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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
I wish I liked this book more than I do. There's a lot going for it particularly in imagination and scope, plus it's hard to outright hate it as a science-fictionized excuse for a low fantasy story complete with swashbuckling, heroic swordsmen, and dragons. But the pacing is atrocious (the prologue alone eats up nearly 100 pages), sections of the story drag on for chapters that could have been explained in a line, and the important characters spend more time discussing military strategy than developing their arcs. There was ultimately enough action to get me through to the end but I found myself skimming whenever I came to Nahrman or Hektor sections which was far too frequently.
Bottom line: worth a read but I won't continue on with this series.
Bottom line: worth a read but I won't continue on with this series.
I have mixed feelings about this novel. The naval war detail is fascinating--not as good as Patrick O'Brien or C.S. Forester--but still well done. The science fiction framing story seems undeveloped--no doubt being saved for later novels in the series. Also, in my view, Weber could easily lose 10 characters and 200 pages without doing the book significant damage.
It was soooo good at the beginning. And then the last 1/3 became a giant naval battle in which Weber constantly describes things like top gallants and reefed sails. I get it. He likes sailing. And naval fiction. And historically accurate battles. And gruesome depictions of cannonballs. The characters were interesting (if a bit engaging) and the world building was neat (if a bit heavy on the, as my friend called it, "spiritual but not religious" soapbox. Over and over and over again...) but the last third or so really wore me out. Don't get me wrong, Weber writes very well and I enjoyed reading the book. I'd also be interested to see where the story goes but not if I have to read endless chapters about lee shores and mizzen masts. An interesting concept that sort of disappeared as a thin excuse for writing sci-fi naval fiction.
The first book of one of my all-time favourite series.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I wasn't a huge fan. I swear, I'm going to coin a new acronym LOMTIR (lots of men talking in rooms) and it's just going to be my review for future books that fit this description: very little action, just people (specifically men) talking about the action or political intrigue or whatever. I thought the idea behind this book could have been great. We would get to see how society develops when humans start off with a blank slate but still literate and civilized- and then we get to see how extremely rapid technology developments would impact that world. But society ended up developing in almost exactly the same way and the scale of the developments was too small. The scale probably gets bigger in the rest of the books of the series, but I'm not inclined to find out.
The premise of this story is pretty cool; there's just something a little off about the execution that I can't quite put my finger on. Really a 3.5/5 rating.
Off Armageddon Reef has a fascinating premise. From an outside perspective, the story is science fiction. It takes place centuries in the future after humanity has nearly been wiped out by an advanced alien threat. To preserve what's left, a human colony is set up at a much lower tech level (roughly 15th century?) and left to its own devices. A global religion reminiscent of the Catholic Church is set up to encourage control and keep this colony from advancing too far. Unbeknownst to some, an android¹--who goes by Merlin²--was also left with the colony and wakes up hundreds of years later and takes it in their mind to overthrow the aforementioned Church.
Sounds really cool, yes?
Unfortunately, after the prologue (which is set before the colony--Safehold--is set up), the book doesn't actually feel much like science fiction or even fantasy. Rather it feels like an alternate history set in the early Age of Sail. Some of the things Merlin does hint at the underlying SciFi roots, but other than that, it's a completely different sort of book. If you want to read that sort of book, perhaps you'll like this one. Not what I was looking for though.
On top of that, the middle half of the book is very slow. Honestly, you could probably cut 80% of it and have what could have been a much stronger book. The prologue and the battles in the last 25% are intense. The rest... takes a while.
Overall, cool idea; not the best book I've ever read. So it goes.
¹ It's more complicated than that, but that's good enough for a review.
² Not even kidding. And Merlin's original mind comes from Nimune. King Authur much?
Sounds really cool, yes?
Unfortunately, after the prologue (which is set before the colony--Safehold--is set up), the book doesn't actually feel much like science fiction or even fantasy. Rather it feels like an alternate history set in the early Age of Sail. Some of the things Merlin does hint at the underlying SciFi roots, but other than that, it's a completely different sort of book. If you want to read that sort of book, perhaps you'll like this one. Not what I was looking for though.
On top of that, the middle half of the book is very slow. Honestly, you could probably cut 80% of it and have what could have been a much stronger book. The prologue and the battles in the last 25% are intense. The rest... takes a while.
Overall, cool idea; not the best book I've ever read. So it goes.
¹ It's more complicated than that, but that's good enough for a review.
² Not even kidding. And Merlin's original mind comes from Nimune. King Authur much?
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I liked the premise, but I was a little disappointed to find that there were all of one and a half female characters. And the half is really a female personality in a robot pretending to be a dude.
Another complaint: the book would have been a fair bit shorter if everyone's names were spelled without Hs.
Those things aside, however, the plot was pretty engaging and the cast of characters pretty realistic.
I'll probably read the next one, just to see what happens. And if there are ladies.
[But where was all the Arthurian naming stuff going??]
Another complaint: the book would have been a fair bit shorter if everyone's names were spelled without Hs.
Those things aside, however, the plot was pretty engaging and the cast of characters pretty realistic.
I'll probably read the next one, just to see what happens. And if there are ladies.
[But where was all the Arthurian naming stuff going??]