A Mighty Fortress: Safehold Series, Book 4

First off, I'm a HUGE David Weber fan, and over the years, I've been a terrible and unashamed Honor Harrington Junkie, but I didn't find David Weber thru HH universe, but instead I came to find his work thru the universe of Starfire series and Dahak series, and one book that really sparked this series, Heirs of Empire (Which, if it wasn't the same author, would be plagiarism). That particular book was really a condense plot line of this current series, and I'll not belabor you'll with it, since you look it up for yourself, or maybe even read it. So, I've read A LOT of his stuff over the years, and imho, A Mighty Fortress is the best book of this series since Off Armageddon Reef, which introduced us to this universe.Spoilers Below!Cons:- I'll start with the negatives, but given the comments and reviews I've read so far, many have pointed out the same things. First off, the characters are getting too flat and predictable, as they did for a while in Honor Harrington. This series is slated for twelve books, so I'm REALLY hoping it's not going to all be in this timeframe. The Tor website says 4 of 10 books, but I'm really hoping it's not more of what we received in the past 3 books, since as many pointed out; this book had TOO many "Robert Jordan-like" embellishments. When I saw the original page count, I was really excited, since I thought A LOT of time and material would be cover in this book, so covering just over a year was a head scratcher.- The titanic battle at the end of the book is getting to be very stale, since it leaves you with a unnecessary cliff hanger for the next book, and it's really getting to be a cheesy way to keep the story going. Four book into the series, I don't think we really need a huge anymore convincing to read more books, and it's not like you can pick up this book to start the series. The next book is probably not due for another 12 months...so why keep us in suspense for that long? Imho, and I'm no writer, it would have been much better to have had this battle around pages 300 to 400, and conclude the story and leave us with a fresh start for the next book...this is the third book in a row to do this to the readers.- Repetitive texts were prevalent in the book, and a good editor should have caught some of these, since once again...this is the fourth book of the series...we don't need to reminded in detail of what happened in previous books...sorry, but if a reader can't remember, they perhaps need to go back and re-read the previous books.Pros:- A Mighty Fortress really seems to have pushed the story along much further than the previous 2 books. Basically, Corisande and Zedebiah plot line have concluded for the most part, even though they still have unnecessary lose ends...in the form of Irys and Daiyvn. They have also effectively concluded the huge looming naval attack from the combined forces of Mother Church.- One of the best parts of Weber's writing is his very detailed knowledge of Military structure in its minutia. Something like the establishment of the chief of Staff position, and the importance of a flag officer's staff...so many writers don't know how it, and this really makes Weber's writing so fun to read....it makes sense! No other Sci-Fi writer gets the whole breath of military strategy and execution, like he does.- Nice tie-ins to the introduction of future technical improvements, as ships are going to enter the ironclad age of ships, and the modern combat arms of land warfare. Since the Proscriptions of Jwo-Jing limit technology to those powered by wind, water, or muscle, steam power would clear be okay. Not only that, but they should be able to jump ahead to airships as well. Seems that it would serve be a great answer to naval groups commander have recon eyes in the skies...current ballistics don't have the range to effectively shoot down airships.So, over all, I was happy to read this book, and I pretty much was glued to it over 3 1/2 days, but it just left me wanting more plot, and less descriptions of everything. At the current rate, this is turning into another WoT series and 2010 makes it 18 years since I read The Eye of the World for the first time, and there are STILL TWO books to go!

As a reader who has eagerly followed the Safehold series, I pre-ordered "A Mighty Fortress" in early April. When the book arrived, I proceeded to sit down and tear through the 690 (story only) pages of alternative transplanted religious history in three evenings.(One quick note: I do enjoy most of Weber picturesque descriptive passages, but the ever-expanding page counts on his books have me trembling about the next Honor Harrington tome. I'm guessing each book will have to be delivered in its own moving van.)At any rate, Weber continues the story of humanity's last colony, composed of the descendents of the brainwashed "Adams" and "Eves" who were planted on Safehold to escape the genocidal Gbaba. Plus one cybernetic avatar of a Terran Navy officer, who is attempting to get the last humans back on a path toward the stars and a rematch with the alien world-killers.Some reviewers have complained about the endless conferences and meetings that Weber describes in detail as a weakness in the writing, and I have to admit it did frequently slow down the storyline. It was, however, fun to see what the one group of characters were thinking about the chess moves being played out on the other side of the political situation.I also like that he did not simply have Merlin solve every problem the Charisian Empire ran into over the course of the plot. One physical being simply could not do that, and we get to see the consequences of his being unable to do so in this book with the gruesome death of a character.The descriptions of the naval combat and the various nations' preparation for the same were entertaining to me; but I always like a little background with my blood and thunder. Weber did seem to cut the endgame of the three significant naval engagments short. Apparently, this was to give the characters in the subsequent scenes some meaningful exposition to impart to the reader, but I for one would rather have had a first-person narrative.One problem is that Weber is recreating the Protestant reformation as something it most definately was NOT: a struggle of basically peaceful religious reformers, forced to fight courageously against a completely corrupt church hierarchy. Now, it's his world; he can do what he wants with it, but the political struggles in the actual history were a lot more complex and messy than the simple morality tale Weber is presenting here.I wish he would spend a little time showing us some of the Temple Loyalists as more than a few pages worth of exposition of essentially unthinking religious zealots, crass political calculators or the occasional duped well-meaning spear-carrier. It is only a few pages of these, of course, because they are always quickly and justly arrested and executed or, if they are lucky, given a clean(?) death in combat.What I am also getting a little tired of in this series is the almost absurdly "Good" main characters with whom Weber is completely and blindly in love. Caleb, Sharleyn, Mikel Stainair and a half-dozen or so other members of his usual "Band of Brothers (and Sisters)" who may do some ruthless things, but they are always doing them because the consequences of NOT doing them are so obviously terrible for so many other innocent people.The only human failings these people (like Saint Honor of Manticore) are shown to experience are their guilt feelings over not being able to save everyone depending on them in the middle of a FRIGGIN' MAJOR WAR(!) and their righteous anger at the evil tactics of their dastardly foes. Conversely, Weber allows these people to, incidently of course, be shown indulging in the same lavish lifestyles as the villians, but always inserts a line or two about their charitable actions and feelings toward the less fortunate, to distinquish themselves from the greedy, unthinking villians. A little of that kind of self-justification goes a long way with me; I don't need it repeated every few chapters by dozens of protagonists, great and small. Just let them eat well, sleep well and sit in a damn comfortable chair without giving the reader a mental trip to the confessional every once in a while!I'm going to keep reading this series since I really like the premise, the battle scenes and the occasional bursts of humor that shine through, I just hope for a little faith from Weber that we would still like his favored characters even if on rare occasions, they did something selfish or ethically questionable.

There are a great many things wrong with this book, starting with the cover art: it has a flying saucer zapping a sailing ship with a death ray, something that - thankfully - doesn't happen in the book. Then there's the length: over a thousand pages, making it thicker and heavier than my copy of the bible, although admittedly the typeface is larger. And it is at least a better story than the bible, making use of such advanced techniques as causes preceding effects, characters having believable motivations etc. Trouble is, it's still not that good. Much of that length is taken up by lengthy internal monologues which serve to set the scene but which digress to such an extent that, when they occur in the middle of a conversation (as they almost invariably do) it's hard to keep track and is terribly jarring when a character finally decides to say something. And there's nothing exciting and new at all when compared to the earlier books in the series. It's merely a small development of themes that we're already very familiar with from the first three volumes. Add to that a cast of so many characters that the appendix listing them all covers 32 pages, and that they all have idiotic names which are based on normal names but with all the vowels hideously butchered, and it's too easy to lose track of what's going on.I quite enjoyed reading it, but it's dreadfully flawed.

I'm a big fan of David Weber. And I'm a big fan of the Safehold series. But this book...I understand we're dealing with rebuilding a world and a society. I understand that a good story has a proper flow and lengh, and has to be properly told. But this book is simply too *slow*! There's simply too much going on, too many secondary characters poping up (we have a 37 page index of names, for Langhorne's sake!), too many locations, too many descriptions. The story grinds down for the sake of too many useless details. A certain tutor's journey to Zion, for example, could have been dealt with in just a few pages, rather than entire chapters. It's what happens in Zion that matters, not all the ity-bity stuff on the way (a full description of a hotel? Really?...).I like where the book leads us in the end, but getting there almost becomes a chore, rather than a pleasure. I think that, even without loosing charaters, some editing of descriptions and journeys would have chopped 10-15% off the book... and nothing of the story would be lost.Mr Weber, please: I can tell that you really loved to write all that but, for the sake of your fans (and of the story) cut down a bit on the extras.

The author obviously loves sailing and the world of galleons and there's a lot of affection in the writing - and, I suspect, a great deal of accuracy. He also communicates a clear Christian commitment - which makes it all the more strange that he has chosen as his combatants the leaders of a corrupt "church". (I guess he would argue that one theme of the books is the difference between faith and religion.)The series is somewhat protracted and could have done with some heavy editing (hence the loss of stars). There were also one or two places where I found it difficult to accept the basic premises behind the books. Some of the dialogue was also a bit twee and I found myself wincing at attempts to express affection or humour.Nevertheless, if you want a good swash-buckling read without too much effort, then these fit the bill.

Of the Safehold series books so far, this has more long and convoluted text describing thoughts, politics, etc. These bits are soporific to read. The overall plot of the Safehold series does progress in this book (slowly), but in the main I finished it for the continuity in the series as a whole. I hope the following books are more entertaining reads.

I'm a big fan of David Weber's work and this isn't up to his usual standard. It's far longer than necessary and it's not until half way through the two-inch thick book that things start to get interesting. The ending is also anticlimactic given how long the run-up to it is.I bought the earlier books of this series in hardback but having been disappointed by the second and third books waited for the paperback for this one. Glad I did and will do the same for the next one - not worth the extra money for the hardback and I'm not gripped by the series enough to want the next one quickly.