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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
The last 100 pages were unbelievable. Book was a bit long, though.
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http://abitterdraft.com/2013/10/off-armageddon-reef-by-david-weber.html
Picture this: an incredibly powerful race of aliens known as the Gdaba halted the human exploration in space and all but wiped humanity out. The remainder of the human fleet splits up – one half cloaks and stops moving, the other continues flying to draw the Gdaba away. The half of the fleet that cloaked and escaped colonized an Earth-like planet called Safehold.
Here’s the catch – the Gdaba can detect any technology of the industrial level or higher. Humanity is forced to revert to a medieval society, where Safeholdians know nothing of their space-faring past and all believe in one religion run by a very strict church. Nimue Alban’s mind awakes in the body of an android and she is given the task of helping Safehold break away from its medieval prison, despite the teachings of the oppressive church, and eventually take on the Gdaba. Since Safehold is a medieval society, Nimue’s android body is made male, and she takes on the pseudonym Merlin Athrawes. Merlin ventures to the Kingdom of Charis, an island much like Old Earth’s England, to kickstart this scientific revolution.
I’ve never read Weber’s Honor Harrington series, but I’ve heard nothing but praise for the man’s talent. The premise for Safehold seemed awesome, and with Weber’s credentials I couldn’t imagine being disappointed.
I noticed a few things right off the bat that I found questionable, the first being the unconventional names. I’m all for having fantasy-like names such as Tisamon or Bayaz as opposed to modern names like Jim or Tom. Weber decided utilize the fact that humanity had to restart in picking names, so we’re left with ones like Haarahld instead of Harold and Bynzhamin rather than Benjamin. The idea makes sense and it’s kind of cool when you think of how names evolved, but on paper and with a cast as large as Safehold‘s, it’s a bit of a struggle to remember them (though this is a nonfactor with the audiobook). They’re definitely something you get used to the more you read, and you have plenty of time to get used to them with 800 pages in the paperback, which leads me to my next point.
The Honor Harrington books were rather average in length, floating between 350 and 450 pages for the most part. Safehold books are more or less all upwards of 700 with some even pushing close to 1,000 pages. In most reviews of the series you’ll find that people comment on Weber’s infodumps. While trudging through Off Armageddon Reef‘s 800 pages, the infodumps are readily apparent, and they really mess with the pacing. Occasional bits of information are nice, especially where background is needed. It seemed like Weber was almost flaunting, though flaunting is too harsh a word, his being a font of knowledge, for dozens and dozens of pages at a time. The book could have been slimmed by several hundreds of pages and been truly outstanding.
I bet an eyebrow or two were raised at the mention of Nimue taking the form of a man to make acquiring a position of influence easier, especially with Weber’s ability to write strong female characters. While Merlin is a man, Nimue’s female mind is definitely still inside the android. She doesn’t just magically lose her attraction to men, which leads to some hilariously awkward situations. Like I said, the cast of characters is huge, full of bastards like Prince Nahrmahn of Emerald and people you ‘t help but love like King Haarahld and Prince Cayleb of Charis.
Weber’s infodumps are sometimes very useful and necessary, but often extremely slow the pace of the tome that is Off Armageddon Reef. The final 150 or so pages made everything worthwhile, though, as they include some of the most outstanding depictions of naval combat I have ever read. Off Armageddon Reef, while overlong, was definitely worth the read, and while I’d like nothing more than to avoid getting caught up in a series that may very well exceed ten books of over 800 pages each, I will definitely be attempting to catch up.
-------------------------------
http://abitterdraft.com/2013/10/off-armageddon-reef-by-david-weber.html
Picture this: an incredibly powerful race of aliens known as the Gdaba halted the human exploration in space and all but wiped humanity out. The remainder of the human fleet splits up – one half cloaks and stops moving, the other continues flying to draw the Gdaba away. The half of the fleet that cloaked and escaped colonized an Earth-like planet called Safehold.
Here’s the catch – the Gdaba can detect any technology of the industrial level or higher. Humanity is forced to revert to a medieval society, where Safeholdians know nothing of their space-faring past and all believe in one religion run by a very strict church. Nimue Alban’s mind awakes in the body of an android and she is given the task of helping Safehold break away from its medieval prison, despite the teachings of the oppressive church, and eventually take on the Gdaba. Since Safehold is a medieval society, Nimue’s android body is made male, and she takes on the pseudonym Merlin Athrawes. Merlin ventures to the Kingdom of Charis, an island much like Old Earth’s England, to kickstart this scientific revolution.
I’ve never read Weber’s Honor Harrington series, but I’ve heard nothing but praise for the man’s talent. The premise for Safehold seemed awesome, and with Weber’s credentials I couldn’t imagine being disappointed.
I noticed a few things right off the bat that I found questionable, the first being the unconventional names. I’m all for having fantasy-like names such as Tisamon or Bayaz as opposed to modern names like Jim or Tom. Weber decided utilize the fact that humanity had to restart in picking names, so we’re left with ones like Haarahld instead of Harold and Bynzhamin rather than Benjamin. The idea makes sense and it’s kind of cool when you think of how names evolved, but on paper and with a cast as large as Safehold‘s, it’s a bit of a struggle to remember them (though this is a nonfactor with the audiobook). They’re definitely something you get used to the more you read, and you have plenty of time to get used to them with 800 pages in the paperback, which leads me to my next point.
The Honor Harrington books were rather average in length, floating between 350 and 450 pages for the most part. Safehold books are more or less all upwards of 700 with some even pushing close to 1,000 pages. In most reviews of the series you’ll find that people comment on Weber’s infodumps. While trudging through Off Armageddon Reef‘s 800 pages, the infodumps are readily apparent, and they really mess with the pacing. Occasional bits of information are nice, especially where background is needed. It seemed like Weber was almost flaunting, though flaunting is too harsh a word, his being a font of knowledge, for dozens and dozens of pages at a time. The book could have been slimmed by several hundreds of pages and been truly outstanding.
I bet an eyebrow or two were raised at the mention of Nimue taking the form of a man to make acquiring a position of influence easier, especially with Weber’s ability to write strong female characters. While Merlin is a man, Nimue’s female mind is definitely still inside the android. She doesn’t just magically lose her attraction to men, which leads to some hilariously awkward situations. Like I said, the cast of characters is huge, full of bastards like Prince Nahrmahn of Emerald and people you ‘t help but love like King Haarahld and Prince Cayleb of Charis.
Weber’s infodumps are sometimes very useful and necessary, but often extremely slow the pace of the tome that is Off Armageddon Reef. The final 150 or so pages made everything worthwhile, though, as they include some of the most outstanding depictions of naval combat I have ever read. Off Armageddon Reef, while overlong, was definitely worth the read, and while I’d like nothing more than to avoid getting caught up in a series that may very well exceed ten books of over 800 pages each, I will definitely be attempting to catch up.
An intriguing premise, robots, genocidal aliens, and real naval battles in outer space (of the Bolitho/Hornblower variety - literally!). What more could we want? No zombies (yet).
Well, unfortunately all that is wasted on a lame story arc that just failed to pick me up and drop me down. The denouement is just to inevitable and predictable. Reading to the conclusion got to be a chore rather than a delight. Pity..
Well, unfortunately all that is wasted on a lame story arc that just failed to pick me up and drop me down. The denouement is just to inevitable and predictable. Reading to the conclusion got to be a chore rather than a delight. Pity..
I don’t know if the book is just way above my reading level but the inside jacket cover doesn’t go in depth about the whole religious side plot of the book at all. We have barely met the main character at all, and all the names are some confusing amalgamation of Asian influenced and English language names so it’s very hard to keep track of the characters. I couldn’t get with it and I’m going to donate and hopefully someone else can enjoy it.
adventurous
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Sigh. This book had potential but ultimately was disappointing. The most disappointing thing about this book is how it draws you in with an interesting premise and then becomes super predicatable half to two-thirds of the way through. It is frustrating to me because I am the type of reader who will quit a book if it is bad and hence never review it because I don't review books I don't read completely but this book had enough to keep me reading to the end. Which is worse in my view as it saps more of my time.
I loved the premise of this novel. A nascent space-faring human civilization is utterly crushed by aliens. A human colony ship escapes to seed humanity on a distant world determined to eventually challenge the aliens once again after a period keeping the tech level primitive to avoid detection. This plan goes awry when part of the crew instills an anti-tech religion into the mind-wiped colonists, setting themselves up as angels to God who sent down the scriptures to the world of Safehold. Centuries later after all the orginal crew members and colonists have died, there is a robot implanted with a human consciousness who is an adherent to the original plan seeking to move the chess pieces of Safehold into accomplishing the original mission and technologically develop in order to restore humanity to its interstellar heights.
After the first half to two-thirds of the novel the story stalls out and becomes super predictable. Things that should be accomplished in paragraphs take whole chapters and it becomes a bloated mess that was frankly hard for me to get through. I kept going though hoping it would get better, but it did not. The main problem is that there is that is you create a situation where the protagonist has all the advantages and is literally invincible in the setting of this world, then there are no stakes. The plot moves along without any sense that plans may be thwarted or the main character could lose. There is no tension. No matter how well the author writes battle scenes (and he does a good job of it I admit), without tension it is all very tedious.
Maybe if the book was a few hundred pages shorter I'd give it another star or maybe two if he did it well. Being as it is, the novel is too long, too boring, and definitely does not draw me into wanting to read the rest of the series.
I loved the premise of this novel. A nascent space-faring human civilization is utterly crushed by aliens. A human colony ship escapes to seed humanity on a distant world determined to eventually challenge the aliens once again after a period keeping the tech level primitive to avoid detection. This plan goes awry when part of the crew instills an anti-tech religion into the mind-wiped colonists, setting themselves up as angels to God who sent down the scriptures to the world of Safehold. Centuries later after all the orginal crew members and colonists have died, there is a robot implanted with a human consciousness who is an adherent to the original plan seeking to move the chess pieces of Safehold into accomplishing the original mission and technologically develop in order to restore humanity to its interstellar heights.
After the first half to two-thirds of the novel the story stalls out and becomes super predictable. Things that should be accomplished in paragraphs take whole chapters and it becomes a bloated mess that was frankly hard for me to get through. I kept going though hoping it would get better, but it did not. The main problem is that there is that is you create a situation where the protagonist has all the advantages and is literally invincible in the setting of this world, then there are no stakes. The plot moves along without any sense that plans may be thwarted or the main character could lose. There is no tension. No matter how well the author writes battle scenes (and he does a good job of it I admit), without tension it is all very tedious.
Maybe if the book was a few hundred pages shorter I'd give it another star or maybe two if he did it well. Being as it is, the novel is too long, too boring, and definitely does not draw me into wanting to read the rest of the series.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No