Off Armageddon Reef (Safehold, #1) in David Weber's Safehold Series

Jul 07, 2014 Curtiss rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, nautical-adventure, fiction, military-science, adventure-thriller

By page 17, humanity and all of her colonies have been exterminated by the implacably hostile Gbaba, except for a fleet of fugitive humans that has safely evaded the Gbaba scouts and established a low-tech colony on a world tens of thousands of light-years beyond the reach of the Gbaba (for the time being that is).

The colony was to have maintained a low-tech profile to avoid attracting the Gbaba's attention, and then develop the advanced technology needed to defeat the immense, but static-techn By page 17, humanity and all of her colonies have been exterminated by the implacably hostile Gbaba, except for a fleet of fugitive humans that has safely evaded the Gbaba scouts and established a low-tech colony on a world tens of thousands of light-years beyond the reach of the Gbaba (for the time being that is).

The colony was to have maintained a low-tech profile to avoid attracting the Gbaba's attention, and then develop the advanced technology needed to defeat the immense, but static-technology Gbaba fleets, some of whose ships, while thousands of years old, have exactly the same weapons technology as recently-built Gbaba warships.

Unfortunately the leaders of the fleeing colony decide to impose a "permanent" low-technology doctrine on the colony by first erasing the colonist's memories and then presenting themselves as gods or archangels with a religious doctrine aimed at preventing *any* technological advance beyond the level of 14th century technology (except for that technology employed by the archangels themselves, that is). To counter this perversion of their human origins and heritage, one of the founders had a backup plan; he had the mind and spirit of a young female tactical officer transferred to an immortal android body, ordinarily only used for temporary, high-risk 'adventures'; but in this case meant to employ a cache of high-tech information and technology to overthrow the religious authorities and restore humanity's inheritance and then ultimately develop the strength to go back and eradicate the Gbaba for all time.

The story takes place nearly 1000 years after the colony has been established, when Nimue Alban awakens in her android PICA body to learn that her patron and his supporters had been eliminated by an orbital nuclear strike but that he had succeeded in eliminating most of the Archangels themselves, but not all of them.

In a 14-century world, Nimue Alban, re-configures her PICA's android body as a male, assumes the name Merlin, and presents 'himself' as a savior/adviser to King Harrahld of Charis after saving his son Caleb from an assassination attempt. Merlin then sets out to improve Charis' navy by making vital technical changes to its ships' sailing qualities, cannons, and muskets/rifles, all meant to individually pass the inquisition's review, and yet give Charis the fighting power to stave off defeat by her numerous enemies.

Unfortunately (there's that word again), the Church of God Awaiting chooses to disavow the impetuous and innovative Charisians, and instead orchestrates a naval alliance against Charis by coercing two of her allies and two of her enemies to combine forces with a fifth kingdom, the single largest navy on the seas of Safehold, to attack Charis without provocation or warning.

Merlin's network of spy drones keep him and through him King Harrahld and Prince Caleb informed of their enemy's intentions and movements, which enables Caleb to ambush half of their opponents' combined fleet and destroy it, even against odds of 6:1, before returning to confront the rest of their opponents ships in a battle to the death.

This story combines themes Weber has explored before, anti-technological religious dogma, genocidal aliens, and super-high-technology versus massive fleets with powerful but static technology.

The novel ends with Charis facing a backlash as the Church of God Awaiting is forced to realign against her in a religious war of annihilation, which is set to play out over the course of at least six more novels; not including the ultimate buildup to humanity's final confrontation with the Gbaba.

Readers may find the story overly-long and protracted, even tedious (unless you develop an attachment to the characters involved, at any rate). Even Weber enthusiasts may find it hard to read through the rest of the novels of this open-ended series. However, I enjoyed it enough to order the first novel in hard cover after reading it in paperback, and to also order the next five books in hardcover as well.
...more

Like · see review