The Armageddon Inheritance [Mass Market Paperback]

David Weber (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1993

Colin MacIntyre has gone from being a NASA astronaut to commander of a vast space armada. But the ancient and powerful alien enemy is approaching, and all his forces may not be enough to save the Earth.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Baen; First edition (December 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671721976
• ISBN-13: 978-0671721978
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #116,865 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Mark Weber is an American science fiction and fantasy author. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1952. Weber and his wife Sharon live in Greenville, South Carolina with their three children and "a passel of dogs".

Previously the owner of a small advertising and public relations agency, Weber now writes science fiction full time.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good series and a great book, June 6, 2000

By 

Peter Dykhuis (Grandville, MI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Armageddon Inheritance (Mass Market Paperback)

The Armageddon Inheritance is the second book in a series that so far stretches three books. The series begins with Mutineers' Moon and concludes, so far, with Heirs of Empire. Often middle books are just a bridge from a great beginning to a great ending. Not so with Armageddon Inheritance. This is, in my opinion, the best of the three books in this series. This is also a relatively short novel, a mere 344 pages (Baen paperback edition). I don't think that this is an accident. David Weber is a fun author who has a great deal of talent. I do believe, however, that his best books are his shortest ones. This is true with his Honor Harrington series as well. Strip the fat away and there is only a lean mean story left.

This book takes place after the suppression of the fifty one thousand year old mutiny by Anu, see Mutineers' Moon. Humanity, with the great Spaceship Dahak captained by Colin MacIntyre in the lead, must prepare for the imminent invasion of the Achuultani. The Achuultani are to humanity what locus are to corn. Get enough of them together and Humans and everything they rely upon to exist ceases to exist. The Achuultani's only purpose seems to be to sweep the Galaxy in cycles stretching millennia and exterminating all life. I can't tell you why, but you can find out in the book.

The book is handled as a split novel. Half of the book covers Colin and crew aboard Dahak searching for aid from a possibly extinct Imperium and Horus staying on earth preparing for the imminent invasion.

The novel is non-stop and very exciting. The book has two climatic points that would have served as a books climax by themselves. I can't really tell you what happened after all but I can tell you that enough of humanity survives to provide a third book in the series. I can also strongly recommend this book. It would be helpful to read the first book before attempting to enjoy this one but I do not think it is necessary. Have fun!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow. No really, I mean it. Wow., February 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Armageddon Inheritance (Mass Market Paperback)

What a book! Imaginative, well written, funny in places, sad in others. Why aren't David Weber's books published in England? I have to go to America to buy them! The storyline of this book was great, revolving around Colin MacIntyre's journey across the Galaxy to find more Imperial Starships to fight off the genocidal Achuultani, culminating in a really great ending. (I won't say what happens though!) The characters developed in Mutineer's Moon are explored in greater depth in this second volume of his series. Anyone reading this review- don't. Just go and buy the book. I'll give you all the encouragement you need.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars conceptual overlap with Off Armageddon Reef, February 21, 2007

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Armageddon Inheritance (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is the middle one in a trilogy, commencing with Mutineer's Moon and ending with Heirs of Empire. Weber wrote these in the early 90s and never extended these, as of 2007. He has certainly been busy writing much else in science fiction.

But it turns out that this year, 2007, he has recast this trilogy in a new series, that starts with "Off Armageddon Reef". The latter just came out, in hardcover, and is ubiquitous in many bookstores. A far more numerous presence than those earlier books, when they first came out.

The overlap in the basic premises between the trilogy and OAR is striking. Out there in space is a genocidal race, deploying immense fleets. A mortal threat to humans. The opening chapter in OAR talks about 24th century humans, being destroyed on its worlds by far more numerous fleets. In Armageddon Inheritance, we see in a different universe how this conflict might have gone otherwise. Here, the enemy fleets are millions strong. But Weber writes ingeniously, in the tradition of grand space opera, of an embattled human fleet, that takes them on and wins, at least for now. Readers of OAR who gritted their teeth at the human defeat can read a different conclusion.

I do wonder at the coincidence of "Armageddon" in this book's title and in OAR. The plots clearly overlap. Was this recurrent word an explicit hint to the reader?

If you have read OAR, but not this trilogy, and are waiting for Weber to write more in the new series, then you should check out these books.