Off Armagedon Reef (David Weber)

[dragon]

So has anyone read this yet and how does it stand up to his other book. It has some good reviews.

[Bladed_Crescent]

Spoilers below:

I liked it; it does borrow several themes and ideas from his Heirs of Empire, particular the advancements that Nimue/Merlin brings to Safehold (i.e. technophobic church, world-spanning semaphore chain, redesigns to muskets and cannon all pretty much direct lifts from Heirs of Empire). If you can get past that part, it's a good read.

Personally, I liked the opening part the most with humanity's last desperate flight from the Gbaba most of all. I'd hoped to see more of them. Ah, well.

It was a bit slow in parts (though not as much as Hell's Gate), especially with all the political intrigue but I liked the final battles; Weber does good war. There were some funny bits as well (like when Merlin goes swimming). All in all though, it felt like an introduction: nothing is resolved with the Gbaba nor really Safehold itself. I know Weber's going to do at least one other novel for Tor books, which is probably/hopefully a sequel to Off Armageddon Reef.

[dragon]

Spoilers below:

I liked it; it does borrow several themes and ideas from his Heirs of Empire, particular the advancements that Nimue/Merlin brings to Safehold (i.e. technophobic church, world-spanning semaphore chain, redesigns to muskets and cannon all pretty much direct lifts from Heirs of Empire). If you can get past that part, it's a good read.

Personally, I liked the opening part the most with humanity's last desperate flight from the Gbaba most of all. I'd hoped to see more of them. Ah, well.

It was a bit slow in parts (though not as much as Hell's Gate), especially with all the political intrigue but I liked the final battles; Weber does good war. There were some funny bits as well (like when Merlin goes swimming). All in all though, it felt like an introduction: nothing is resolved with the Gbaba nor really Safehold itself.

I know Weber's going to do at least one other novel for Tor books

, which is probably/hopefully a sequel to Off Armageddon Reef.

When did he start writing for Tor and not Baen.

[B5B7]

I liked the beginning of the book - with the Gbaba menace.
But I was thrown off by the retardness of the main theme of the book Spoiler

that have two groups advocating two solutions - i. do a strategic retreat and develop the technology to be able to fight the enemy ii. pull an ostrich act - use some bullshit technique to wipe everyone's memories of hitech; flea to a planet and settle it as medieval world and hope enemy won't find you. AND the advocates of this second position somehow are the one's who get enough influence and power to enact their policies [one would think the military would just tell them to get stuffed, and kill them].
The ending had some good bits with the secret resistance's revolt against the retard faction.

[end spoiler]


It's a large novel [I personally skipped much of it, but might read that some other time] and it is disappointing that it is actually the first book in a series - no indication of this on cover. If the first option was followed [retreat and build up tech to be able to confront Ggaba] I wouldn't mind if it was more than one book.
It's amusing that Weber has yet another novel with a race that is hellbent on wiping out humanity [& other races] - as in his Starfire novels and The Apocalypse Troll.

[Bladed_Crescent]

More spoilers:

When did he start writing for Tor and not Baen.

He's still working for Baen on the Hell's Gate and Honorverse series, in addition to a couple other projects, including an expanded version of Path of the Fury.

i. do a strategic retreat and develop the technology to be able to fight the enemy ii. pull an ostrich act - use some bullshit technique to wipe everyone's memories of hitech; flea to a planet and settle it as medieval world and hope enemy won't find you. AND the advocates of this second position somehow are the one's who get enough influence and power to enact their policies

They tried the first method a several times. The Gbaba kept finding and killing them, tracking at least one colony by the electronic emissions of their technology. Which makes the "retard" faction somewhat less retarded for saying: "Hey, let's not have those emissions in the first place."

And there was more to it then 'hoping'; they fled away from the Gbaba for ten years, with a provision for another ten-year flight if anything seemed wrong at the first site. And since they were giving up technology, there'd be no electronic signatures for passing Gbaba scouts to detect. The mind-wipe was supposed to make living on the planet easier since the colonists, despite being selected for this mission, had grown up in a highly industrialized society. They couldn't take the risk that someone would indulge in a "harmless" bit of nostalagia and get them all killed.

If there's no 'high' technology there's nothing for Gbaba scouts to pick up, they might believe that humanity's dead and stop looking. Then, the colony has a chance to pick up itself back up to a technological level where the Gbaba can't just squash them. That was the plan; it may not have been the best plan, but it was the only one Earth had, what with every other colony being hunted down and killed and Gbaba scouts infesting their remaining star systems.[/i]

[Dahak]

More spoilers:

When did he start writing for Tor and not Baen.

He's still working for Baen on the Hell's Gate and Honorverse series, in addition to a couple other projects, including an expanded version of Path of the Fury.

Well, his expanded version of Path of the Fury is already done.