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| By Schism Rent Asunder | 
 enlarge | Author: David Weber
Publisher: Tor Books
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $14.57
You Save: $11.38 (44%)
New (28) Used (9) Collectible (2) from $14.46
Avg. Customer Rating:  28 reviews
Sales Rank: 2364
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 512
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.1 x 1.7
ISBN: 0765315017
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780765315014
ASIN: 0765315017
Publication Date: July 22, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
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Product Description
The world has changed. The mercantile kingdom of Charis has prevailed over the alliance designed to exterminate it. Armed with better sailing vessels, better guns and better devices of all sorts, Charis faced the combined navies of the rest of the world at Darcos Sound and Armageddon Reef, and broke them. Despite the implacable hostility of the Church of God Awaiting, Charis still stands, still free, still tolerant, still an island of innovation in a world in which the Church has worked for centuries to keep humanity locked at a medieval level of existence.
But the powerful men who run the Church aren’t going to take their defeat lying down. Charis may control the world’s seas, but it barely has an army worthy of the name. And as King Cayleb knows, far too much of the kingdom’s recent good fortune is due to the secret manipulations of the being that calls himself Merlin—a being that, the world must not find out too soon, is more than human. A being on whose shoulders rests the last chance for humanity’s freedom.
Now, as Charis and its archbishop make the rift with Mother Church explicit, the storm gathers. Schism has come to the world of Safehold. Nothing will ever be the same.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 23 more reviews...
 Middle book in a long series July 24, 2008
15 out of 18 found this review helpful
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.
superb title, but an interstitial text July 22, 2008
14 out of 18 found this review helpful
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.
Good but not great July 23, 2008
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
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.
 good book, not as good as the prequil July 26, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I enjoyed reading this book. It seems that this book is setting up for the 3rd installment of the series. It doesn't have nearly as much action as the first book OFF ARMAGEDDON'S REEF but, it is still very good. Mr. Weber spent most of this book on the church ( alot of talk ) and not the military or the "big get evens" that I thought he would. I hope the next installment of the story will have more of what made the first book so very very good and left this book somewhat lacking in my opinion.
 Excellent Continuation of Safehold Saga July 26, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
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.
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