How Firm a Foundation

Safehold Series, Book 5

By: David Weber

Narrated by: Charles Keating

Length: 28 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

The Charisian Empire, born in war, has always known it must fight for its very survival. What most of its subjects don’t know even now, however, is how much more it’s fighting for. Emperor Cayleb, Empress Sharleyan, Merlin Athrawes, and their innermost circle of most trusted advisers do know. And because they do, they know the penalty if they lose will be far worse than their own deaths and the destruction of all they know and love.

For five years, Charis has survived all the Church of God Awaiting and the corrupt men who control it have thrown at the island empire. The price has been high and paid in blood. Despite its chain of hard-fought naval victories, Charis is still on the defensive. It can hold its own at sea, but if it is to survive, it must defeat the Church upon its own ground. Yet how does it invade the mainland and take the war to a foe whose population outnumbers its own 15 to one? How does it prevent that massive opponent from rebuilding its fleets and attacking yet again?

Charis has no answer to those questions, but needs to find one… quickly. The Inquisition’s brutal torture and hideous executions are claiming more and more innocent lives. Its agents are fomenting rebellion against the only mainland realms sympathetic to Charis. Religious terrorists have been dispatched to wreak havoc against the Empire’s subjects. Assassins stalk the Emperor and Empress, their allies and advisers, and an innocent young boy, not yet 11 years old, whose father has already been murdered. And Merlin Athrawes, the cybernetic avatar of a young woman a thousand years dead, has finally learned what sleeps beneath the far-off Temple in the Church of God Awaiting’s city of Zion.

The men and women fighting for human freedom and tolerance have built a foundation for their struggle in the Empire of Charis with their own blood, but will that foundation be firm enough to survive?

Listen to more in the Safehold series.

©2011 David Weber (P)2011 Macmillan Audio

Why are you complaining about the narrator?

What did you like about this audiobook?

The narrator is OK. The story is still interesting. I like it.

How has the book increased your interest in the subject matter?

Dunno =)

Does the author present information in a way that is interesting and insightful, and if so, how does he achieve this?

Yep

What did you find wrong about the narrator's performance?

Nothing really bad.

Do you have any additional comments?

No

good book

like the first reader better. his voice is too old and he changed the characters accents

The narration is not that bad

Lots of reviews slam the narration but I didn't think it was that bad. This is the third narrator in the series and each of them has had different accents and pronunciations. Overall I thought it was a good book and that the narration was acceptable if not great.

Outstanding book in a fantastic series.

Simply well written, seductively slow building to a great finish. Sometimes a book makes you forget your reading, and not watching a movie.

Cannot just change voice actors

This new voice actor was good. HOWEVER you cannot have a series as long as this and switch actors on us. It is jarring to have grown used to everyone sounding a certain way and now everything everything is different.
The story was good thought and the plot is finally shifting and getting interesting..

Narration much better than I expected

Based on some of the reviews of the narration here, I'd hesitated to buy. I have to disagree with the low reviews of Keating as narrator. He does not try to give strong dialect identification to his voices, but he's an excellent story teller. I even went back and listened carefully to previous volumes in the series. For my money, he's the best of the three narrators. Admittedly, with such a big cast of characters, a unique dialect "tag" was useful to keep things straight. Still, for the same reason, the accents were getting a bit strained and -- frankly -- wore on my ears after a while. Personally, I prefer a really high-quality voice like Keating's for such a long book.

Personal peeves from a former sailor. "Forecastle" is pronounced "folk-s'l." "Leeward" is pronounced "loo-ard." It's really jarring to hear these words pronounced in such a lubberly fashion.

This review is limited to the narration; but, yes, it was also a very good book -- actually better than the last one in the series.

Great Writing, Audio Falls Below Standard

The story was excellent, but the narrator was not the right fit for the series. Made each character seem very old, even the young ones, and spoke in a droning, monotone voice. I almost stopped listing because of my disappointment for the narrator, but the story pulled me back in.

Took some time

As with any new narrator...it takes a little while to get use to the voices. However, once you do that, the story really picks up and is very enjoyable (the "torture" and "terrorist" acts not considered). I hope it does not take so long for the next book to come out.

Great story, not so great narration.

Book 5 of the Safehold series is just as excellent as the first four books. Exciting action, a story of truly epic proportions, philosophically and religiously deep in thought, How Firm a Foundation continues to hold my full attention from the first word to the last.
What made this one hard for me was the narrator. He has a good speaking voice, but shows little change in tone or inflection from one character to another. This is especially true of the female and young characters.

Best Narrator Ever!

What made the experience of listening to How Firm a Foundation the most enjoyable?

This series has been a great listen. Charles Keating has breathed new life into the characters.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Merlin, of course. What a curious hybrid of old lore and tech.

What about Charles Keating’s performance did you like?

His voice just fits.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Too many to list.