A Mighty Fortress: A Novel in the Safehold Series (#4)

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I'm not sure whether to call this the fourth novel in the Safehold series, or the fourth installment of one huge novel-in-progress. But however it should be classified, this is a most enjoyable book.For those who came in late, the Safehold series started with the destruction of the vast majority of the human species, as the more technologically advanced, implacably hostile aliens humanity dubbed '"the G'Baba' destroyed every human-inhabited world they could find. By a tremendous effort, humanity managed to found and conceal one last colony from the G'Baba, a deliberately low-tech planet whose existence the aliens wouldn't suspect.But something went wrong. Some of the colonies leaders managed to set themselves up as Archangels, and create a world-ruling church, a church dedicated to technological stagnation and grinding exploitation of the majority. A colony that was supposed to remember that humans once roamed the stars, and would go back to them some day, becomes a world of superstition and injustice. To copper the bet, a kinetic bombardment system exists in space, ready to destroy anyplace on "Safehold" that shows signs of technological progress.Almost eight and a half centuries later, 'Nimue Alban' woke up on Safehold, or rather, her 'PICA' woke (PICA: Personality Integrated Cybernetic Avatar, a human-like android with more than human physical attributes; also, an example of a typical horrendous Weber pun). Her job was to break the hold of The Church of God Awaiting.In the first three books of the series, the woman 'Nimue Alben' became the man 'Merlin Athrawes', a legendary warrior and reputed 'seijin' who became bodyguard to the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Charis. Charis was slated for destruction by those who ruled the Church, who suspected the Kingdom of heresy. With Merlin's help, they have survived, and become an Empire with its own, schismatic, Church. But the war continues.The themes of this volume are consolidation and secret resistance. In the League of Corisande, a conquered province of the Charisian Empire, various 'Temple Loyalists' maneuver to strike at the 'heretics' of the Church of Charis and the Charisian Empire, while the Charisians try to root them out and prepare for the next round of battles with the Church and those who rule her. In Zion, Inquisitor General Zhaspahr Clyntahn seeks to stamp out all resistance to 'the Church,' or more accurately, to Zhaspahr Clyntahn and his colleagues in the 'Group of Four' who run the institution, while a minority of Churchmen attempt to reform the institution from within. Meanwhile, the Church prepares for the next round of war with Charis. And both sides are getting better at killing the opposition.It's in the nature of this series that the books can't be self-contained, anymore than episodes of a soap opera can be self-contained. If that bugs you, skip this series until its finished. Otherwise, I think you'll find this is the best volume in the series since the first, as the escalation of the war forces more and more people to choose sides, and the actions of 'Mother Church' reveals its totalitarian core.Recommended.

What was it about the first 1800-odd pages of the Safehold Series that made so many people think it would be over by book 4? I am not saying you have to prefer a 10 course taster menu to a big-mac and fries, just, if you start reading something with 'Series' on the cover expect 5-10 books at the minimum. After all, people tend to chuck trilogy on the cover if they can kill everyone bad and save the hero in under 1500 pages. This is an exciting, perfectly competent progression of an excellent series concept, that overall deserves a lot more than the paltry 2.4* rating it is currently averaging for its 4th instalment. The 5th book is even better and I have the 6th on pre-order. Yes this edition is a bit naval term heavy but the tech is winding up and the next book reveals the big twist (I wont spoil it) that will bring the Empire head to head with the Group of Four in book 6 [or 7 ;-)]. After that there is room for at least 2-3 more technological and societally developmental books before, I suspect, the key protagonists' sensors will start to pick up signals that the Gbaba are on the way. 10-12 book series is my guess, and if it keeps it up, worth every page.

Nach den ersten Teilen der Safhold-Reihe habe ich gespannt auf diesen Teil gewartet. Die Aufgabe für den Autor war ja auch entsprechend schwer, immerhin konnte er schlecht auf den "fast forward"-Knopf drücken, um Safehold in die Moderne zu ziehen und beim bisherigen Handlungstempo würde Weber ungefähr 20 Bände benötigen, um mit Safehold in der Neuzeit anzukommen. Was mich bei diesem Band endgültig angefangen hat zu nerven ist Weber's Idee, gängige englische Namen in der Schreibweise so zu ändern, dass die Vokale durch y's, i's, j's etc. vertauscht wurden. Das hemmt den Lesefluss und ist irgendwann nur noch nervig.Die Kurzfassung der Handlung ist: Es passiert eigentlich nix. Das Thema der Festigung der Macht auf der neu eroberten Insel schleicht so voran, auch die Anbindung von Tarot, bei der Merlin sich selbst zu einem weitern Sejin umformt. Es gibt einige ziemlich unmotivierte Seeschlachten - und das wars eigentlich schon. Leider wird die Lektüre dieses Bandes für den Leser zum Verständnis der Folgebänder nicht vermeidbar sein, ich hoffe nur, der nächste Band wird wieder besser.Fazit: Für den Serienliebhaber unvermeidlich, aber in weiten Teilen kein Lesevergnügen.

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!