Customer Reviews

By Schism Rent Asunder

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

While this book may not have as many combat scenes as some would want, the author continues to build the safehold world. The one thing (besides combat scenes) that David Weber truly excels at is world building.

I'm definitely looking forward to reading By Heresies Distressed when that comes out.

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.

Before "Off Armageddon Reef" I had never read David Weber - Now after "By Schism Rent Asunder" - I am a fan. David writes in a easy to read fashion with all the little facts that make a story so compelling. I have gone back and begun acquiring his earlier books. He makes his characters come alive whether you like them or not. If you don't read anything else this year grab these two books and inhale. Can't wait for another book along this story line. Science fiction meets the buckaneers.

I read other reviewers comments and wonder what book the negative reviewers were commenting upon? David Weber gets better and better, if that is possible, with each new book. This second of his new series with Merlin/Nimue is just plain great, IMO. Each turn of events is fascinating, the exploration of the characters' personalities and character, particularly the lack thereof within the vile and utterly corrupt Vicars (particularly Clyntahn) is amazing. The author's insight into the politics of religion is dead on.

It was refreshing and uplifting to have King Caleb marry Queen Sharleyan which added a bit of softening and humanity to this hard story full of war and inhumanity dished out by the Church's representatives. I liked that Prince Nahrmahn Baytz (love the play on the name) of Emerald was forced to come to heel to Caleb and the Kingdom of Charis.

I look forward to more of Merlin's interfacing with his spaceship and data base in future stories and the re-education of the population of Charis and Chisholm as to what and who they really are. And, most of all the fall of the Church of God Awaiting.

The 2nd book in David Weber's Safehold series is a good book but somehow not as satisfying as the first installment. Perhaps it is the fact that with the crushing Charis victory over the Church's assembled navy in the last book there is no longer a sense of "certain" doom hovering over Charis. There is nothing left to threaten Charis proper and the tension of the last book is not there. In fact, Charis will clearly be the uncontested ruler of the Safehold seas for several years at least, and probably longer when the Church starts rebuilding a navy of dubious worth.

There are several interesting revelations, and Merlin does finally come completely clean with Cayleb as well as another, rather suprising, character. There is also of course Cayleb's marriage to the queen of Chisholm which will definetly have ramifications all through the rest of the books.

Fans of epic naval battles will probably be dissapointed, and in general, there isnt as much action as I had hoped.

There IS a lot of setup for the following book, a look at some people and POVs that we hadnt seen before and will probably play a large role in future books.

Overall, I liked the book and will definetly buy the next book in the series. Especially to see how all the events started in this book fall out.

One of the things drummed into me at my writer's group meeting is "show" don't "tell." And that is my issue with this novel. But with a twist, because, for the most part, the author isn't "telling" what's happening directly. Rather, he is having his characters, in one meeting after another, "tell" what's happening in the novel, i.e. in other parts of the world. Page after page of this group or that group debating some event that happened weeks before and what they plan to do about it. And when something is done, again for the most part, we don't see the action, rather some other group debates about it later. There is some "show" in this, but the "tell" drags on and on.

And there is a "cast of hundreds" with speaking parts to try to keep up with (look at the appendix in the back.) I don't know how he kept them all straight. I know I couldn't -- at least not the Baron of this or that that really all sounded the same.

I will say this. In the queen, Weber has his first female character in all his novels that I can distinctly recognize as a woman -- beyond the obvious physical description. His other female characters are disturbingly male in the way they talk and act and have little or no interest in members of the opposite sex.

This is the second book of the Safehold series, following the novel Off Armageddon Reef. From discussions on Baen's Bar website, the author has (at least) a seven book contract for this series. This volume is primarily setting the stage for the climatic battles for which Weber is famous and is mostly concerned with political alliances of lands and individuals for the big showdown. For this reason, I gave it only four stars.
The third book (By Heresies Distressed) is supposed to have some major battles involving the growth and consolidation of the Empire. However, the major showdown with the "Group of Four" and Mother Church is quite a few thousand words away. Hopefully, the quality of those words will maintain Weber's usual high standard.