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

Beautifully read

Weber is as good as usual : a bit longish for me about ships and riffles on the one side, but complex, rich politics and characters.

I would like to insist here on the superb performance of Oliver Wyman. It felt like I was in the middle of it all. I'll look forward to other books he read.

a Connecticut yankee in king Arthur's court

aside from a few minor plot holes this is a great story. the narration performace was excellent.

On Concerning Observation:

No characters with ethic origins from below the equator on old earth. There are Asians but no “south” Asians, there are Americans but no Americans of African decant or from South American and absolutely no Africans. Apparently the Gbaba managed to target all humans darker than Hispanics or North Asians

Not as entertaining as it promised to be early on.

Very good narration, but I found the book -- after an interesting beginning -- too drawn out, and more 15th century naval adventure than sci-fi.

Glad I didn't read it

Writing was a little pedestrian actual story line kept me engaged. Love the idea hope writing improves while I wait for the next three body and expanse

Good story, great narration, mediocre writing

So I love the concept and premise of this story, and the story it's self is very compelling and a great journey.

The Narrator was excellent, at least he was when he wasn't brutally murdering that scottish/Irish accent.

The writing could have been better. Every major character was known by at least 3 different names (eg first name, last name, king of X, Duke of X etc) and the use of those names was so inconsistent it was amazingly difficult to keep track of who exactly was talking.

Not to mention, all the ships were named after locations and names that belonged to people and places that the story used all the time, it was often hard to determine if they were talking about a ship or an actual person or a physical location.

There were also many times where characters would repeat their thoughts 2 or 3 times over the course of a chapter, and it often became tedious with just how often and how detailed the author described a particular characters thoughts. He never left the reader to fill in any gaps, and never let the reader figure out any logic. The characters had to constantly explain everything which just made me feel frustrated that he couldn't trust me to be a smart reader.

8/10 would recommend to others but won't read again.

gripping

a very powerful almost allegorical novel of faith, war, and corruption. I had enjoyed when I read the book but listening to it gave me a new appreciation for the quality of the writing.

middle with star travel

Story like Star Ocean but with tons of politics. it is bit slow 1/4 of the book but brimming with action.

Great Series. A true master work of fantasy.

This series is one of the greats. Just the right balance of personal insight without bogging down in too much touchy feely nonsense. Battles on a grand scale and personal combat that doesn't take whole paragraphs to describe a sword stroke. I dig it.

this book though slow at some points is amazing

this book was amazing to listen too while I worked my awful dish washing job