By Heresies Distressed

Safehold Series, Book 3

By: David Weber

Narrated by: Jason Culp

Length: 24 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

In David Weber's By Heresies Distressed, the battle for the soul of the planet Safehold has begun.

The Kingdom of Charis and the Kingdom of Chisholm have joined together, pledged to stand against the tyranny of a corrupt Church. The youthful Queen Sharleyan of Chisholm has wed King Cayleb of Charis, forging a single dynasty, a single empire, dedicated to the defense of human freedom. Crowned Empress of that empire, Sharleyan has found in Cayleb's arms the love she never dared hope for in a "marriage of state." In Cayleb's cause, his defiance of the ruthless Group of Four who govern mother Church, she has found the task to which she can commit her mind and her courage. It is a cause for which she was born.

Yet there are things Sharleyan still does not know. Secrets Cayleb has not been permitted to share, even with her. Secrets like the true story of humanity on Safehold. Like the intricate web of lies, deception, and fabricated "religion" which have chained humanity for almost a thousand years. Like the existence of the genocidal alien Gbaba, waiting to complete mankind's destruction should humans ever attract their attention once more. Like the existence of a young woman, Nimue Alban, nine hundred years dead, whose heart, mind, and memories live on within the android body of the warrior-monk she knows as Merlin.

And so Empress Sharleyan faces the great challenge of her life unaware of all that task truly entails...or of how the secrets the man who loves her cannot share may threaten all they have achieved between them...and her own life.

Listen to more in the Safehold series.

©2009 David Weber (P)2009 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“From the clean, enunciated tones of Merlin, to the faint Scottish accent of Cayleb, to the gruff and terse voice of Grand Inquisitor Clintan, Culp manages to convey a distinct identity through tone, pitch, accent and speech patterns of each character.” —KingoftheNerds.com

“The unabridged audiobook version of By Heresies Distressed...is masterfully narrated by Jason Culp. The excitement and tension of dramatic events...come across even more strongly to a listener than to a reader.” —BookLoons.com

Narrator Preference

My only complaint was that I preferred the narrator of the first two Safehold audiobooks.

Narrator

Need to use the same narrator throughout the series. It is disconcerting to have different people reading and pronouncing things differently as well as how the characters speak.

The Empire Expands

Started this series by Weber while waiting for the next Honor Harrington book to come out. This is book three in the series and I am beginning to know Safehold very well. King Cayleb of Charis and Queen Sharleyan of Chisholm have married and combined the two countries to make an Empire and added the country of Emerald. They are now at war with the country that killed Cayleb's father. Weber does great battle scene and I wished there were a bit more and less religious polictics in the story. The story has enough intrigue and suspense to keep me interested. They changed the reader from Oliver Wyman to Jason Culp and that was noticeable. I wish publishers would learn to keep the same narrator through-out a series. The change is noticeable and effects the story.

like the books before it in the series, GREAT BOOK

Great Book, seamlessly continues the story . The story continues with the same quality, continuity, and cant put it down quality of the books before it in the series.

dragging the story

parts of this book dragged. the story needs to flow better. the first and second book flowed the story better.

Really didn't like the narrator

The narrator, Jason Culp was quite bad. Made the book much less enjoyable. A real step down from the previous narrator.

Great story by David Weber, did not care for narrator

I have and all the other Safehold books and truly enjoy them along with all of the Weber's other works. The first two audibles in this series were just wonderful. This one I don't care for the narrator at all. His voice does not have enough variety for the different characters and his pseudo Scottish accent is very tiring.

Hard to get into...

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I really really hate it when they switch narrators part way through a series. It breaks the immersion for me and makes it hard to get into the story while you are trying to adjust to the completely different flow of dialogue. :(

close to great

Like all the other books from David Weber this one is worth listening to. The first thing you going to notice is that there's a Different Narrator, the loss of Oliver Wyman the old reader isn't so big that this book isn't worth getting. It's painful in the beginning but as the story went on I found that I liked the new guy just as much if not more so, I would for sure listen to more books narrated by Jason Culp.

More of the same

By Heresies Distressed continues much as By Schism Rent Asunder. Glacial and deliberate.

Character development and plot are consistent and make sense, but the narration move too slow for my taste. If Conquerring one safeholdian nation after another, one boot at time, is the intended modell of the series, then I will stop listening.

The change in narrator, and with it the new rythm and less consistent "character-voices" for the lead characters, were hard to get used to.