the same plot point ad nauseum and come to the same conclusion through the same logic chain, saying that "it's not as bad as the author's prior story that desperately needed an editor and someone to stand up to the author and go 'Dude, this plot point that you're ham-fistedly foreshadowing is creepy'" is hardly a compliment.
In the entire book, there were very few points of actual dramatic tension of any major significance (the only one that leaps to mind is the capture of one of the Fist of God members); it was mostly watching chessmasters with self-imposed strategic handicaps agonize over the tactical costs of those handicaps in terms of human life and agony, plus a great deal of tech porn and one-off characters that blur together, and a repeated emphasis that neither side in a conflict has a monopoly on virtue... a statement that was only demonstrated for the virtue of courage, but not kindness or decency.
As for the ending... I guess what occurred was thematically appropriate, and foreshadowed by Merlin's treatment of other inquisitors through the course of the series, but it was far too rushed, and lacked emotional bite, emotional payoff, closure, and really any sort of feeling of "Damn, that was good." The main story arc is done, and what follows has been so heavily telegraphed that, while I will admit to curiosity, I'll just read a summary to see how much deviation there actually is from what I predict, based on what was hamhandedly foreshadowed.
At this point, I'm done with Weber's writing; it's bloated with infodumps, repetitive in his story structure and scene composition (as other reviewers have noted, many of the discussions among the military officers could be--and likely have been--templated, simply based on the flow and internal dynamics between them), the prose is so purple that it extends out the bloat, the dramatic tension is just about nil, the emotional payoff is much the same, and his characters are closer to saints, sinners and devils from a Christian Morality Play than they are fully-realized people.
Oh, and a final minor critique; I will admit to being quite pleased that Merlin, being as lonely as he is, got together with Nynian. However, while my immediate thought was "I would have happily seen [x] plotline excised in favor of a summary from Merlin while he and she are engaged in romance"... having seen Weber's other cringeworthy attempts at writing romance, I retract the thought, because, based on past history, there's no way that that wouldn't have been grossly mishandled.
So, yes, 2 stars, and the only reasons it gets that much is because, yes, it was readable, and I save 1 star ratings for stories that I actively detest.
This... was just "meh".
That's my thought. Meh.
Just as a general observation, when the immediate response to finishing a ten-year, multi-million-word, 9 novel-long series is "Meh", that's a bad sign.
The ending was rushed and severely lacked emotional payoff, the book was a massive slog, full of characters that were introduced, had their backgrounds repetitively info-dumped, and then killed off, while the characters that the readers were actively invested in went for hundreds of pages between appearances--and, when we did see them, they spent little time actually doing anything.
Also, plot points continued to get rehashed repeatedly from multiple angles; while not as bad as The Sword From The South, which, at one point, had, IIRC, five characters all review the same plot point ad nauseum and come to the same conclusion through the same logic chain, saying that "it's not as bad as the author's prior story that desperately needed an editor and someone to stand up to the author and go 'Dude, this plot point that you're ham-fistedly foreshadowing is creepy'" is hardly a compliment.
In the entire book, there were very few points of actual dramatic tension of any major significance (the only one that leaps to mind is the capture of one of the Fist of God members); it was mostly watching chessmasters with self-imposed strategic handicaps agonize over the tactical costs of those handicaps in terms of human life and agony, plus a great deal of tech porn and one-off characters that blur together, and a repeated emphasis that neither side in a conflict has a monopoly on virtue... a statement that was only demonstrated for the virtue of courage, but not kindness or decency.
As for the ending... I guess what occurred was thematically appropriate, and foreshadowed by Merlin's treatment of other inquisitors through the course of the series, but it was far too rushed, and lacked emotional bite, emotional payoff, closure, and really any sort of feeling of "Damn, that was good." The main story arc is done, and what follows has been so heavily telegraphed that, while I will admit to curiosity, I'll just read a summary to see how much deviation there actually is from what I predict, based on what was hamhandedly foreshadowed.
At this point, I'm done with Weber's writing; it's bloated with infodumps, repetitive in his story structure and scene composition (as other reviewers have noted, many of the discussions among the military officers could be--and likely have been--templated, simply based on the flow and internal dynamics between them), the prose is so purple that it extends out the bloat, the dramatic tension is just about nil, the emotional payoff is much the same, and his characters are closer to saints, sinners and devils from a Christian Morality Play than they are fully-realized people.
Oh, and a final minor critique; I will admit to being quite pleased that Merlin, being as lonely as he is, got together with Nynian. However, while my immediate thought was "I would have happily seen [x] plotline excised in favor of a summary from Merlin while he and she are engaged in romance"... having seen Weber's other cringeworthy attempts at writing romance, I retract the thought, because, based on past history, there's no way that that wouldn't have been grossly mishandled.
So, yes, 2 stars, and the only reasons it gets that much is because, yes, it was readable, and I save 1 star ratings for stories that I actively detest.
This... was just "meh".
March 15, 2017
This is the 9th book in the Safehold series by David Weber. I am most pleased to say that Mr. Weber did a great job with this book. This series is one of his best, at least as good as his Honor Harrington series, but as with it some of his books tend to be what I call filler. By filler I mean dozens of different characters with small parts with little to no appearances by the main characters. In this one however he got back to the main characters and finished at least the first part of this saga with the war between Charis and the Church of God Awaiting coming to a conclusion. This doesn't mean the series is anywhere near over as he lets one know in an afterword at the conclusion of this book. If you have read the series from the beginning you would pretty much know that even after 9 books the story has a long way to go, so we can look forward to many more adventures form Merlin, Cayleb, Sharleyan and the rest. I will note that whoever proofread this book did a terrible job as it had several misspellings and words in places where they just didn't make since, but I still very much enjoyed this book and am looking forward to the next book in the series. I just hope his next Honor Harrington book is this good as the last one,"Shadow of Victory" was mostly filler and Honor Harrington was only it it briefly in one chapter. I do highly recommend this book and this series however!
January 17, 2017
Aaannnnd... it continues to be boring.
The book is longer than it should be. It spends most of its time describing sea maneuvers, or boring details of life in a trench. The characters list doesn't stop to grow, and I end feeling completely uninterested on their fate. It's almost as if the writer is paid in the number of pages, content is not particular important.
In short, it almost repeats the same recipe applied on the previous books.
I say almost, because all of sudden, the story twists and it is precipitated to a conclusion. Midway through the book it appears that we will have a few more books describing each campaign in detail, and all of a sudden the entire thing collapses and the war ends.
It is a messy thing. Not sure where it will go, but a lot has been left to describe.
What is in the temple?
Will there be a visit from the Archangels?
How to proceed and create a society that can challenge the kebaba?
Nothing is said about this, but at least the story arc may lead us to something interesting... next time.
The book is longer than it should be. It spends most of its time describing sea maneuvers, or boring details of life in a trench. The characters list doesn't stop to grow, and I end feeling completely uninterested on their fate. It's almost as if the writer is paid in the number of pages, content is not particular important.
In short, it almost repeats the same recipe applied on the previous books.
I say almost, because all of sudden, the story twists and it is precipitated to a conclusion. Midway through the book it appears that we will have a few more books describing each campaign in detail, and all of a sudden the entire thing collapses and the war ends.
It is a messy thing. Not sure where it will go, but a lot has been left to describe.
What is in the temple?
Will there be a visit from the Archangels?
How to proceed and create a society that can challenge the kebaba?
Nothing is said about this, but at least the story arc may lead us to something interesting... next time.
January 15, 2017
As a fan of David Weber, this book is much, much better than the Honorverse novel that was published at the same time. Weber wraps up a long saga about Safehold, a planet settled by humans from Earth when they were in danger of extinction by an alien race. In this book the once small kingdom of Charis is now a world power and slowly pushing The Church of God and it's hordes of people and treasure into losing a long long war. Of course Charis is benefited by technology that has been revealed to it by Merlin, an avatar of one of the original settlers. To be truthful I was surprised that Weber actually concluded the series since he doesn't often do that but it was a good wrap up. Plus of course he promises a new story set in the same universe. I guess it would be too much to hope for some editorial input tightening up his inability to write more concise novels.
December 2, 2016
Hate the name spelling
I would have given a 3 1/2 star rating if I knew how. Weber, as he frequently does, has written a very entertaining chapter to this saga. The only problem is the peculiar thing he's done to common human names in the distorted spelling of familiar names. They were like speed bumps in the otherwise smooth flow of the story. Very irritating. Had it been a lesser author than David Weber, I wouldn't have read beyond the first book.
This bizarre spelling and the annoyance it generates while trying to read is why the book didn't get a 5 star rating
I would have given a 3 1/2 star rating if I knew how. Weber, as he frequently does, has written a very entertaining chapter to this saga. The only problem is the peculiar thing he's done to common human names in the distorted spelling of familiar names. They were like speed bumps in the otherwise smooth flow of the story. Very irritating. Had it been a lesser author than David Weber, I wouldn't have read beyond the first book.
This bizarre spelling and the annoyance it generates while trying to read is why the book didn't get a 5 star rating
December 23, 2017
Whew! My third 1000-page book in the last two months. Lots of battles, both at land and sea, as the world war that has engulfed Safehold comes to a close. I think I most enjoyed the spy plotlines--probably because Merlin could take an active part in it.
Quibble: A couple of dropped stitches in such a sprawling book. For instance: did a certain Dohlaran general die or was he still enroute to Zion??
Quibble: A couple of dropped stitches in such a sprawling book. For instance: did a certain Dohlaran general die or was he still enroute to Zion??
January 4, 2017
I think the author did a good job, in this book, of balancing the action with the explanations. He threw in a bit of a surprise twist, but it's good. I also think that, despite stories I have heard about this being the last "Safehold" book, there's pretty much got to be at least one or two more.
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