By Schism Rent Asunder [Hardcover]

David Weber (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 22, 2008

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, Charis still stands, still free, still tolerant, still an island of innovation in a world in which the Church has worked for centuries to keep humanity locked at a medieval level of existence.
 
But the powerful men who run the Church aren’t going to take their defeat lying down. Charis may control the world’s seas, but it barely has an army worthy of the name. And as King Cayleb knows, far too much of the kingdom’s recent good fortune is due to the secret manipulations of the being that calls himself Merlin—a being that, the world must not find out too soon, is more than human. A being on whose shoulders rests the last chance for humanity’s freedom.
 
Now, as Charis and its archbishop make the rift with Mother Church explicit, the storm gathers. Schism has come to the world of Safehold. Nothing will ever be the same.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* In the second volume, after Off Armageddon Reef (2007), of the saga of the planet Safehold, Weber employs a superb cast of characters and plenty of action to escalate the conflict between the Group of Four and the Church of God Awaiting. Among the outstanding players are King Cayleb of Charis and his adviser, the warrior-monk Merlin, and when readers find out that Merlin is really the avatar of the woman Nimue, who, along with Earth itself, is long dead, they may realize that Weber has combined the Matter of Britain and the Protestant Reformation and outfitted them in sf trappings. By the end of this novel, they may suspect, too, that the Thirty Years’ War has been added to the mixture. They will be certain that the by-then emperor Cayleb’s love for his empress is only the first of new difficulties that will assail him in the next volume. They can rest assured of Weber’s usual mastery of anything having to do with ships, whether sailing or hyperdriven. This fine book gives new luster to Weber’s reputation and new pleasure to his fans. --Roland Green

Review

“Gripping…Shifting effortlessly between battles among warp-speed starships and among oar-powered galleys, Weber brings the political maneuvering, past and future technologies, and vigorous protagonists together for a cohesive, engrossing whole.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Off Armageddon Reef

“Splendid!” —Booklist (starred review) on Off Armageddon Reef

“Vast, complex, intricate, subtle, and unlaydownable. This looks like the start of the biggest thing in science fiction since Isaac Asimov's Foundation series.” —Dave Duncan on Off Armageddon Reef

“A new SF epic.” —Library Journal (starred review) on Off Armageddon Reef

“Fantastic in every sense of the word—the kind of book that makes you sit back and think about this reality that we call life. Who can ask for more than that?” —R. A. Salvatore on Off Armageddon Reef

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1ST edition (July 22, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765315017
• ISBN-13: 978-0765315014
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (94 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #369,295 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

60 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Weber's skill shows, but the concept isn't new., August 9, 2008

By 

S. Lawrenz "Lendorien" (Milwaukee, WI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: By Schism Rent Asunder (Hardcover)

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.

25 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Middle book in a long series, July 23, 2008

By 

P. T. Breed - See all my reviews
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This review is from: By Schism Rent Asunder (Hardcover)

I really enjoyed the first book in the series "Off Armageddon Reef". This book has less action and more political detail. Some of Merlin's secrets are revealed to others and several unexpected alliances are formed. By the end of the book we still have a long way to go to reach the expected conclusion. Based on the pace of the first two books this could easily become a six or ten book series. All in all Weber creates a consistent believable world. Schism Rent Asunder makes me yearn for the next book in the series.

31 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars windy, August 20, 2008

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Mariann Miller "memline" (HAVRE, MT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: By Schism Rent Asunder (Hardcover)

I have been a fan of Weber for a long time, but it is getting difficult to hang in there. This book is OK, but does not expand the story all that much. Also, it is hard to get into the characters, let alone remember their names. He must like "y's" My biggest gripe is "the story" Between the political discussions ad nauseum, and the military discussions, ditto, the story gets lost in the shuffle. Honor Harrington set everything out by example and told a hell of a story. Once Weber started explaining every little thing, things deteriorated and he needed an editor with a very large blue pencil which noone ever provided. Too bad. However, if you skip the rambling, there is a story there somewhere and it is readable, when you don't care to take your time. It sure doesn't grab you though, which some of the previous books did.