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| Off Armageddon Reef | 
 enlarge | Author: David Weber
Publisher: Tor Books
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  118 reviews
Sales Rank: 19801
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 608
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.5 x 1.7
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
ASIN: B00132Q10M
Publication Date: January 9, 2007
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Product Description
Humanity pushed its way to the stars – and encountered the Gbaba, a ruthless alien race that nearly wiped us out.
Earth and her colonies are now smoldering ruins, and the few survivors have fled to distant, Earth-like Safehold, to try to rebuild. But the Gbaba can detect the emissions of an industrial civilization, so the human rulers of Safehold have taken extraordinary measures: with mind control and hidden high technology, they’ve built a religion in which every Safeholdian believes, a religion designed to keep Safehold society medieval forever.
800 years pass. In a hidden chamber on Safehold, an android from the far human past awakens. This “rebirth” was set in motion centuries before, by a faction that opposed shackling humanity with a concocted religion. Via automated recordings, “Nimue” – or, rather, the android with the memories of Lieutenant Commander Nimue Alban – is told her fate: she will emerge into Safeholdian society, suitably disguised, and begin the process of provoking the technological progress which the Church of God Awaiting has worked for centuries to prevent.
Nothing about this will be easy. To better deal with a medieval society, “Nimue” takes a new gender and a new name, “Merlin.” His formidable powers and access to caches of hidden high technology will need to be carefully concealed. And he’ll need to find a base of operations, a Safeholdian country that’s just a little more freewheeling, a little less orthodox, a little more open to the new.
And thus Merlin comes to Charis, a mid-sized kingdom with a talent for naval warfare. He plans to make the acquaintance of King Haarahld and Crown Prince Cayleb, and maybe, just maybe, kick off a new era of invention. Which is bound to draw the attention of the Church…and, inevitably, lead to war.
It’s going to be a long, long process. And it’s going to be the can’t-miss SF epic of the decade.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 113 more reviews...
 The Wizard Merlin March 20, 2007
40 out of 54 found this review helpful
Off Armageddon Reef (2007) is the first SF novel in a new series. Humans have been expanding through space for hundreds of years without finding any other spacefaring species. In 2368, however, they found the remains of another civilization that had been thoroughly destroyed. Although some argued that the aliens had committed suicide, most supported the development of a real space navy.
Ten years later, the Terran Federation Navy encountered the Gbaba. The TFN thoroughly lost its first battle with the aliens, but took out some of the enemy. The aliens then systematically killed every remaining human in the system. This scenario became the rule for the next few decades.
In 2421, the TFN managed to sneak out a squadron of ships to establish a holdout colony. A prior effort had worked for a while, but eventually the Gbaba located the colonists, probably through the characteristic emissions of advanced technology. The current group of refugees was supposed to revert to primitive technology and multiply for several centuries until the Gbaba became less alert.
Eric Langhorne, civilian chief administrator of Safehold, made some radical changes to the original plan to ensure that all high technologies -- and even the scientific method -- were suppressed. One of the key points was a modified psychological profile imposed upon the colonists, which established the Church of God Awaiting with Langhorne and his department heads proclaimed as Archangels. Another was the erasure of all knowledge of the Gbaba.
Some of the administrative council objected to these changes and moved away from the main colony to Alexandria, where they maintained records for all human history. Langhorne ordered Alexandria destroyed. Kinetic missiles crossed and recrossed the site with high energy strikes until every body was vaporized. The area was filled with craters, forming Armageddon Reef, and was thought to be haunted by demons.
In this novel, Nimue Alban awoke within a cave in the Mountains of Light some eight centuries later, or did she? A holographic recording explained to her that the real Nimue Alban had died in battle with the Gbaba. She is the PICA -- Personality-Integrated Cybernetic Avatar -- of Nimue and her job is to prepare the colony for battle against the Gbaba.
Mother Church is still running the colony, although it has direct control only in the Churchlands. The hierarchy of archbishops and other clerics strongly influence the nation states elsewhere in the world, but communication delays preclude effective management of the peripheral nations. Moreover, the Church is mostly guided by secular concerns and the archbishops spend more time at the Temple of God than in their nominal lands.
Charis is among the richest of the peripheral nations, with the largest fleet of ocean-going vessels. King Haarahld VII is the current ruler of Charis. The kings of Charis are unusual in that they feel responsible for the well-being of their citizens. These kings have encouraged a number of innovations that have eased the life of the citizens and increased their individual wealth.
Crown Prince Cayleb is heir to the throne of Charis. Like his father, Cayleb feels a personal responsibility for the citizens of Charis. When he hears of a slash lizard terrorizing a small town near the capital, Cayleb tries to slip out to hunt the lizard. Unfortunately, his marine guard refuses to be left behind, so he has five others to tag along in the hunt.
Unknown to Cayleb, he is the target of another hunt. A group of mercenaries has followed him into the hills. When the slash lizard is killed instead of the Prince, the mercenaries attack the small party. Then the mercenaries learn that they too have been followed and another person has become involved.
Merlin Athrawes is really Nimue Alban in a slightly modified body -- it is now male -- and a slightly different personality. His arrival doesn't worry the mercenary commander until he tries to parry the first slash of the intruder's strange sword. When that sword cuts through his own weapon and decapitates him, he doesn't have much time to be anxious.
Merlin saves the Prince, disposing of more than his share of the mercenaries, but two of the marines are killed. After a short -- and somewhat vague -- explanation of his presence, Merlin accompanies the Prince and his surviving bodyguards back to the palace. Then the King interviews Merlin and tentatively accepts him as companion and personal bodyguard of the Prince.
In this story, Merlin has his own agenda for Charis, but convinces the King that his aims are for the betterment of the nation state. He passes on some technological concepts to a selected group of military and commerce advisors and is amazed at the resulting inventions. He may have initiated the projects, but the locals have turned the basic concepts into hardware.
Merlin also spends some time protecting the royal household and advisors. However, he points out one flaw in their security that no one is quite ready to believe without more evidence. When he is found to be correct, Merlin is accepted as an essential advisor to the King and Council.
Merlin finds that almost everyone on Safehold strongly believes in God and Mother Church. Yet many of the rulers recognize the secular ambitions of the clergy and use massive bribes to win church support for particular goals. In many respects, this wholly fabricated Church reflects the politics and venality of the Eastern Church during the Byzantine Empire and the Holy Roman Catholic Church prior to the Reformation. Some of these scenarios were probably lifted whole from church history, with names changed to fit the story.
This story is a rather modified variant of the advanced technology wizard tale. Since Cecil Rhodes essentially used this approach to found Rhodesia, few could argue with the credibility of this plot. Many other tales have used this plotline -- e.g., Lest Darkness Fall -- but this one has several enhancements, including the use of an immortal android as the main protagonist.
The name Merlin is suggestive of his role in the story, but the Safeholders probably lack knowledge of King Arthur. However, one wonders at the name Nimue. Of course, any character with this name should know of the Arthurian saga, but maybe the author just chose such names to pay tribute to these tales.
Highly recommended for Weber fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of cultural engineering, technological explosions and interesting characters.
-Arthur W. Jordin
Mediocre Weber but Great Book January 16, 2007
36 out of 47 found this review helpful
In my opinion, the is just a mediocre effort by David Weber. That makes it a great book because even his off days produce great work.
The situation is this: Humanity is about to be wiped out by an alien species. A last ditch attempt is made to send out a colony that will avoid detection by the aliens in the hope that humanity will somehow survive. The key to this plan is to forswear all advanced technology that could lure the aliens in at least for a while. In time, after the search is over, perhaps they can develop advanced methods to deal with the stagnant aliens.
The ship makes it but there is a problem. The leaders of the expedition are megalomaniacs with the all too common attitude that "somehow, it must all be our fault". They change the parameters of the mission. Technology is suppressed altogether, except for the leaders. The colony is planted and the people are taught that the leaders are agents of God, and expect to be venerated and obeyed as such. They have no desire ever to confront the aliens again.
Some of the leadership does not agree with this policy and the two faction wipe themselves out leaving just the ill prepared colonists to survive at a pre industrial level. That brings us to the beginning of the real story.
An electronic copy of one of the losing officers has been cached with some supplies. After nearly a thousand years, that electronic copy is awakened to try to set things right. To do so, she must guide a rebellious kingdom towards technological advancement while avoiding having that kingdom wiped out by the all powerful but corrupt church. She's got quite a job ahead of her.
Webber does what he does best as he guides the reader through the political and military conflicts that are to come. This book takes the heroine through her first appearance and effort. Expect many sequels.
I don't expect to like this series nearly as well as some of his other ones but I like it just fine. Its going to be an interesting slog back towards technological civilization.
 WEBER IS GETTING REALLY SLOPPY September 3, 2007
28 out of 32 found this review helpful
My wife and son and I love David Weber, but this is one of a number of recent very disappointing books that have taken Weber off of my family's "automatic buy" list. Although Weber's action scenes are as good as ever, Armageddon Reef just doesn't work. The plot holes are gaping and intrusive and the stylistic defects are annoying enough to detract seriously from the story.
The worst plot hole is Merlin, the AI/android who is the story's protagonist. We are supposed to believe that mankind has been locked for centuries into a desperate life-and-death struggle against a large, implacably hostile, but only slightly more technologically advanced civilization. Furthermore, these aliens do not innovate at all; their tech base is completely frozen. Obviously, humanity's only hope is to force the pace of science and technology development.
At the same time, we are told that humanity has the ability to produce AIs that duplicate in every way the minds, memories, knowledge, and abilities of specific living humans. Merlin thinks, feels, and acts in every way like the real person he is based on, except that he has superhuman strength, reflexes, and mental processing speed.
So of course, in these desperate circumstances, mankind would use this technology to replicate its leading scientists, engineers, technicians, and military cadres, vastly multiplying the productivity of its R&D efforts and making it much easier to staff its star fleet. Need a dozen Einsteins? You got 'em. Need 20 copies of your greatest fleet Admiral? No problem. Need 600 starship engineers, all with the knowledge and abilities of the greatest starship engineer available? Coming right up! Oh, yes...the copies think and act faster than the originals, never need to eat or sleep, and never get fogged out by fatigue or distracted by bodily aches and pains.
Um, no. Weber tells us that this technology is used ONLY for RECREATIONAL purposes! We are supposed to believe that the human race would let itself be wiped out rather than make use of a technology that could easily multiply its scarcest intellectual resources a hundred-fold. Nor are there any ethical considerations that would explain it. After all, this is the same society that creates a secret colony by MIND-WIPING tens of thousands of colonists. Apparently they have no problem with the idea that desperate times require desperate measures.
I'm as willing as the next SF lover to believe 6 impossible things before breakfast, but the conventions of SF require that the impossibilities at least be logical and internally consistent. This is neither. It's just plain dumb...sloppy, self-indulgent, contemptuous of the reader, and DUMB.
There are other gaping plot holes, but compared with that one they seem trivial.
The worst stylistic problem is Weber's treatment of names. The book is written in early 21st century English. All of the place names are written normally. Yet ALL of the character names (except Merlin's) are bizarrely transliterated, using a pseudo-phonetic spelling. Weber takes normal names, substitutes vowels & consonants at random, adds H's, turns many different vowels into Y's, and changes J's, G's, S's, Ch'sand Sh's into Z's & Zh's.
Coupled with Weber's continued obsession with giving half of his characters "J" names, the result is hopelessly confusing. John becomes Zhan, Gerald becomes Zherald, Jason becomes Zhasyn, Janet becomes Zhanayt, Jennifer becomes Zhenyfyr, Jim becomes Zhym, James becomes Zhames, Jeeves (a valet - I kid you not!) becomes Zheevys, Jasper becomes Zhaspyr, Jack becomes Zhak, Joseph becomes Zohzef, Joshua becomes Zhoshua, Jacob becomes Zhaikeb, Johnson becomes Zhansan, Jepson becomes Zheppsyn, Jessup becomes Zhessyp, Jolson becomes Zhoelsyn, George becomes Zhorzh, Samson becomes Zahmsyn, and so on.
There is absolutely no justification anywhere in the book for the altered spellings. In fact, given that the colony world starts with an absolutely universal culture and language and that writing everywhere remains stable and uniform, the idea that the spelling of names - and ONLY names - would have drifted this far is patently absurd.
In addition, the proliferation of unintelligible but very similar names, loaded with Z's, H's, and Y's, balks the reader at almost ever line, utterly ruining the story continuity. I particularly treasured one section in which two minor characters named Zhaspahr Maysahn and Zhames Makferzahn - or is it Zhames Maysahn and Zhaspahr Makferzahn? - spend 3 pages talking and it is virtually impossible to tell them apart or to remember afterward who was a spy for whom.
Any author who creates a sprawling novel with many major and minor characters needs to give careful thought to naming his characters in ways that help the reader tell them apart. Making it this hard for the reader is either extremely sloppy or arrogantly insulting. The attitude it conveys is, "I'm so great I'm above the rules. I can shove any stupid thing down the reader's throat and get away with it." This attitude was evident in the later Belisarius novels and has become blatant in Armageddon Reef and Hell's Gate. Much as I love some of Weber's books, he's starting to remind me of another beloved author, Robert Heinlein, whose output became increasingly undisciplined, self-indulgent, and forgettable once he reached superstar status.
I would not recommend this book to anyone but a die-hard and completely uncritical Weber fan.
Nothing new, but well put together January 9, 2007
24 out of 28 found this review helpful
This book has a lot in common with Weber's Children of Empire: Both feature high-technology protagonists marooned on a more-or-less medieval planet where the only remaining high technology is treated as divine and used to prop up a monolithic organized church, which inhibits further technological progress theologically and culturally. Amidst this, both books involve the protagonist(s) inserting themselves into the most philosophically progressive country around, with fairly predictable results.
That said, Weber remains an interesting writer with a strong sense of imagery. The characters tend to group pretty easily into omni-competant moral paragons versus backstabbing morons, but frankly, the book is just so much fun to read that it doesn't matter. If you like Weber's style, naval combat with a twist, or plots of this general template, this is a book worth reading. Otherwise, it may leave you fairly cold.
David Weber's worst book January 26, 2007
17 out of 24 found this review helpful
Mr. Weber took nearly 200 pages to get to the real story, this entire section was pure torture to read and in fact the entire book was a long boring poorly written prologue. I felt like I was wasting my life reading this turd of a book.
Why didn't I toss it away? I guess I must be a masochist.
The main character's internal dialog was self-congratulatory, banal, silly and consequently very difficult to read.
Every significant event and plot device happened or was created to further the plot, normally this would be a good thing but not when it is as clumsily handled as it was here. For instance, the hostile aliens are technologically stagnant so 1000 years after the first attack, the brave human survivors could eventually match or surpass the alien technology.
I would urge Mr. weber to read Iain M. Banks' novel "Inversions" to learn how the "mysterious stranger" plot device is done.
This book sucks!
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