By Heresies Distressed

By Heresies Distressed (2009) is the third SF novel in the Safehold series, following By Schism Rent Asunder. In the previous volume, the Kingdom of Charis defeated Chisholm and Emerald and then incorporated them into the new Empire of Charis. Now the Charisian Empire prepared for the invasion of Corisande. Cayleb offered marriage to Sharleyan of Chisholm and was accepted. He was surprised to find himself in love with his new wife. She became involved in every Imperial council and secret, except the nature of Merlin and the reasons for the Church of God Awaiting. Cayleb and Merlin wanted to bring her fully into the conspiracy, but the others were reluctant to include her. In this novel, Merlin Athrawes is a PICA -- Personality-Integrated Cybernetic Avatar -- of Nimue Alban. She is over nine hundred years old and is masquerading as a male because females have less influence on Safehold. She is captain of Cayleb's guard and his secret advisor. Cayleb Ahrmahk is Emperor of the Charisian Empire. His empire consists of the nations of Old Charis, Chisholm and Emerald. Now the Empire is going after Corisande. Sharleyan Tayt is now Cayleb's wife and Empress of Charis. The former Queen of Chisholm is not a consort, but a co-ruler of the Empire. Nahrmahn Baytz is Prince of Emerald and is an advisor to the Emperor. Despite their former enmity, Cayleb is discovering that Nahrmahn is a likeable fellow and extremely intelligent. Hektor Daykyn is Prince of Corisande. Under orders from the Church, he led the attack against Charis. Now he is preparing for retaliation from the Empire of Charis. Vicar Zhahmsyn Trynair is Chancellor of the Council of Vicars of the Church. He is a member of the Group of Four. Vicar Zhaspahr Clyntahn is Grand Inquisitor of the Church. He is a member of the Group of Four. Vicar Rhobair Duchairn is Treasurer General of the Church. He is a member of the Group of Four. Vicar Allayn Maigwair is Captain-General of the Church. He is a member of the Group of Four. In this story, Emperor Cayleb sails away to punish Corisande and the Empress is left behind in Tellesberg. Cayleb first takes his fleet to Chisholm and meets Baron Green Mountain and Queen Mother Alahnan. Then he takes the combined fleet toward Corisande. The citizens of Chisholm are impressed by the Emperor. The citizens of Old Charis are even more impressed by the Empress. The Imperial couple are very popular at home. Merlin leaves with the Emperor. Yet he observes almost everything on Safehold through his remote sensors and reconnaissance platforms. He watches Sharleyan and her guards practice with pistols and Hektor build his army and navy. But Merlin cannot review all the information that his devices bring to his attention. Owl screens all the information, but the PICA does not have the capacity to download everything that Owl passes on. Merlin has to pick and chose which data to scan. Moreover, Merlin cannot observe within the Church Tem

As with Off Armageddon Reef and By Schism Rent Asunder, I've not been disappointed. True, this one didn't have the adrenalin paced naval battles of the first book, or the less frantic battles of the second, but it made up for that with the ground battle in Chisholm and the (SPOILER WARNING) attack on Empress Sharleyan. The latter of that, though short in the span of the actual event, IMO was as nerve wracking as the events leading immediately up to the last minutes of King Harahld's life. (SPOILER WARNING) Also I'm glad to have found that the intervention of Merlin, even if it came at quite literally the very last second, has brought the Sharleyan into the fold with Emporer Cayleb and Makail. Prince Hektor on the other hand I wasn't expecting to see killed off like he was. Also what should be interesting in the next book when it comes out, which I sure as hell HOPE there is another, is what Hektor's daughter Irys might have in store later on. What has my interest piqued about the ramifications of this 'Key' as mentioned in the second to last chapter of the book. I'm not sure if my translation of the exchange between the two characters there is right, but did Schueler somewhere set aside a tool that, although mention to not be made for use inside the Church, mean he never really trusted Langhorne? Thus he set aside something for the future generations to use as a weapon against 'Heresy', whether in the Church or not. I don't know...this is just one of the possibilities that comes to mind. But it will be interesting to see how events continue to unfold. In my own opinion, I hope that Zhaspyr Clyntahn gets what's coming to him. Now, no doubt Weber has the next installment in the works...ANOTHER YEAR IS TOO LONG TO WAIT! WAH!

I found all three books in the "Nimue Alban" series impossible to put down, and am sufficiently hooked that I had to pre-order this one to read as soon as it came out. When I had read it over every spare moment in the next two days, my next reaction was - 'Aargh - now I have to wait a year for the fourth installment ...' The three books in the series to date are: 1) Off Armageddon Reef 2) By Schisms Rent Asunder 3) By Heresies distressed As seems to be the case with everything David Weber writes, some people will love this series while others hate it. Not all the ideas are new: the story is an interesting re-working of a number of the ideas in a some of Weber's earlier books, particularly the Dahak trilogy ("Mutineer's Moon," "The Armageddon Inheritance" and "Heirs of Empire" - the whole trilogy has also been published as "Empire from the Ashes.) But IMHO Weber uses the experience he has gained in the meantime to re-use the same basic ideas much more effectively and with some original twists. For example, the alien attackers who are at war against humanity at the start of the first book, and the threat of whom hangs over subsequent books, will remind many Weber fans of the Kangas from "The Apocalypse Troll" and even more of the Achuultani from the "Dahak" trilogy. The anti-technological church which the heroes and heroines are struggling against throughout the first three books bears a striking resemblance to the church on Pardal in "Heirs of Empire," the third book in the Dahak trilogy. But in both cases the presentation of those ideas is even better done. The basic idea for the series is that in the 25th century, humanity finds evidence that other intelligent races have recently existed on nearby stars - but that a xenophobic alien race is exterminating them. The Terran Federation has just enough warning to make a fight of it when that enemy finds us and attacks ten years later. The war lasts fifty years - but at the end of that time it is obvious that humanity is losing. Operation Ark, a final desperate attempt to plant a colony outside the area patrolled by the enemy is launched. If they succeed, the colonists will face a choice: try to build a civilisation powerful enough to defeat the attackers, or abandon any technology which might attract their attentions and simply hide. The anti-technological faction in the leaderships of the new colony, Safehold win, and construct a totalitarian theocracy whose main aim is to stifle any technical change - but for eight hundred years nobody on the planet knew that it was a colony, that humanity has a deadly enemy out among the stars, and that the real reason for the ban on technology was to avoid attracting the attention of that enemy. But that situation has changed: eight hundred years after the founding of Safehold, a cyborg was activated which contains the mind and memories of Lieutenant-commander Nimue Alban, a brilliant tactician who had been one of the thousands of officers

For eight centuries plus on Safehold, the Church of God Awaiting has brutally censored technology. However, recently cybernetic avatar Merlin Athrawes as part of his job to protect the king of Charis introduced technological advances that enabled the island kingdom to accomplish the impossible, defeat the Church. However, the Church has not run the world with an iron fist for eight hundred years without adapting. Its operatives steal the enemies' weapons to mass produce them, encourage quislings to assassinate the adversary's leadership, and buy mercenaries to massacre rebels and civilians alike. The Kingdom of Charis may find its new freedom not long lasting as the Church of God Awaiting begins a concerted counter insurgency. The sequel to BY SCHISM RENT ASUNDER, BY HERESIES DISTRESSED is a fantastic science fiction political thriller. The Church demonstrates why it has succeeded for eight centuries with its stealing of the enemy's war technology as well as the usual stirring up the masses with a minor social issue (straight out of the Republican Party playbook) and supplement that with assassins and terrorists (straight out of the Taliban play book to bring hell on earth). The monarchy and their allies cannot agree on anything except their opposition to the Church (straight out of the Democratic Party's humongous tent strategy that invites all to join to get elected but fail to agree on solutions). The cast is solid though with the exception of Merlin and to a lesser degree the King of Charis none stand out; this especially enhances the saga as part of the Church's long term strategy is faceless except for God as much as possible. David Weber is at his best with this strong profound and relevant look at political plotting. Harriet Klausner

In this third book of Weber's //Safehold// series, things start heating up. Book One set up the situation; the last humans fleeing a genocidal alien race set up home on a new planet, Safehold, and are mentally programed to believe in a technological averse religion, patterned after the founders who set themselves up as Arch-angels. Because millions of colonists all remembered awakening at the same time, fully grown, seeing "miracles" ("Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" - Arthur C. Clarke ) performed by the Church, and none with memories of anything prior to the Awakening. When a schism between some of the founders results in the destruction of the dissident city by an orbital strike, and a retaliatory mini-nuke takes out the Church hierarchy, the citizens of Safehold continue to develop their world, while staying within the technological limits set by the Church. In the first book //Off Armageddon Reef//, after 800 years of uncontested power the Church has become corrupted, run by the Group of Four. They are mostly interested in worldly power, riches and comforts. The small island kingdom of Charis has become the target of their wrath, and they force several other nations to act as their catspaw. Some nations require more encouragement than others. At the same time, an android containing the conscientiousness of one of the original officers of the colonizing fleet awakes, and seeing the state of the world, decides to take an active role in educating Safehold's citizens as to their heritage. Merlin joins with King Haarahld of Charis, and his son Cayleb, and uses his technological skills and tools to help Charis destroy the fleets of four other nations, buying themselves time to build up a better defense against the Church directly. //By Schism Rent Asunder// was a much slower book, mostly conversations between key players, reacting to the events in //Off Armageddon Reef//. The Church has a hard time believing that the technological developments by Charis actually were that much of a deciding factor in the epic battle. Charis ramps up their production of new weapons, ships and tactics (mostly quietly encouraged by Merlin), and looks for new alliances and priorities. Cayleb, now king after Haarahld's death, proposes marriage to Queen Sharleyan of Chisholm, one of the countries that required a great deal of persuasion to join into the original attack on Charis. Charis also creates a new Church, and while most of their citizens support the change, enough see themselves as true believers to create a dangerous insurgency within Charis itself. //By Heresies Distressed// goes back to the active scenes that Weber does so well. There is still politics aplenty, but more battles, on sea and land. The Church has almost infinite resources, and now that they stop worrying about the "sin" of technology, they are better able to compete with Charis, putting more pressure on Merlin and Cayleb to stay one step ahead. Sharleyan,