A Mighty Fortress

Safehold Series, Book 4

De: David Weber

Narrado por: Jason Culp

Young Cayleb Ahrmahk has accomplished things few people could even dream of. Not yet even thirty years old, he’s won the most crushing naval victories in human history. He’s smashed a hostile alliance of no less than five princedoms and won the hand of the beautiful young Queen Sharleyan of Chisholm. Cayleb and Sharleyan have created the Charisian Empire, the greatest naval power in the history of Safehold, and they’ve turned Charis into a place of refuge for all who treasure freedom.

Their success may prove short-lived. The Church of God Awaiting, which controls most of Safehold, has decreed their destruction. Mother Church’s entire purpose is to prevent the very things to which Charis is committed. Since the first attempt to crush the heretics failed, the Church has no choice but to adopt some of the hated Charisian innovations for themselves. Soon a mighty fleet will sail against Cayleb, destroying everything in its path.But there are still matters about which the Church knows nothing, including Cayleb and Sharleyan’s adviser, friend, and guardian— the mystic warrior-monk named Merlin Athrawes. Merlin knows all about battles against impossible odds, because he is in fact the cybernetic avatar of a young woman named Nimue Alban, who died a thousand years before. As Nimue, Merlin saw the entire Terran Federation go down in fire and slaughter at the hands of a foe it could not defeat. He knows that Safehold is the last human planet in existence, and that the stasis the Church was created to enforce will be the human race’s death sentence if it is allowed to stand.The juggernaut is rumbling down on Charis, but Merlin Athrawes and a handful of extraordinary human beings stand in its path. The Church is about to discover just how potent the power of human freedom truly is.

©2010 David Weber (P)2010 Macmillan Audio

Just OK

The book was OK, a lot of background detail and not much progress in the overall story.

Great Story and finally buttoned up narration

Finally the narration team responsible for this title got it together. In The last installment of the series, we had a new narrator. An extremely experienced and usually excellent narrator, but it all went south and ruined the entire book pretty much. This is the same narrator, except this time the voices make a bit more sense, since the last installment it seems the narrator chose a better voice for one of the main characters (Merlin) and I guess the people responsible for editing this decided to use the same voices this time instead of having a character sound five different ways throughout the book. Bravo! The writing wasn't ruined this time! I can't imagine what caused the last one to be so terrible, and then this one works out pretty well. But whatever caused all that to be straightened out, thank you!
As for the work itself, the written word, I enjoyed it. The think about works from this author is that you either like them or you don't, they are wordy, and the author plays out every little bit of conversation and intrigue which not everybody likes, but I really do. I will say that I can't argue that this one is about the slowest and wordiest in the author's history but okay, luckily I like that.

wow

loved it the battle were great. I loved the way the author was able to make it seem so personal

Follows the format/theme

Would you consider the audio edition of A Mighty Fortress to be better than the print version?

Didn't read the paper version

What did you like best about this story?

It's an intricate, ongoing story. Not for casual readers. This series develops slowly, but the overall concept works.

What about Jason Culp’s performance did you like?

Adequate, but not up to first books.

switching narrators

The book is good.Don't get me wrong, but they keep switching narrators.This does not seem like a big deal, but it is.It affects the immersion of the book you've listened to the book, and a person has sounded one way 4223 books.And then all of a sudden, they sound totally different, and they pick someone with a totally different accent