Archive for June, 2010

Written By: David Weber

Published By: Tor

Pages: 608

Summary Judgement:  David Weber’s first volume in the “Safehold” series fuses the best elements of military science fiction with 17th century European intrigue.  While the book won’t appeal to everybody, it is not without its charms.

Off Armageddon Reef begins at the end of Human civilization.  The Terran Federation, which is exactly what it sounds like, is on the verge of total destruction.  A malevolent race of extraterrestrials called “the Gbaba” – which sounds like something I’d yell at a sheep while on a bender – has devastated the worlds of Man, thus necessitating the creation of a Noah’s Arc.  While the Gbaba burn the Earth, humanity establishes a new civilization on the far-flung planet Safehold.  Unfortunately for humanity, the plan to lay low before restoring humanity to its technological greatness does not quite pan out.  Prior to emerging from cryogenic suspension, all of Safehold’s colonists have their memories of Earth, Arabic numerals, the metric system and faster-than-light travel stripped away.  To preserve humanity, Safehold’s administrators utilize false history and an oppressive religion, complete with an inquisition, to keep the last vestiages of humanity in perpetual technological stagnation, thus safe from the Gbaba’s energy seeking probes.  To Weber’s credit, all of this happens inside of 100 pages.

The story then skips ahead eight hundred years.  The shared lie of human history, reinforced by the doctrine of the Church of God Awaiting, has kept Safehold at a constant technological level similar to that of late 17th century Europe.  Enter Nimue Alban or rather, the consciousness of Nimue Alban downloaded into an android body.  Nimue’s resurrection is the result of a schism within Safehold’s founders.  These dissenters rejected the idea that humanity should remain perpetually ignorant of its own history.  Thus, Nimue awakes to find herself alone, immortal and armed with all the information she would need to restore humanity to its past glory.  Adapting the guise of a warrior/monk/mystic named Merlin Athrawes, Nimue begins her quest in the novel’s principle location, the Kingdom of Charis.  I suppose the pseudonym is appropriate considering the character embodies Deus Ex Machina in every sense of the term.  While the choice of nomenclature did, literally, evoke a groan, the character’s role as provocateur, catalyst and heretic to the Church of God Awaiting drives this novel in a fascinating direction.

While we are on the subject of protagonists, I know I have probably said this before, but it bears repeating; I resolutely believe it is a cardinal sin for sci-fi writers to create a protagonist smarter than the author.  It’s one of the reasons why I didn’t find myself enraptured with Ender’s Game.

“Oh  you’re so good at the Battle Room, Ender.”

“Yes I am and I have no further comment because you’ll never understand how good I actually am.  Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go cry.”

Although Merlin is the one-eyed man in the land of the blind, Weber does an excellent job keeping him accessible to both the audience and the book’s characters.  The remainder of the dramatis personae, initially, seem a bit dull.  The King of Charis, his crown prince and their first councillor fit fairly comfortably into the good guy archetype established in Frank Herbert’s Dune: A wise king beloved by his subjects, his impetuous but honourable son and the grumpy commoner elevated to the inner circle based solely on his merit.  To compensate for keeping squarely within the boundaries of character creation, Weber gives some of his more formulaic characters an unusually robust personality.  Sadly, nuanced personalities are few and far between when dealing with the book’s various antagonists.  Most of those who plot the downfall of the Kingdom of Charis seem a little too evil for the sake of evil.  One in particular, Prince Nahrmahn of Emerald Island, seems like a complete waste of bad-guy potential.  There is no doubt in my mind that Weber can write a complex character so why not extend that ability to the villains?

Weber also deserves praise for thoroughly researching his history before writing Off Armageddon Reef.  In so much as this is a book about restoring humanity, it is also a science fiction adaptation of the protestant reformation.  The Church of God Awaiting easily stands in for any heavy handed, dogmatic institution in human history.  As Merlin gently nudges Charis toward developments that flirt with the Church’s proscription against advanced technology, a reader can’t help but marvel at Weber’s ability to dissect several centuries of human advancement into its component parts.  Nowhere is this talent more evident than in Merlin’s reforms to the Royal Charisian Navy.  Already the foremost naval power on Safehold, Merlin’s revolutionary ideas (square rigged schooners, copper bottomed boats, standardized cannons with pre-packaged powder charges) fast-forward thorough generations of naval and scientific innovation.  At times, the book feels more in line with one of Patrick O’Brien’s Jack Aubrey novels, than it does a sci-fi epic.  However, my countless hours spent reading British naval logs while in grad school, only created a deeper appreciation for Weber’s attention to the smallest nuances of sailor jargon.

While Weber’s ability to translate the starship battles of his “Honor Harrington” series to the sea battles of Safehold is commendable, it does lead into one of my complaints about the book.  If you have ever sailed or if you know anything at all about naval warfare, the book’s ending is very predictable.  I won’t say anything specific lest I spoil things for people.  The only consolation for this predictable ending is that the final act is as well crafted as the rest of the novel.  I also found the phonetic spelling of character names to be a bit of an unnecessary gimmick.  Did Eric Langhorne, the architect of Safehold’s religion and false history, fear that proper spelling and syntax would somehow lead the Gbaba to humanity’s refuge?  For example, King Harold of Charis spells his name, Haarahld.  A few typos that see people’s names printed in the common spelling, which in no way impacts the book’s tone or quality, only underscores the redundancy of phonetic trope.

Ultimately, the challenge of a book such as Off Armageddon Reef is that in existing between genres it runs the risk of alienating its potential audience.  While Merlin has access to a venerable arsenal of advanced weapons and knowledge, he uses them in the same non-intrusive way that The Doctor uses his Sonic Screwdriver – it might move things along but it never saves the day.  Merlin’s knowledge and abilities are a mere catalyst for advancing the primitive technology and politics of Safehold.   The book is a compromise between military science fiction and historical fiction.  Like any compromise, Off Armageddon Reef, runs the risk of leaving all parties feeling unsatisfied.  The strength of such an interesting fusion is that the blended genre might appeal to people who normally breeze past the sci-fi section.

While you may not need to run screaming to the book store to pick up Off Armageddon Reef, it is certainly a solid read.  Keep it in mind the next time you want something new but don’t quite know where to start.

Overall Score: 77%