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This second book is worthy of the story started in the first book of the series, Off Armageddon Reef. The twist and turns laid out in the plot keep us turning the page with expectation. Well written and a fun read. This is the second book on the story of Merlin, King Cayleb and the adventures on Safehold. Weber continues to surprise the reader with his depth of the characters.
In this second book Weber seems not sure what to do with the second book in a trilogy, other than to prepare for book three. I found myself skipping pages frequently.
I hope the trilogy wraps up better than this. It's not that I need action all the time, but the characters we have to listen to interminably here aren't that interesting, and there are no new ideas to compare with book one.
The first book in this series was a good read. Then there are a few minor naval actions, and that's it.
not sure I'll want to find out. It had an interesting premise and plenty of action.
Roughly the first half of this book is dedicated to tediously exploring the geo-political implications of Charis' victory in book one from the point of view of every political leader involved.
This new series is great fiction, and a renewal of Weber's best talent with a new storyverse. : ) If you like Bujold, Flint, Ringo, Drake and Stirling, at thier best, this series is some of Weber's best and is strong through all the three books so far. Mankind is hiding from aliens who have eliminated all but this last secret colony of humanity. The megalomaniacal twist is countered by a hero bent on freeing the minds and history of the colony, empowering them with the truth, trusting them to keep themselves hidden. I hope he can keep this one going well for the whole series. I cannot put the books down. His Honorverse spinoffs are interesting but do not have the depth of story or character as his originals.
This is even better than the Hell's Gate series. Ringo came back with the Council Wars series (Emerald Sea, There Will be Dragons, Against the Tide,) which were great, but he petered out in the final few (finish the series, please).), this new series by Weber is all his best efforts and ability.
This series is wonderful with characters you can love and hate, great action descriptions, complex plot, deep issues you can wrestle with or just enjoy the characters's wrestling--it is just great fun writing. (Like when Ringo petered out on the Posleen series where Hymn Before Battle and Gust Front were great but starting with book 5 the alternate series continuation pale in comparrison.
Re-writing history and even colonist memories, the leadership has set up a religion where they are worshipped as Archangels and that religion is set to keep technology from developting to the point of sending signals or emissions the aliens will track to eliminate the last vestiges of human life. Yea.
Off Armageddon Reef, By Schism Rent Assunder and by Heresies Distressed are all good and continue very well. Plunged into age-of-sail and pikes, society has a long way to go before risking discovery, but they are on the road to self-detrmination and casting off the chains of a manipulated false religion.
All of David Weber's books are good, but his Honorverse other character books have been becoming rushed and paler than the orginal eight or so in the series.
I have no problems skimming those pages, you shouldn't either.The exposition of how the colony was created was straightforward and the book seemed like a simple starting point. I was at the library and saw all the Weber books. However, they didn't have the first one, so I looked for a book that seemed to be standalone. The naming conventions take away from the flow of reading, as do the in depth tangents.
It wasn't even good as a cliff-hanger. It was truly annoying.Weber has a nice writing style when he sticks to the plot, which is the only thing saving this book and giving it three stars. The ending was so poor as to be laughable. Starting the series with this book skips that but gives you the context.However, as with too many modern authors, Weber doesn't seem to realize that series books should be a tad more self-contained.
It was a simple story with a good writing style -- except for the idiotic naming conventions. From what I've read about the first, skip it; the book's not only not needed it's truly dumb in how the Gbaba war was fought. Thinking of trying a new author, I saw the Honor series. It wasn't until I came on to Amazon to look for the sequel that I realized it wasn't the first book.
He goes off into wandering of way too detailed depictions of science, technology and politics that ruin the flow of the story. I picked up By Schism Rent Asunder. That only names are treated that way makes it even more annoying.The biggest problem is that, in writing as if it's the beginning of the industrial revolution, he picks up a 19th Century writing style.
Some parts of the story was dragged out a little too long and like everyone else felt that you could of gone with out the whole wedding theme. Quality was just as good as the first however the story line had me wanting to do something else a few times.
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