By Schism Rent Asunder by David Weber
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Book Reviews of By Schism Rent Asunder
Book Review: Great Story
Summary: 5 Stars
Awesome story, great story line. The action is intensive, I cant wait to see what happens next.Book Review: Weber's skill shows, but the concept isn't new.
Summary: 4 Stars
By Schism Rent Asunder is the second book in a new series by David Weber. This book follows up on "Off Armageddon Reef," which established that the world called "Safehold" is a colony of humans that were brainwashed into scientific backwardsness to defend them from the attacks of a genocidal alien race. Set in a time where Safehold has the infrastructure of 17th century Europe and is controlled by a rigid overarching theocracy, "Schism" follows the political machinations in the aftermath of the failed attack by the Church's allies on the island nation of Charis in the first book. Assisted by Merlin, an android with the memories of a woman who was killed in battle 800 years earlier, before the mutiny on the colony ship that brought the people there, Charis prepares for all-out war by seeking allies to defend herself. Much of the content involves meetings, discussions and the like of the various factions involved in the conflict.
I picked up By Schism Rent Asunder recently and finished it today. As a long-time fan of David Weber, I've read most of what he's written over the years. Strangely enough, I didn't realize this was the second book in the Armageddon Reef series and never read the first book. To this book's credit, it does provide enough information in the books early pages to be read without reading the first book.
Weber's story takes a lot of influence from European history, and indeed, his writing shows that he has a lot of depth of knowledge in that subject both with period technology and politics, while throwing a in a dash of sci-fi as well. As always, his political plots are complex and somewhat thoughtful, and his characters black and white in philosophy.
The Safehold series is not particularly original. Other authors have done the theme of a futuristic wizard bringing the dark-ages into technological advancement, including fellow Baen author David Drake in the Bellisarius series. I read another novel like this back in the early 90's. Weber himself did this theme in his Heirs of Empire novel some years back. He even had a monolithic corrupted church as part of the story. Apparently Weber liked the idea so much he decided to expand it. This new series even has a genocidal race of aliens, much like the Heirs of Empire series.
I've made the observation that as he has become more popular and the editors have lifted their length restrictions, Weber's books have become longer, more plodding and filled with political discourse between characters.
Weber has a great ability to make interesting settings for his stories, but as he's progressed in his writing, I've found it more and more boring. It's not that his later books don't have action, or that I crave action, it's just that the expositionary politics ends up dragging down the story pace and overshadowing character development, sometimes almost unbearably. His earlier books, such as the Honor Harrington debut novels and the like were better edited story-wise and have far better pacing.
By Schism Rent Asunder is not a bad book, and it certainly has better story composition than some of the later Honor Harrington novels, but it has very little action and a glacial pace (the book's time frame is about 4 months, hardly any time at all considering the overarching story). I still liked it, but if one's reason for reading this book is because they like the action of Weber's novels, this one is going to surely disappoint. It's almost purely political and probably intended as a major bit of exposition between Off "Armageddon Reef" and his next book.
Still, despite the fact that reading this novel made me feel like I was reading a revised version of Heirs of Empire, I rather liked it. I look forward to see where the series goes. It's probably going to fill a lot of books at this rate. For fans of Honor, this could be bad news... It looks like a new subject has Weber's attention now.
Book Review: superb title, but an interstitial text
Summary: 4 Stars
Do you like poetry? If so, the title should appeal. Of all the fiction novels I've read in recent years, it stands as the best title, to me. The deliberately stilted cadence is a provocative evocation of an earlier era. Akin to Lincoln's archaic formulation of the first sentence of the Gettysburg Address. Weber's title fits beautifully as a perfect and literal summary of the book's plot. It is not even a metaphor. Naturally, there is more to the book than its title. But I felt it worthwhile to praise Weber on an inspired choice.
How about the plot? I will try to refrain from any spoilers. Other reviewers will assuredly have no such compunction.
One difference with the earlier book is that the current story seems to have fewer combat scenes. Instead Weber spends exhaustive time fleshing out the dimensions of the struggle. Blending two periods in our history. One is a reworking of the Protestant Reformation and of England in the time of Elizabeth I facing predominantly Catholic Europe. The other is the Napoleonic Wars. The technology and tactics are set in the latter. While the religious kerfuffle is in the former.
Some readers and reviewers might complain about the seemingly interminable religious and political back and forth. We have seen this before in Weber's Harrington series. Some of the later books in that delved into the social and political structures of the warring states. So too here. I suspect he prides himself (and rightly so) in being able to build out a fully formed world.
Weber is adept at this. Plus, given the Harrington series, this book reads like an interstitial effort. He is laying the groundwork for more climatic episodes later. Also, like Turtledove or Stirling, he is stringing out the plot into as many books as possible. Daresay the next book will not be the last of this series.
One persistent frustration is the unfinished business from the start of the first book. When most of humanity was exterminated by aliens. The series chronicles a climb back into space. But will we ever get to a return encounter? Of course, the palliative for smiting the aliens is the bopping of the reactionary human opponents, and we will have to be content with that.
Book Review: Intermission Time for the Safehold Series
Summary: 4 Stars
As other here have already stated, 'By Schism Rent Asunder' is the followup to 'Off Armageddon Reef' and book two of three in the Safehold Series. Compared to Armageddon Reef, this book moves forward at a much slower pace with relatively little action except for a few naval battles. The battles themselves are often told from one brief point in the battle (i.e., beginning, middle or end) instead of an overview of the entire conflict. However even with the reduced action the novel does engage the reader with several interesting revelations and sets the stage for the conclusion of trilogy.
My only issues with the book were that I was extremely disappointed in the role Merlin played. Whereas in Armageddon Reef Merlin played a key role and we were presented with numerous insights into his thoughts, use of technology, physical abilities, etc, in Schism he was reduced to little more than an advisor and mentor. Also, I felt Weber spent way too much time detailing the the process the Charisians and others went through to create new and effective guns/artillery. I found myself skimming or skipping several pages that could have been summed up as 'They invented a new artillery piece using iron.' Those passages felt more like they belonged in a non-fiction book detailing the history of modern weaponry.
It will be interesting to see how Weber concludes this trilogy in the next book as given his current pace it doesn't seem he will be able to resolve the larger plot of humanity's rise back to the stars. Unless of course he pulls out a Deus Ex Machina solution which would be extremely disappointing.
Book Review: Safehold Continues On, Story Moves Somewhat
Summary: 4 Stars
This is the second book in the planed three-volume Safehold series. Safehold is possibly the last place in the universe where humans live, and all those on this planet are descended from the survivors from a genocidal alien race. To keep the colony safe, the leaders of the original survivors brainwashed everyone else into believing in a all-powerful church and a technologically fixed culture set about the 17th Century Europe. The first book introduced the world, the players, and Merlin, an android recently reactivated, with the memories of one of the original survivors. Merlin decides that its time to start developing technology again and uses the nation of Charis (an island nation much like England) to do it. Charis already chafes under the restrictions of the Church, and it doesn't take much to begin outright rebellion. This second volume takes place after Charis' overwhelming victory over the combined navies the Church organized against them.
The themes of the books are familiar to readers of Weber's previous books--genocidal aliens, regressed human colonies, theocracies, introducing future technology through slight of hand. "By Schism Rent Asunder" is slower than the first, with a lot of expository material on technology, politics, and religion, but Weber makes it mostly interesting, especially if you enjoy political science fiction.