Like a Mighty Army

Safehold, Book 7

By: David Weber

Narrated by: Oliver Wyman

Length: 27 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

For centuries, the world of Safehold, last redoubt of the human race, lay under the unchallenged rule of the Church of God Awaiting. The Church permitted nothing new - no new inventions, no new understandings of the world.

What no one knew was that the Church was an elaborate fraud - a high-tech system established by a rebel faction of Safehold’s founders, meant to keep humanity hidden from the powerful alien race that had destroyed old Earth. Then awoke Merlyn Athrawes, cybernetic avatar of a warrior a thousand years dead, felled in the war in which Earth was lost.

Monk, warrior, counselor to princes and kings, Merlyn has one purpose: to restart the history of the too-long-hidden human race.

And now the fight is thoroughly underway. The island empire of Charis has declared its independence from the Church, and with Merlyn’s help has vaulted forward into a new age of steam-powered efficiency. Fending off the wounded Church, Charis has drawn more and more of the countries of Safehold to the cause of independence and self-determination. But at a heavy cost in bloodshed and loss - a cost felt by nobody more keenly that Merlyn Athrawes.

The wounded Church is regrouping. Its armies and resources are vast. The fight for humanity’s future isn’t over, and won’t be over soon…

©2013 David Weber (P)2013 Macmillan Audio

narrator and story

narrator is so much better. story was a touch slow. overall makes us for horrendous narrator in book 6.

Interesting story about the advancement of warfare

Some reviewers complain the story moves too slowly. I did not find this to be so. I really enjoyed the detailed explanation of why characters made the choices they did.
Perhaps the biggest irony in the story is how Weber goes to great lengths to paint Clintahn as a bully and yet the feminist Nimbue is every ounce the bully Clintahn is and may be worse since Nimbue is not supposed to be insane like Clintahn is.

Predictability goes out the window

Right as I was starting to consider this series stale, predictable, and unchanging, Weber puts together a stunning story with many twists and turns. The narrator, which narrated the first 2 books and has been the best by far, also contributed to the greatness of this book. Excited to read the next one!

enjoyed the next installment

moved the story forward and some good battles fought. thought the narrator did a good job with the voices and tone, definitely worth a listen.

This is a book on accelerated history.

Would you consider the audio edition of Like a Mighty Army to be better than the print version?

Probably better, but never read the print version

What did you like best about this story?

The detail in the historical buildup. I am following the series for the thought experiment on guided technological bootstrapping, I get frustrated with the books that are more on character development or politics (being up front with my review.)

What does Oliver Wyman bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

It's a good read, I can listen to it when I drive.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Battles of the Next World.

Any additional comments?

The next book will be interesting. This was a "The Tide Turns" book - the next one will probably make or break the series as it'll have to make a new challenge for the entire story.

much better narrator than the previous book

great narration, great story, I can't wait to listen to the next.

the previous narrator was sub par to say the least and hearing this narrator was a breath of fresh air.

Another Excellent Addition to the ongoing saga

Excellent continuation of the series and on going development of the series. This series reads like a medieval war series with a sci-fi twist to it. More like an anthology of related stories then one focused story with a limited set of character and one objective easily resolved in the last chapter. This series has may side stories and uses them to show how even side characters can contribute or cause the failure of the prime characters, series is interesting in that the author takes the time to develop side characters and treat them like real people with strengths and weaknesses with their own interest and lives rather then card board cut outs their as back ground staging for the core story characters. This is definitely a story best read from the beginning, some of the books might be stand alone episodes but the reader is likely to get lost when concepts previously developed in prior books are touched upon. The level of detail and development makes this series best read or listened to in a beinge, each book is long about 700 pages of 25 hours in audio format so the 10 entries in this series will take time but very well worth it if you like epic level stories.

Oliver Wyman

Oliver Wyman has a much better reading voice than the previous books reader. Very enjoyable.

the tide turns

One of the previous narrators was better at differentiating the voices and accents. But the battle narrations was outstanding.

Finally back to the original narrator!

What made the experience of listening to Like a Mighty Army the most enjoyable?

Getting back to Oliver Wyman, who read the first two books in the series.

Have you listened to any of Oliver Wyman’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes, back to the original "voice"

Any additional comments?

I just hope they stick to the same narrator for the rest of the series.