Through Fiery Trials

Safehold, Book 10

By: David Weber

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

Length: 32 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

With new alliances forged and old regimes fractured, Merlin—the cybernetic avatar of Earth's last survivor and immortal beacon to humanity—and the colonies of Safehold have many adventures ahead in Through Fiery Trials, the continuation of David Weber's New York Times bestselling military science fiction series.

Those on the side of progressing humanity through advanced technology have finally triumphed over their oppressors. The unholy war between the small but mighty island realm of Charis and the radical, luddite Church of God's Awaiting has come to an end.

However, even though a provisional veil of peace has fallen over human colonies, the quiet will not last. For Safehold is a broken world, and as international alliances shift and Charis charges on with its precarious mission of global industrialization, the shifting plates of the new world order are bound to clash.

Yet, an uncertain future isn't the only danger Safehold faces. Long-thought buried secrets and prophetic promises come to light, proving time is a merciless warden who never forgets.

“Vast, complex, intricate, subtle, and unlaydownable....The biggest thing in science fiction since Isaac Asimov's Foundation series.” — Dave Duncan on the Safehold series

Safehold Series
1. Off Armageddon Reef
2. By Schism Rent Asunder
3. By Heresies Distressed
4. A Mighty Fortress
5. How Firm A Foundation
6. Midst Toil and Tribulation
7. Like A Mighty Army
8. Hell's Foundations Quiver
9. At the Sign of Triumph
10. Through Fiery Trials

©2018 David Weber (P)2019 Macmillan Audio

Please hire Oliver Wyman as narrator and keep him!

I was so excited to see that there was going to be more in this series. I start to listen to this book and was like darn a new narrator...but no problem.

Wrong!
Character voices sound like a western cowboys at times. Harchong voices are good though.
Mispronunciation of (well established) names and places.
A few mispronunciation of normal words. ex. monastery hes says mom ustery

The constant mispronunciation of names and places will grates your nerves. This is the 10th book in the series. Take the time and listen to how the names have been pronounced in the previous books. I'm going to try and push threw this and hope the next book has a better narrator....PLEASE LET IT BE OLIVER WYMAN

**UPDATE: I will be returning this book. Narrator has ruined this book. Also read on Weber forums that Oliver Wyman will not be narrating any more of Webers books because of a added line in the 9th book. Weber got mad and picked this new guy.

What About Contitunity?

I am writing this after only listening to the first few chapters and I'm probably not going to listen to the rest. If you haven't listened to the first 9 books then you shouldn't have any issues with the narration. If, however, you have listened to the rest of the series (4 times) you might wonder why the narrator didn't bother to listen to at least book 9. If he had he might not have changed every single character's personality, speech mannerisms, pausing, voice stresses and any other way possible I can think of to disconnect this book from the first 9. Why would the author let him do that? I am, for the first time, extremely disappointed with David Weber. Not for what he wrote but for what he allowed to happen to what he wrote.

I came back and changed the star rating after listening to just another half hour after writing the above. I can't believe, and I really can't believe, how terrible the narration makes this book. I'm returning this one and trying to decide whether or not to read the book rather than listen to it.

I did it again. I went back and listened to 10 more minutes and felt I had to come back and say again...WHY!

I miss Oliver Wyman

While I enjoyed the story, every time Davis misprounced the words "Terran" and "Tellesberg", or was inconsistent with the accents of various characters, I wanted to throttle him. This series has had 5 different narrators by now and while I remember the egregious mistake Wyman did on the previous novel, he still managed to maintain a high degree of consistency in his performance. And Davis' performance bothered me enough to consider returning the audio book and just get an electronic copy. His voice was however as pleasant as others and wasn't as droning and sleep inducing as the narrator for the 5th novel so I hope he talks to the author about pronunciation and accents if he stays on for the next book.

This reader KILLS, MURDERS, DESTROYS this story.

Not sure I can even go beyond this first hour! Cannot stand to listen to this one. Get a different narrator!!!!!
And at this rate I will be returning this before I can even finish the book.

This narrator killed the story dead

He mispronounces everything! God this is hard to get through, really really hard. I had to force myself to listen because I love the story, but this narrator butchered everything! He must not have listened to any previous books or talked to the author at all about pronunciation. What a horrible thing to do to such an amazing story. Very disappointed and very let down.

Turons of Tellsburg -J Davis' Fiery Trial

After Kevin T. Collins butchered every key pronunciation Midst Toil & Tribulation; I had to ponder if it was possible to do worse. Well, it is possible.

I don't understand it, Mr. Weber. Is it Mcmillan Audio that sticks you with a narrator like Collins or Davis? Is it ARROGANCE or IGNORANCE that gives us performances like these?

How hard would it be to insist a narrator listen to enough of Oliver Wyman's 5 narrations, Jason Culps 2, or even Charles Keating?
Collins was the worst up until now:
Nimue was NIM U AY
Merlin was Athraws not Ath thraw es.

Now Davis has Tell is burg as Tells burg and
Terran becomes TUR-ON :
Both of these say PIE KA instead of Peeca

I am a confirmed SAFEHOLD addict. I have the entire audio set on my FIRE tablet and the set has played through prior to every new release. I figure I've listened to most of the series 8 or 9 times. I truly enjoy and appreciate these incredibly dense and detailed works of art.

OLIVER WYMAN IS GREAT - Jason Culp is very fine - Charles Keating was not a problem - but hearing Collins and now Davis butcher key pronunciations is like fingernails on a blackboard.

I noticed Weber's note in my Honorverse Series concerning the pronunciations where he took the blame. I wonder how Weber or McMillian can put up with narrators who can't take the time to learn how to pronounce Narman, Charleyann, Nimue, Athrawes, Terran and Tellisburg?
Davis really butchers Twerio - PICA Nimue's chosen last name. THIS IS EMBARRASSING :oops:
I am certain I would not wish to offend Safehold audio listeners with butchered pronunciations. I cannot imagine the mindset of Collins or Davis. Is it arrogance or ignorance - The Wyman and Culp pronunciations are available in 7 40 hour novels. How hard would it be to get it right?

Who sits down to read a new addition to an established series without knowing how to pronounce the KEY NAMES?
THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THIS INATTITION TO DETAIL Weber's work is too good to be butchered like this.

The new narrator threw me

I am about 10 hours into the book, I am considering just reading the rest on my own and listening to something else when I drive because the narrator is pronouncing names differently and giving characters different accents that what I am use to with the series. I know this is the 4th or 5 narrator for the these books, so I am use to change.

Don’t get me wrong, the narrator did a great job of speaking clear and smoothly. It breaks the immersion for me when I am correcting his pronunciation however I would suggest skipping this one. I always listen to the previous books in the series before a new one is released so this might not be an issue for others.

Disappointed in quality.

I'm half way thru this book and I have two problems with this version. First is the way it's recorded the volume goes up and down and is annoying. The second is the reader, if I didn't want to know how the series progresses I'd return it, worst narrator I've heard in a long time. The book is a typical David Weber book well written. I'm adding to my original review, the narrator is getting more and more on my nerves. I have a hard time believing D W oked this horrible reading. Second the quality of the recording itself is aggravating as it rises and falls in volume(no other book I have does this). I'm going from a 2 star to one star.

I've finished the book and hope they never use Mr Davis as narrator again. I enjoyed the book and for the book I'd give it 4.5 stars but the reading is so bad I have to stay with one star.

voice actor sucked, where is Mr. Oliver Wyman?

I'd enjoy this series much better if Mr. Oliver Wyman continued reading or give the narration to this sieries!

Oliver Wyman is missed

Overall this is a good installment of the series and as a David Weber fan, I'm happy I got it. But Jonathan Davis obviously did not do his homework re. characters' voices and location pronunciations. While I might give him a pass on voices (although why he tries to make Merlin sound like Moses preaching from Mt. Sinai I'll never know) how in the world does he think the world "Terran" which comes from the word Terra is pronounced "Ter-RUN"? When he's doing simple narration the book is fine but he fails when the characters are bantering back and forth and he does not have any feel for accents. For some reason he falls into pseudo Russian accents and he can't seem to hold an accent through a scene. He would have been better off not having accents at all as the language of Safehold would have been pretty standardized through the church anyway. I think I'll switch to reading the book as Davis' narration is at best subpar for the series.

well, that's 32 hours of my life I won't get back.

The idea behind the Safehold series was good, and the first book set up a reasonable world building concept and story. Religion being a fundamental (sic) story prop. However the authors tendency for verbosity, religious fervour and rightwing ideals became more and more to the fore throughout the series culminating in this glorious example of republican propaganda.
The innumerable and unending descriptions of births and weddings amongst the squeaky clean "good guys" and their glorious altruism was too good to be true. The characters without exception being one dimensional and unbelievable.. no faults of character.. all perfect examples of humankind spreading the word of God to the unbelievers and misguided heathens....
I stuck through it because I have never quit on a book that I've bought, but here I was seriously tempted. Of the 400 + audio books I've purchased this is one of the very few I've written a review about and the only one I would advise avoiding at all costs...
the narrator was reasonable and quite articulate except when attempting female voices. but no complaints.. I'll be sending this back for a credit refund...

Probably the most tedious in the series so far.

Let's face it, if you have gotten this far (book 10) you - like me - will probably feel you kinda need to go on despite the flaws in this series. But 'Through Fiery Trials' is, unfortunately, probably the most tedious in the Safehold saga to date.

Be prepared to do a lot of fast forwarding through David Webber's excruciatingly irritating female characterisations in order to get to the 'good bits'. It's a mark of just how overinflated this book is that skipping segments in no way detracts from the reader's grasp of the overall storyline.

Despite the book's obvious negatives - however - I still give the story four stars as the basic premise (the core plot) is an intriguing one. Also, when the action finally gets going is is quite a 'ripping yarn'. I'll probably end up listening to more in this series and just grin and bear having to skip through the 'gooey' bits (to use one of Webber's own words).

You're going to get it anyway

let's face it - once you're this many books into a series you're largely commited to it but this installment is a real let down

Narrator ruined the book

Mr Weber I hope you do read these reviews.
A waited for audiobook which failed to impress after the first few hours I regretted the purchase, all down to the Narrator I will have to eventually read the book instead and hope that is worth the purchase, I have all other books of the set 1 - 9 in hardback but the mistake of not listening to any narrator before accepting him to read the audiobook is a very disappointing newbie error, which Mr Weber should of learned but obviously has not, I don't expect the narrators to sound the same but I do expect continuity with pronunciation which I am sorry to say was totally missing.

I cannot in all honesty recommend this audio book my advice is wait for Mr Weber to realise and force another narrator or read in paper or kindle

The narration is almost unbearably bad

This narrator just can't get the phrasing of the sentences right. The pauses are in the wrong place, the emphasis is on the wrong words in almost every sentence. I just can't stand it, and this is after listening to all the previous books!

Haletant

J'adore, il me tarde la suite de cette fantastique épopée. des personnages attachants, un peu de fantastique pas trop vraiment génial.

a bit of a dull one for the series

just not enough excitement in this installment. i hope we see more progress and action in the next

great story, poor narration

wasn't keen to the narration. to dramatic compared to the previous book. the book itself I enjoyed

lost the plot,too many characters

the first books were good then went down hill story line lost direction. no more

Through Fiery Trials: Safehold

Couldn’t stop listening to the audio book production.

The descriptions of the explosive aftermath of war, injustice and repression were heartbreaking.

Really enjoyed learning what happened to the characters I have come to know and love from the previous instalments. I was caught up in following the many narrative strands in the twists and turns of peacetime rebuilding after the worldwide civil war, shifting loyalties and political intrigue. There were echoes of current political events in the Siddarmark plot line.

I found the Merlin/Nimue developments imaginative, thought provoking and challenging. I was also sad as some of the older characters disappeared from view.

As this was so packed with new elements, I really hope we don’t have to wait too long for the next story. I am going to go back and listen to this again.