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By Schism Rent Asunder

(Safehold #2)

David Weber

4.12 · Rating details · 7,546 ratings · 249 reviews

The world has changed. The mercantile kingdom of Charis has prevailed over the alliance designed to exterminate it. Armed with better sailing vessels, better guns and better devices of all sorts, Charis faced the combined navies of the rest of the world at Darcos Sound and Armageddon Reef, and broke them. Despite the implacable hostility of the Church of God Awaiting, Char ...more

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Hardcover, 510 pages

Published July 22nd 2008 by Tor Books (first published July 21st 2008)

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Jan 08, 2009 Martin Glen rated it it was ok

Competent and well-written, with an intriguing premise (what if a Reformation was artificially engineered by a millenia-old human in an android body?). And Weber really knows how to write this sort of stuff by now.

And that's the problem. The book is under-edited - there's too much stuff where nothing much happens, too much talk-talk, too much diplomacy and not enough derring-do - and the pace is slow. And on a personal level, I feel like I have read all of these characters, or variations thereof ...more

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Jun 10, 2008 Liviu rated it it was amazing

Shelves: genre-sf, top_25_2008_novels, all_time_favorites, 2008_release_read

INTRODUCTION: Multiple New York Times bestselling author David Weber, lovingly known by the many fans congregating on his forums at Baen's Bar as MWW—“Mad Wizard Weber"—does not need an introduction. I have been a big-time fan of Mr. Weber's work since the early 90's and I have read and re-read multiple times all of his novels. Even in the short time between receiving the ARC of “By Schism Rent Asunder” and writing this review, I've read the novel three times and it will likely be my favorite bo INTRODUCTION: Multiple New York Times bestselling author David Weber, lovingly known by the many fans congregating on his forums at Baen's Bar as MWW—“Mad Wizard Weber"—does not need an introduction. I have been a big-time fan of Mr. Weber's work since the early 90's and I have read and re-read multiple times all of his novels. Even in the short time between receiving the ARC of “By Schism Rent Asunder” and writing this review, I've read the novel three times and it will likely be my favorite book of the year. Since “By Schism Rent Asunder” is volume two of the Safehold saga—after last year's bestseller, “Off Armageddon Reef”—there will be inevitable spoilers including the ending, so reader beware.

SETTING: Imagine a world where everyone KNOWS from childhood that about 900 years ago God and His Archangels created humanity. After all, there are the testimonies of the eight million Adams and Eves simultaneously created in Year Zero. There are also continual reminders of God's presence as manifested in various temples that have continuous heavenly lighting and climate conditioning as well as being untouched by the passage of time and the ravages of weather. Then there is the all powerful Church of God Awaiting, the Holy Writ and the Proscriptions that limit technology to roughly our age of Sail. Welcome to Safehold, the last known refuge of the once mighty Human Federation exterminated by the powerful aliens called the GBABA. It was not supposed to be like this though. Safehold was planned to stay at a pre-electric level for only a while to make sure no emissions would betray its presence to the GBABA, and the original eight million colonists volunteered to be “reborn” with false memories to avoid the temptations of premature high-tech. But the real human history was to be preserved. It was assumed that in time the descendants of the colonists would start working to reclaim humanity's place among the stars. This time though, prepared for the GBABA. But Langhorne, the leader of the expedition establishing the colony, decided that being almost a god is much better, so he marginalized the sane people among those that prepared Safehold for human occupation prior to waking up the colonists, and went on with his mad schemes for keeping Safehold at a pre-electric level forever with nobody in the future finding out its real origins. The most courageous of the dissenting voices, Pei Shan Wei, tried to stop this madness, but was outvoted on the ruling Council, so she tried to create an Alexandria enclave dedicated to preserving knowledge. Once Langhorne did not need Shan Wei's terraforming expertise anymore, he brought Rakurai—orbital fire—on Alexandria and obliterated it. The still barren land is now known as Armageddon Reef and has an evil reputation. Once Alexandria was destroyed, Shan Wei's husband, Commodore Pei of the Federation's navy and nominal military leader who pretended to be estranged from his wife for sixty years to keep his place in the ruling council, dropped by Langhorne and his closest associates with a pocket vest nuke. Since these events occurred roughly 900 years ago, Shan Wei is the fallen archangel in the Safeholdian mythology, the ‘Devil’ if you want, while Langhorne is the most holy of the archangels and his order in the Church is the most prestigious.

Merlin, an android/PICA having the memories, and some would say the soul of Nimue—an officer in the Federation's navy and protégée of the commodore, who sacrificed herself covering the convoy that established Safehold—wakes up in the year 890 of Safehold. After she is briefed by a recording of the commodore, she/it takes a male identity and body necessary in this patriarchal society and goes to the island continent of Charis to put “his” sword and knowledge at the disposal of King Haarahld, and initiate the long process of awakening Safehold. The Safeholdian renewal is ready to start and “Off Armageddon Reef” is the first installment of the saga, followed by “By Schism Rent Asunder”.

FORMAT/INFO: “By Schism Rent Asunder” stands at 494 pages of text and includes a large list of characters, a glossary and a note on Safeholdian timekeeping. The book is divided into several large chapters named by the months of the Safeholdian calendar in which the action takes place—there are ten such months, so no December and January—with multiple numbered subchapters. The narration is third-person present-tense with multiple POV's, most notably King Cayleb, Merlin, the group of four vicars that lead the Church, officers, scientists and magnates of Charis, enemy princes and nobles, and quite a few others. The naming conventions take a while to get used to due to Weber's skilled use of language drift across the centuries, but then it becomes fun to transliterate them and nobody will have any problem with names like the main villain Grand Inquisitor Zhaspahr Clyntahn; the leader of the Charisian church Archbishop Maikel Staynair; or its former official leader and current Inquisition “guest”, ex-Archbishop Erayk Dynnys, just to give a taste. The ending happens at a reasonable stopping point and I have to say that the next book in the series, “By Heresies Distressed”, is already my most anticipated book of 2009.

PLOT HINTS AND ANALYSIS: King Haarahld has died heroically in the battle at Darcos Sound, his sacrifice enabling the returning Prince Cayleb's galleons to utterly destroy the last large maritime force sent against Charis by the Group of 4 under the guise of their secular identity as Knights of the Temple Lands. Charis rules the seas of Safehold, and being an island continent, it is safe for the time being. But the Church controls the rest of Safehold, so more than 90% of its population and resources, though the control of the Church may be not as secure as it believes since quite a few Safeholdian leaders follow the church only as long as the Inquisition can reach them, although there are a lot of true believers. Former corrupt Archbishop, Charis Erayk Dynnys, is under arrest by the Inquisition in Zion, the Church capital, while the newly minted Archbishop Maikel boldly declares the secession of the Charisian Church and publicly indicts the Group of 4, name by name, for conspiring to destroy Charis, stealing Church funds for its purposes, and various other misdeeds. After this stunning opening to the book, the events precipitate and since a large part of the pleasure of reading David Weber is for the many surprises and plot twists, I will avoid any more spoilers.

Badly wounded by the complete destruction of its hired fleets and by the stunning public letter from Maikel, the Group of 4 is off balance and needs to do things to keep being overthrown by their opponents in the Council of Vicars. Things like public executions, denunciations of Charisian heresy, preparations for more fleets, and maybe even a “continental blockade”—the ultimate act of declaring Holy War. Since the original attack on Charis was done under the aegis of the Knights of the Temple Lands, not of the Church itself—though nobody is fooled by this pretension—involving the Church officially will raise the stakes dramatically precluding any possibility of peaceful resolution to the conflict. So what could Maikel have thought to send that inflammatory public letter that infinitely raised the probability of the above events happening sooner rather than later? Well, the answer comes on page 207 and it will shock you. Of the Group of 4 members, the Grand Inquisitor Clyntahn, though technically subordinate to the Chancellor Trynair, is assuming more and more power and his decisions start to prevail. The treasurer Rhobair though, is starting to rediscover God and the meaning of Faith, and has corresponding doubts about any deep escalation of the conflict. But as the saying goes, once you grab a tiger's tail, you gotta ride it... And ironically, Rhobair's newly found faith gives unexpected legitimacy to the Group of 4 within the rest of the Church leadership. While everyone knows and fears Clyntahn for his fanatical and corrupt ways, many high churchmen—who otherwise would get rid of Clyntahn the moment they could—start respecting Rhobair more and more.

On the Charisian side, newly crowned King Cayleb is looking for allies. Queen Sharleyan of Chisholm, being a natural partner of Charis, is returned all her captured galleys and people by Cayleb, who later sends her his First Minister on a secret mission that may change the shape of the conflict. Cayleb also plans to deal with his immediate enemies, Prince Nahrmahn of Emerald and Prince Hector of Corisande, since with all these neighboring island continents being brought in alliance or to heel, nothing can threaten Charis directly.

Merlin is busy protecting the King, the Archbishop, and spreading scientific & technical knowledge while keeping for now within the Proscriptions bounds—and of course keeping Cayleb informed of anything happening in the world through his tech surveillance devices. Unfortunately those devices cannot penetrate the Temple at Zion, so the direct decisions of the Group of 4 are as much a mystery to him as anyone.

Archbishop Maikel has some unexpected surprises for us. Most magnates, nobility, officers and common people of Charis are willing to follow Cayleb wherever he leads, even to “Hell and Damnation”, at least in the official Church's eyes, but there is some opposition, and “In the Name of the True Church” becomes a slogan for assassination attempts, arson and mayhem. Despite some requests from his councilors for a severe crackdown, Cayleb is willing to use surveillance and prosecution of actual crimes for now, rather than start handing treason indictments left and right. Will this be enough?

Queen Sharleyan of Chisholm has a hard decision to make. She is already marked as untrustworthy by the Group of 4 for her previous links with Charis, tardiness in sending her galleys to war against Haarahld, and now having the surviving vessels and people returned, and of course having the most such survivors since the Chisholmian ships had no compulsion for immediate surrender once Charisian naval supremacy was so stunningly revealed. Also, everyone knows that Hector ordered the assassination of her father. Luckily she has faced many such tough decisions since her ascension as a teenager to the throne, and now in her early twenties she is ready to make the most fateful decision ever for her country. What will it be?

On the secular enemies’ side, Prince Nahrmahn is in a pickle and he knows it. Already he is blockaded on Emerald by the Charisian navy and he is publicly known as the instigator of the assassination attempt on Cayleb just three years ago, when Merlin saved the day and made his dramatic public appearance as a Seijin from the Mountains of Light. Smarter than his jovial rotund appearance implies, Nahrmann knows a losing hand when he sees it, so he thinks to defy the Church too and try and deal with Cayleb, up to his “fertilizing a plot in Cayleb's garden” if necessary to spare Emerald and his family from certain invasion and the attendant horrors. But he hopes Cayleb will be smart enough to recognize that a compliant Nahrmahn is more useful than a dead one. Is he right?

Hector of Corisande has no illusions. He knows that after Emerald is dealt with, his turn comes next and for him there is only the “head on a spike” option if Cayleb wins, such is the deep enmity between his house and the houses of Ahrmahk of Charis and Tayt of Chisholm. So as the leader of the failed attack on Charis, he asks and gets tons of money from the Church to rebuild his navy and defenses. And he is willing to go to any lengths, including copying the newly minted Charisian military innovations that proved so deadly, whatever the Church says about proscriptions and such. Does he stand a chance?

Epic in dimension, full of stunning revelations and extraordinarily moving moments that made me almost cry, and featuring lots of intrigue and battles, “By Schism Rent Asunder” effortlessly exceeds the magnificence of its predecessor “Off Armageddon Reef”, and I cannot emphasize how much I want to read the next chapter in the Safehold saga… ...more

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Jul 14, 2008 Jeffrey rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: Weber fans, sf fans

Shelves: read-in-2008, re-read, science-fiction, read-in-2009

This sequel to the truly great Off Armegeddon Reef is a pretty good book, but it suffers in comparison to the first book because it is a little too talkative, much slower paced and because David Weber spends a lot of the time on diplomatic scenes and negotiations, imperial matters and church related activities, spycraft and setting up the plot lines of the various main characters. I understand that he needs to set up these various scenes to set the stage for the epic battles ahead, but I think h ...more

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Dec 11, 2013 Simon rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Boring.

The whole 25 hours of the Audible version can be summarised simply as "King Caleb got married": the content is so mundane that this is not even a spoiler. There are no major plot or character developments in this book and it seems solely designed to generate income for the author - while middle parts of series may sometimes be somewhat unfulfilling, this book takes that trend to a whole new level and, in the end, I just wanted it to end.

While I quite enjoy most of David Weber's work, I ...more

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Jan 03, 2014 Dan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2018, 2020

A great series! 2020 re-read: each book seems to improve on the prior book, so enjoyable!

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Mar 14, 2012 Kathy Davie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: military, sci-fi, political

Second in the Safehold military/religious science fiction series revolving around Merlin Athrawes and his mission to help the planet of Safehold evolve into what the original pioneers had intended...if she feels that is the proper path.

My Take
Phew...another intense story from David Weber. It's only similarity to his Honor Harrington series is that it's science fiction. Every once in awhile, I have to try and remember that this is the same author. Dang, he's good!

Yes, it was zealous and passionat ...more

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Apr 19, 2020 Nooilforpacifists rated it liked it

Shelves: naval-fiction, science-fiction

Review in “Off Armageddon Reef”.

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Feb 17, 2013 Joe rated it did not like it

Besides falling victim of an oppressive and corrupt church, the entire population of Safehold has been afflicted with verbose, wooden dialogue. The aliens that destroyed the Earth should come back and pillage the verbiage. A good ransacking would leave the surviving words stronger and desperate to have a purpose. Once the excess is culled there would be a decent story here. But if this is a possible future for humanity, I'm rooting for the aliens to destroy us.

Just shy of halfway through, and I' ...more

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Nov 21, 2013 Aildiin rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi, novels

This is the second book in the Safehold serie. Not much happens in terms of action but we encounter the same cast of sympathetic heroes, with a few more added to the list ( esp the new Queen). It is kind of a filler book but I went fast through it and enjoyed so it still gets 3 stars. It is however not of the same caliber as the first book( and from what I am being told, this does not improve with later books where the story keeps dragging on).

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Jun 17, 2009 Bob Wind rated it did not like it

Absolutely nothing happens in this book. I wouldn't be surprised if you could skip directly from book one to book three and not miss a beat. This is the first of his books I have ever been dissapointed with. I bought it the day it came out and nearly returned it a day later once I had finished it because I was so upset with how stupid it was. ...more

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Aug 18, 2008 Kevin Albee rated it really liked it

A sequel to Armageddon's reef, This takes a look at religious fundamentalism at an extreme. Add in super science and a malevolent alien race bent on annihilation of everything not them and you have the back drop to this series.

I love it myself
...more

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Aug 18, 2009 Nate rated it it was ok

Even more talking than book 3, if that's possible. Mr. Weber needs to remember that people are reading his books to see stuff get blown up, not to hear about the geopolitical ramifications of barrel rifling. ...more

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Jun 09, 2015 Lady Kitten rated it it was amazing

Another great book by David Weber. the current conflict between Charis and The Temple Lands is increasing. King Cayleb is fighting an ever more aggressive Mother Church which is being lead by the Group of Four. He finally finds his love. Who is it? What happens? Read the book to find out more.

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Jun 28, 2017 John rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Wow, this book just gripped me and made it hard to let go, and I was yelling at the characters as i am known to do when I get wrapped up in it
I love the twists and turns and the character development as well and look forward to reading the next book in the series

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Oct 19, 2015 Joe rated it really liked it

Oh even better that I had hoped.
I really like David Weber.
His world building always comes together so well..

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Mar 17, 2019 James Edwards rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

A huge book in all senses of the word. This book had many more pages than Goodreads stated at 510, as it actually finished at 688. Also huge in scope & world building, as David Weber continues to alter the lives of the Safehold world, pushing the population through the character of Merlin towards sea changes in thinking & engineering. This novel gets long winded in some chapters, overly descriptive of thought processes, but eventually picks back up with plot flow & action. I’ll definitely read t ...more

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May 09, 2020 Soo rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook

Notes:

This is one of the longest transition books I've read where not a whole lot happened. lol However, I liked some of the unexpected plot turns and may dive into the #3 sooner vs later. ...more

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Mar 29, 2012 Travis Starnes rated it liked it

If anything this book feels more like Weber is working to advance the world building and setting up for bigger conflicts. It is clear that Weber has a long term goal for the series but all the setup in this issue comes off as a little unsatisfactory when put next to the epic battles that closed out the previous installment. On the bright side for readers who like political maneuvering and Machiavellian schemes this book will hit the right notes and by the end there is a fairly complex web set up If anything this book feels more like Weber is working to advance the world building and setting up for bigger conflicts. It is clear that Weber has a long term goal for the series but all the setup in this issue comes off as a little unsatisfactory when put next to the epic battles that closed out the previous installment. On the bright side for readers who like political maneuvering and Machiavellian schemes this book will hit the right notes and by the end there is a fairly complex web set up. A lot of time is devoted to looking in on the “great game” of politics on Safehold and the various factions attempts to prepare for the conflict that is just on the horizon. Unfortunately by the end of the book that conflict is still just on the horizon.

We get the same basic cast of characters as in the first book with the exception of a handful of new players. This helps some because instead of whole sections devoted to introduction of a character Weber can now focus on developing and fleshing those characters out. While the main cast was pretty robust by the end of Armageddon’s Reef the supporting cast still felt a bit flimsy and much of that is resolved here. In particular you get really good development in Calyeb, the new king of Charis. He really comes into his own as the strong ruler of men Weber seemed to be gunning for and feels more like the Henry VIII analogue that Weber wanted. And more importantly we get Prince Nahrman as a major player. In a book focused on scheming and plotting this is the character to watch. He comes off as pure id and is simply a pleasure to follow, every moment the story is with him you can’t help but enjoy the man’s guile.

There is one issue in the characterization that bumps against all this good development. Weber chose to write in a romance between Cayleb and Queen Charleyan and has the same weakness that hurts most sci-fi writers I have read, he simply cannot write believable romance. The two characters fall in love at the drop of a hat and their coupling comes off as entirely forced. While I do enjoy them together once there are paired off, and probably would have had no problems with their relationship had they been initially presented as a couple, I just do not buy the love story. This is a pretty big problem since a large portion of the book is dedicated to their falling in love.

To be clear this isn’t a bad book, it’s just a deviation from Off Armageddon Reef and really Weber’s normal style in general. For fans of Weber or the first book I would say stick with this series, he is clearly building to something massive that you will not want to miss. ...more

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Jun 25, 2014 W.R. Edmunds rated it it was ok

By Schism Rent Asunder continues the plight of Merlin Athrawes to free Safehold from the tyrannical and corrupt grip of the Church of God Awaiting. My review of Off Armageddon Reef sets the stage here and, while I had gotten used to the naming conventions enough to follow the story, Weber decided to increase his use of the internal monologue as a storytelling device. Moreover, this rote exposition is rarely necessary or of any value add, often recapping things without need, or showing you the de ...more

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Apr 23, 2012 Jordan Steinhoff rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2012

This book suffers a from a couple problems.

First, it followed Off Armageddon Reef which was an incredible read. Anything that followed that would seem pale by contrast.

Second, it is a total setup book.

This is all the worst parts of the later Honor Harrington books. All politics and intrigue, no action. Overly talkative characters speaking simply to add word count. Dialog was neither tight nor a real driving force. Many passages were far too reminiscent of the late day of the People's Republic of ...more

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Feb 09, 2017 Robert Aldrich rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Really enjoyed this book. If you are not one for political action, then you might find this book a bit boring. I find the overall theme of the story and characters fun to read and the physical action and the few battles that take place serve as highlights to the rest of the book. I imagine that at some point, there will be a great deal of fighting that takes place, and these other books serve to set the field and develop the underlying reasons for the fight.

Trying to think of these books as "sep ...more

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Jun 20, 2011 Grahambootle rated it did not like it

Did I miss something here, is this another "young adult" book being marketed at us "more mature" readers? The plot was predictable, the characters so black and white. The only thing that kept me reading was the enjoyment of the engineering problems encountered and solved during the artillery development. This will probably be by last David Weber. ...more

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May 20, 2011 Na'Roon rated it it was ok

To me this book did not really go anywhere or move the over all plot of the series forward enough to warrant a whole book. I think it should have been part of the first book and not a stand alone book.

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Feb 18, 2012 Paul.stevenson rated it it was ok

I was a little disappointed in this book after Armagedon's Reef. It lacked the technically descriptive battle scenes, and focused on "Mother Church" a fair amount. It's obviously an important part of the series, but I just felt like I had to get through it. ...more

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Aug 16, 2012 Jean Corbel rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: sf

Finely crafted pretentious bullshit.
Miserable portraits, rude creftsmanship. Verbous.
Well, not bad to take for vacation, can be read taking sun and as fast forgotten (pls not on a clean beach).
Even worse than book1 : not even actions to create noise in the middle of boredom.
Below par SF.

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Jul 11, 2014 Alexander rated it it was ok

Shelves: did-not-finish

Did not finish.

Way too wordy. Pages and pages of conversations that go almost nowhere and are, in any event, dull. The story needs to move forward faster than this to maintain my interest and I am just not willing to make the investment in time. There is too much else I want to read...

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Mar 30, 2019 Elar rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks

I would call this pseudo scifi as almost all innovation and technological advancements are copied from our own history. The writing style is too overflowing and embellishing - content do not hold this up at all and story is boring.

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Jun 23, 2011 Evan rated it it was ok

This book was just to slow paced. It had a good concept but to much wording.

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Aug 01, 2014 Stephen rated it did not like it

Long winded and nowhere near as good as the first book. Will not be carrying on with this series!

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Nov 18, 2014 Dave rated it it was ok

This book got a bit too "epic" for me. The vast story line did not move along much. Overall a yawner. ...more

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About David Weber

David Weber

3,826 followers

David Mark Weber is an American science fiction and fantasy author. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1952.

Many of his stories have military, particularly naval, themes, and fit into the military science fiction genre. He frequently places female leading characters in what have been traditionally male roles.

One of his most popular and enduring characters is Honor Harrington whose alliterated name ...more