Through Fiery Trials

Safehold, Book 10

By: David Weber

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

Length: 32 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

With new alliances forged and old regimes fractured, Merlin—the cybernetic avatar of Earth's last survivor and immortal beacon to humanity—and the colonies of Safehold have many adventures ahead in Through Fiery Trials, the continuation of David Weber's New York Times bestselling military science fiction series.

Those on the side of progressing humanity through advanced technology have finally triumphed over their oppressors. The unholy war between the small but mighty island realm of Charis and the radical, luddite Church of God's Awaiting has come to an end.

However, even though a provisional veil of peace has fallen over human colonies, the quiet will not last. For Safehold is a broken world, and as international alliances shift and Charis charges on with its precarious mission of global industrialization, the shifting plates of the new world order are bound to clash.

Yet, an uncertain future isn't the only danger Safehold faces. Long-thought buried secrets and prophetic promises come to light, proving time is a merciless warden who never forgets.

“Vast, complex, intricate, subtle, and unlaydownable....The biggest thing in science fiction since Isaac Asimov's Foundation series.” — Dave Duncan on the Safehold series

Safehold Series
1. Off Armageddon Reef
2. By Schism Rent Asunder
3. By Heresies Distressed
4. A Mighty Fortress
5. How Firm A Foundation
6. Midst Toil and Tribulation
7. Like A Mighty Army
8. Hell's Foundations Quiver
9. At the Sign of Triumph
10. Through Fiery Trials

©2018 David Weber (P)2019 Macmillan Audio

This narrator killed the story dead

He mispronounces everything! God this is hard to get through, really really hard. I had to force myself to listen because I love the story, but this narrator butchered everything! He must not have listened to any previous books or talked to the author at all about pronunciation. What a horrible thing to do to such an amazing story. Very disappointed and very let down.

Long Convoluted But Good

Very long story. There are some holes and some of the discussion can get a bit tedious but they appear to at least heading somewhere and not worth quitting over. There's even a who-done-it? Schuler or Merlin at the end. We'll have to wait for the next instalment.

Great addition to the Series

Despite many pronunciation errors (Terran) and inconsistencies in character accents compared to previous installments by the performer, the content was riveting most of the time.

Very long book

This book did not have enough plot movement for the length of it. It could have had 20hrs cut from it and I would have gotten as much out of it. Will I buy the next in the series? Of course. If you are hooked on the series you have to read it but don't expect very much action.

Not a normal book for David

This book it feels was more a set up for more books to come it felt like. I love Davis Weber's books for his deep understanding of military tactics and weaponary. This book though was a far deperture from that though. The book focused more on world building without any true combat driving the story. Hopefully the next book will have more combat related content.

so many meetings....

Just waiting for something to happen. 18 years, lots of marriages, lots of deaths, and nothing else happens.

who wrote this

I have read every other book in the series and this book did not feel like it was written by the same person I don't know what's changed but it just felt different. I also think that if they're going to get a new person to read the book that person should go back and listen to how the actual characters have been betrayed before so that I can at least try to duplicate it..

Good story, horrible narrator.

I had trouble finishing this book even though the story was interesting. The amount of words this man mispronounced was crazy. Did he not take the time to listen to how other performers had pronounced them or did he just decide to make it his regardless of the previously good readings. If he reads the next book in the series I won't be purchasing it from audible, I'll have to get the paper edition.

Hope this book is setting the stage for the rest..

As always Weber's books are detailed and deep with back ground information. This is what makes him an appealing author for my taste. The current book in the Safehold series was very detailed but slow with little action. Having read nearly every book David Weber has written I feel confident that he was setting the back ground for the next books in the series. So I will definitely be waiting for the next books. I gave the story 4 stars only because it tended to drag.
The narrator was good no problem with his skills. I only gave 4 stars because they changed in mid-series.

Great Story, as Usual, But FIRE the Narrator!

Some of the Safehold books have been read by performers who had difficulty pronouncing some of the proper names, which is understandable since many of those names have unusual spellings. Still, it shouldn't have been too much trouble to listen to a bit of the earlier books to be consistent. Jonathan Davis, however, has difficulty with more than a few regular, common English nouns. For example, he pronounces "Terran," an extremely common word in science fiction and regular usage, more like Tehran, the capital of Iran. Honestly, I expect better from a big publisher like Tor. Was this audiobook's producer asleep in the studio? I still highly recommend this book, but I ground my teeth for over thirty hours at the performance. I look forward to Weber's next Safehold book and strongly hope that Tor can find a better performer to read it.