Daniel Shellenbarger

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Daniel is Currently Reading

Daniel Shellenbarger is currently reading

Off Armageddon Reef (Safehold, #1)

by David Weber

bookshelves: science-fiction, post-apocalyptic, space-opera, stranded-in-time-and-or-space, techno-thriller, maritime-naval-fiction, military-sf, dystopian, far-future, currently-reading

Reading for the 4th time

read in March 2021

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Daniel Shellenbarger said: " I've read a good amount of David Weber before and mostly I've really enjoyed his stuff, though he's never really been among my favorites (though I will qualify that he's written some of my favorites, particularly On Basilisk Station, which is still m I've read a good amount of David Weber before and mostly I've really enjoyed his stuff, though he's never really been among my favorites (though I will qualify that he's written some of my favorites, particularly On Basilisk Station, which is still my gold standard for a space navy novel), and he's written a TON of stuff, so considering the lackluster reception "Off Armageddon Reef" received at the time of its release, I never really felt any need to pick it up. However, I was looking for a down-time read among my library's ebooks and none of the things on my wishlist were really jumping out at me, but since I've been going heavy into fantasy this year, I felt the urge for something sci-fi, and whaddyaknow "Off Armageddon Reef" showed up, and I shrugged and said, "Sure, why not?"

Anyway, on the story front, Off Armageddon Reef is about the... well, for lack of a better word cybernetic ghost of Nimue Alban (I'm honestly not a big fan of the Arthurian name thing, but...) a human naval officer from the 24th century who was killed while participating in a plan to escape from the looming destruction of Earth by a relentless alien threat. The aliens, the Gbada, had already exterminated all of Earth's colonies, and Earth was doomed, but thanks to the sacrifice of a decoy fleet, including the original Nimue Alban, a single fleet was able to evade the Gbada and make a clean getaway. This final remnant fled far into an unknown reach of the galaxy and eventually discovered the planet which would become known as Safehold. Once the humans were sure they had escaped pursuit, they colonized the world, while minimizing RF emissions to prevent the Gbada from noticing their presence, and it was clear to all the colonists that they would have to accept the loss of much advanced technology for some time until they had the infrastructure to build the forces necessary to challenge or defeat the Gbada. However, some of the leaders of the colony felt that this wasn't good enough, and rather than building on the past, they felt that humanity's only hope for survival was to hide from the Gbada forever. To achieve this, the colony's leader, Langhorne, had his people erase most of the colonists' memories while they were in stasis and when they awoke he and his cadre presented themselves to the colonists as angels, and created a feudal-religious society designed to crush innovation and any technological development that might alert the Gbada. Those who wouldn't support Langhorne's scheme, who wished to maintain records of the past and a hope of defeating the Gbada one day, were slaughtered in a treacherous orbital strike against their settlement, though Langhorne and most of his associates were killed in shortly thereafter by remnants of the opposition who had hidden within his organization. Thereafter, the Church that Langhorne built maintained a vise-like grip on Safehold and for hundreds of years, Langhorne's plan seemed to be unstoppable. However, Langhorne's enemies had one last trump card. Unknown to Langhorne, before her death, Nimue Alban had downloaded a copy of her consciousness into a cybernetic body, which her friends hid deep in a bunker under the mountains of Safehold, and there she slept for centuries. Nimue has woken to a nightmare, and confronted by Langhorne's twisted vision of humanity, she decides to bring it all down. Taking the identity of Merlin Athewes, Nimue enters the service of the island Kingdom of Charis, a mercantile kingdom whose strength is built on its naval and industrial advantages and its egalitarian society, advantages that have made many in the Church nervous, so nervous that they decide to stamp it out as a potential threat to their rule, throwing their support behind Charis's jealous neighbors who envy its wealth. However, thanks to Merlin's knowledge and a handful of nifty tools, Charis is not going to fall so easily, and Safehold will never be the same afterwards.

Let me start off by saying that a lot of the criticism levelled at this novel is fair, it's a bit overstuffed with jargon and needlessly extended dialogue-heavy scenes, and a lot of the secondary characters blend together (particularly among the villains). That said, I really enjoyed it. Notably, the book touches on two areas that I like quite a lot: books about using superior technology and tactics to overcome a really big strategic disadvantage (see Ring of Fire, Destroyermen, Lost Regiment...) and books about naval warfare (Horatio Hornblower, Aubrey-Maturin...), so this is pretty much my jam. I'm not going to claim that the writing is amazing or that the story blew my mind, but it was a very cozy sort of read for me, the kind of thing that is easy to escape into and just enjoy for a while. ...more "

progress:

(33%)
— 12 hours, 1 min ago

Dec 04, 2024 03:16PM · see review

Daniel Shellenbarger is currently reading

The Trench (Meg, #2)

by Steve Alten

bookshelves: currently-reading

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progress:

(10%)
— Jan 06, 2026 10:38AM

Jan 06, 2026 10:38AM

Daniel Shellenbarger is currently reading

Crime Rangoon (Noodle Shop Mystery #12)

by Vivien Chien (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

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progress:

(page 95 of 320)
"Sadly, I think that's as far as I'll get for now as the copy I've been reading is heading to Bangkok with my sister tomorrow, but I'll get back to it as soon as my library reserve comes in in a few weeks" — Jan 06, 2026 05:00PM

Jan 03, 2026 01:45PM

See all 6 books that Daniel is reading…