SOLVED. Android - Fantasy with Sci-fi background/history. [s]

[Varien]

Hello all and thank you in advance! I read this amazing book around 2007/2008 in Iraq and cannot remember the name of it to save my life. I remember my friend (who I borrowed the book from) saying another was coming out soon, so there should be more then one book in the series. I've never read a book with a plot/background like this so I'm hoping it's memorable!

Some of the big things I remember are:

The main character is a person in a space ship orbiting a planet. But his conciousness is actually in a "android" body and goes to the planet below.

The planet is inhabited by humans, but their tech level is medieval in nature.

The planet is also covered by LOTS of water, trading by ocean is a huge thing. Every continent is controlled by a separate kingdom.

The main continent is where the ?church? is located. This church controls the level of technology that is allowed, ex: All "inventions" must be approved through this church to be allowed.

This system was set-up when humans colonized the planet long ago because of an advanced race that destroys all technology (and the race themselves ofc) that can oppose them, but that is not a major thing for the plot itself.

I believe the main character becomes involved in the kingdom affairs of the smallest/most southern island by saving a member of the royal family. (This is spotty! but should be accurate)

At some point (for reasons I can't remember) the main character begins getting various inventions "approved" through the church that allows the construction of basic rifles/cannons/galleon like ships.

Thanks again in advance for reading this! If anybody has any questions I'll do my best to answer.

[Andy]

This sounds a lot like David Weber's Safehold series (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safehold) , which starts with this book Off Armageddon Reef

Brief extract from Wikipedia
"Merlin selects the island Kingdom of Charis as the source for his uplifting "virus", where he will introduce concepts that force the rest of Safehold to compete. Merlin earns the trust of the ruling Ahrmahk Dynasty and inspires several new "inventions" by Charis' military, science and economic leaders. Charis' powerful industries change the world by adopting tools like Arabic numerals, the abacus, the astrolabe, the cotton gin and spinning jenny, among others. In secret, Merlin teaches the Charisians how to replace their war galleys with a revolutionary fleet of ships of the line."

[Varien]

That is totally it Andy! I honestly thought I'd be waiting for months and months bumping this so this is quite a pleasant surprise.

Thank you sooooo much!

[Andy]

Glad to help.

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