Off Armageddon Reef

Safehold Series, Book 1

By: David Weber

Narrated by: Oliver Wyman

Length: 29 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

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 android, Merlin, emerges into Safeholdian society to begin the process of provoking technological progress, which the Church of God Awaiting has worked for centuries to prevent. To conceal his formidable powers he finds a base of operations in Charis, a mid-sized kingdom with a talent for naval warfare, where 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 David Weber's Off Armageddon Reef is going to be the can't-miss Sci-Fi epic of the decade.

Listen to more in the Safehold series.

©2007 David Weber (P)2006 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC

Critic reviews

“Wyman rises nicely to the near Herculean challenge of performing this 30-hour epic. His clear, expressive reading never falters while he skillfully navigates his way through a labyrinth of plot twists and multiple characters. Whether describing high-tech space battles or the covert activities of courtiers and spies, Wyman brings Weber's intricate world of Safehold to life.” —Publishers Weekly

First of 3, Very good.

This is meant to be the first of 3 books (I think I read it in EW). Weber is normally fast and 3 books turn into 5. I think his style and writing have improved since his "Honor" books.

JB

A book worth more than two credits

A mystery/adventure that will interrupt your sleep cycle, and worth every second of the time.

Classic David Weber

If you are familiar with Honor Harrington and David Weber’s other writings, you’ll likely enjoy this novel. In an unusual future-history, Weber exchanges his classic deep space battles for 17th century navel battles, but the level of detail remains.

I quite enjoyed his take on how humankind would intentionally abandon technology and revert to a theology. But as could be predicted, after time, the people didn’t all react as the ‘angels’ had wanted. The level of political intrigue and plotting felt very though out, and contrived to a rich new world. My only complaint would be the lack of action toward the middle of the book slowed it down some – something the several of Weber’s books suffer from, and I would have given it four and a half stars if I could. Overall though, it was a good read.

People expecting a book full of space ships and aliens will be disappointed, but if you’re looking for a different twist on future history, consider ‘Off Armageddon Reef.’

It's not Sci-Fi…

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I wouldn't have printed it. Or I would have called it 'Deus Ex Machina'.

Would you ever listen to anything by David Weber again?

I might. The guy has some good ideas for sure. He's still on my list.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The performance was not bad given the material. I'm not knocking the narrator who did a nice job.

Was Off Armageddon Reef worth the listening time?

No.

Any additional comments?

I wanted to like this. I really did. I love really long books. After listening to half a dozen mainstream [and heavy] novels, I was looking for some space opera: a long, involved space yarn. This ain't it. Oh no.

This is a story about medieval navel tactics, period, and it drones on, and on, and on, and, well, on. Do you care about sail patterns and rigging? This is your novel.

The only SF in the novel? It's used to explain some odd plot points. And, yea, the overall idea is fairly intriguing. It is and I won't give it away here: in a far future an implacable foe is killing off human colonies, so the humans setup a colony with no tech whatsoever thinking that the aliens won't be able to find a planet that depends on horses. Great idea, right?

So they get a bunch of human volunteers and they somehow 'wipe' their memories, implanting new ones that accept an agrarian world of serfs, castles, and duplicitous church officials. Are you bored yet?

But it's just boring boring boring: King this, Earl that, Church officials, all kinds of chicanery in detail that fails to move the plot or add depth/interest to any of the characters. The protagonist is a robot plunged into a world of humans made to think they are living in a world where the church rules- like Europe in the middle ages.

He convinces the King that he has 'visions', which are actually intelligence gathered by very hi-tech bugs; there visions provide intel on enemy movements. Boring. Boring.

I'm within 9 hours of completion. And I'm calling it quits. I can't take it.

Did I mention it's not SF? And it is boring?

Honor Wrestles with God

If you could sum up Off Armageddon Reef in three words, what would they be?

Honor Meets Hornblower

What was one of the most memorable moments of Off Armageddon Reef?

Merlins first meeting with Caleb - Saving the life of th eyoung Prince after being set upon by 12 assassins

Which character ??? as performed by Oliver Wyman ??? was your favorite?

Oliver captured the book beautifully - but I was particularly impressed with Narmin Bates.

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

An Android from the past must overcome a 1000 year old Theocracy to lead humanity back to the stars.

Any additional comments?

I love to read and love David Weber's series - but this story takes on new life under Oliver Wyman's audio presentation.

This book sure made me raise an eyebrow.

as an active sci-fi listener i was amazed with the concepts the author put forward. sadly the execution of the concept was not to my liking. the book was more of a, 18th century naval officers dream rather than a sci-fi epic.

Another classic Weber tale

Delightful characters, more fable than epic tale but so enjoyable. At times you could use a character chart as there are many names, places, titles and dynastic orders but all in all a great listen. A funny fusion forester and heinlein

Interesting premise with good execution

If you could sum up Off Armageddon Reef in three words, what would they be?

Interesting False Genesis

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

Diverse and interesting character voices. This makes it easy to tell characters apart.

Any additional comments?

I really liked David Weber's worldbuilding in this series and how he set up the scenario. I find stories where humanity actually loses the big battle interesting so to have a series start right after these events is great. The steps the protagonist takes to adjust to and influence a late middle ages society is well done.

Weber tends to describe political intrigue and military science in detail so this may bore some. Unfortunately his characters in this series, like other series of his, have very black and white personalities.

This book has good pacing and you can tell is aimed at setting up the story for future entries. Weber does this very well.

a great listen

over the years I have listened to this series several times and love the narrator

Best narrator I've EVER listened to.

What made the experience of listening to Off Armageddon Reef the most enjoyable?

The author's character development was rather amazing, and I really enjoyed the completely believable thought processes as they were so clearly laid out. Yes, it was easy to like the "good" guys and dislike the bad guys; but none of the characters' personalities were unrealistic (note that I am not referring to the lead character here). To the contrary, the theme has many "historical" similarities to the moral and religious fictions and "truths" of our own planet.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Off Armageddon Reef?

I was simply AMAZED at the narration. Oliver Wyman had a different voice for each of the 20 - 30 (more?) speaking characters, and pulled off each of them perfectly. I may not choose to listen to further books by this author; but I DO intend to make a list of books narrated by Oliver Wyman.

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

Oliver Wyman is the best narrator I've ever listened to, bar none.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Not possible.

Any additional comments?

Perhaps because I did not listen to the book in just a day or two (took me about 2 weeks on and off), it was quite difficult for me to keep track of the entire cast of characters; same problem with the geography and all of the different "countries" and oceans on this planet of Safehold. Candidly, many of the players' names sounded similar to me . . . and I often had to keep listening until they said or did something -- good or bad -- for me to be reminded of who they were. Then again, I don't remember things as clearly as I once did. :-)