Related Sections: Books Reviews
Review: Does David Weber's new novel honor Harrington?
His long-running Honor Harrington series has made SF writer David Weber a New York Times-bestselling author. But he has written numerous novels set outside the "Honorverse," and has recently launched a new series set on the lost colony world of Safehold. The Safehold novels are Off Armageddon Reef, By Schism Rent Asunder, and now, By Heresies Distressed.
For over 800 years, Safehold has been dominated by the ruthlessly anti-technological Church of God Awaiting. But one of the original posthuman settlers has revived, and is seeking to restore Safehold's memory and technology. Known as Merlin Athrawes, he advises King Cayleb and, wherever possible, uses advanced technology in their struggle against the all-powerful church, which has kept Safehold at an Age of Sail level of development. But even as King Cayleb forges an empire, the church conspires to destroy him by destroying the woman he loves.
A far-future military/political thriller, By Heresies Distressed has a convoluted plot. Combine that with its status as the third book in the series, and By Heresies Distressed is absolutely not the place for newcomers to start. The viewpoint shifts among numerous characters as the narrative cuts among numerous subplots, and the opening is static, consisting largely of conversation for the first near-200 pages. But when battle finally breaks out, wow! The novel gets intensely exciting, and you discover why David Weber's books are such a hit.
Series fans should know that By Heresies Distressed has more land battles than sea. It resolves its storyline, but introduces some intriguing new developments toward the end. Clearly, there will be a further volume or several before the stirring Safehold saga concludes.
By logan40k at 8:32 AM ON 07/22/09
I am a bit surprised by how short the book reviews have gotten. There used to be a formula for them that was fantastic and made you want to really go out and buy (or not) the book in question. Now it just seems that they are getting a kind of Red-headed Stepchild treatment. Might I suggest a 4th Column, computer games have their own column as it were, why not have an all book column?
By Kevin at 11:35 AM ON 07/22/09
Yeah, the old SCI FI News book section was a much better format. Now we just have occassional and brief notices that read more like press releases than book reviews. I mostly ignore them, when before I used to read them regularly.
This is one aspect that the change to SCI FI Wire did not improve.
By Sharon E. Dreyer at 1:47 PM ON 07/22/09
This review is interesting enough to cause me to look into both series. Whether a review is long or short doesn't really matter, not does it? Too long a review gives away too much of the storyline that the read should discover on their own. Check out my first and recently released novel, Long Journey to Rneadal. This exciting tale is a romantic action adventure in space and is more about the characters than the technology.
By Roadking at 7:55 PM ON 07/22/09
S.E. Dreyer: You're a science fiction author and never heard of Weber's Honorverse???? Where have you been? The looooong series of Honor Harrington novels has been around for years! I do recommend the Safehold series, having already read the 1st two and found them very good. As for your "name dropping" about your first novel....congratulations, and shame on you for using the fan comment section like this!
By doc38b at 8:52 PM ON 07/22/09
I've just finished this third book and thought it flowed just as well as the first two. I enjoyed By Heresies Distressed; just as much as Off Armageddon Reef and By Schism Rent Asunder, and look forward to many more in the series. It dealt with the main characters and the various plots; carried on existing ones,wrapped up smaller ones and introduced new ones, just fine. Although the book does jump from one plot and set of characters, to another it is no different (or severe) than other novels that I've read (in all types of genres).
I'm a little disappointed with this reviewer and review. The title of this article led me to believe they were comparing this book to David Weber's earlier work. Does not happen. And I can not discern whether or no this columnist is recommending this book or trashing the entire series.
The old site also had it's own complete section and reviewed more than one book, what happened? Change the network, changed the site, changed the fan? Hope your network and site can survive.....
By wesb at 12:24 AM ON 07/27/09
I agree with both the first two comments and those of doc38B.
I really really miss the great old book section of the Sci Fi Weekly site. They were thoughtful, comparative, and very well written. The new ones are sorely lacking and don't get deeply enough into all of the new books and authors that are out there. I am very sad that they went away.
And also, the title of this review was completely misleading. It sounds as if it should have been a well reasoned analysis of the Honorverse vs the new Safehold series, whether they are comparable as works, and whether Weber has done as good a job with the Safehold books as he did with the Honor ones. But sadly, none of that was there. This was something you might have read in a high school or small college newspaper. Scifi Wire should aspire to be more than that.
Visit mobile.syfy.com/wire on your mobile device.
wesb:
I agree with both the first two comments and those of doc38B. I really really miss the great old book section of t...More »