Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)"Off Armageddon Reef" was the first David Weber-penned novel I've read, so I like to think that this can be a useful review for other readers who are also new to Weber. Time will tell, I guess. With no further ado:
WHAT I LIKED
1. The introduction to the new series rocked. I thoroughly enjoyed the setup involving the Terran Federation and the Gbaba Empire. And, while I enjoyed it, it was also sad because, over the span of three to four decades, the reader bore witness to humanity's gradual destruction at the hands of the ever-advancing Gbaba, despite our having taken the war to some of their worlds for a period of time.
2. The introduction of Safehold and how the administrators of humanity's last colony set up a system that ensured it would become stagnant, technology-wise, and, even worse, worship those same administrators as archangels and angels. As a person who loves learning new things and seeing society advance forward in general, it was for me to swallow seeing millions of people intentionally held down in the Dark Ages. Yet, at the same time, it was for their own good. To rise again too quickly would likely bring the Gbaba down on humanity's last hope, even if the colony was 10,000 light years beyond the former star systems of the destroyed Terran Federation. Heh. They should have split the difference -- keep humanity's remnant ignorant for say, 500 years, then let them begin learning again, about not only their lost past, but new things as well.
3. I became attached to a number of the characters, but in particular, Crown Prince Cayleb and King Haarhald, both of Charis. It's always a good thing when an author can make a reader care for at least some of the characters. Other characters that drew my attention included Nimue Alban/Merlin Athrawes and, oddly enough, Archbishop Erayk Dynnys. (I think I spelled the names correctly; if not, my apologies.)
4. The occasional use of ancient, advanced (and, mostly, lost) technology that was scattered throughout the novel.
5. Great description, especially of the space and naval battles. The writing was so good that there were times I winced and felt genuine sorrow for the crews, nameless as they mostly were, of these great starships and seagoing vessels that were being chewed up in the meatgrinder of war.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE
1. The bastardization of characters' names. Allow me to use some of the names I mentioned above: Erayk Dynnys, Crown Prince Cayleb and King Haarhald (these are just a few of the many, many such names readers will encounter in this novel). Almost every time I ran into these names, especially in the first third of the novel, they would throw me right out of the story, as I had to stop and figure out how to pronounce them. Throwing a reader out of the story is a *major* no-no, as I'm sure you're aware of, Weber. So why do it? And, no, that line about how pronunciations and spellings shift over the centuries doesn't work, especially when it's seemingly only people's names that are affected and nothing else.
2. Too much detail. Yes, I know it sounds like a contradiction to what I wrote in the "like" part of this review, but there were some parts of the novel, such as when a character was being introspective, where it simply got to be too much for this reviewer. C'mon! Let's move the plot along! Don't take 10, 15 or 20 pages detailing a character's (or group of characters) thoughts on a single issue, like, say, the development of a new type of cannon or gunpowder!
WHAT I HOPE FOR
1. "Armageddon" is but the first novel in a new series, judging from its jacket and whatnot. With this in mind, I sure as heck hope it won't be another four, six or eight novels before humanity gets back to 21st century technology and, beyond that, another 10, 12 or 14 novels before they're able to take on and (hopefully) defeat the Gbaba Empire. If that's the case, Weber, odds are I won't be along for the ride.
In closing, this new series by Weber has a great deal of potential. In fact, awesome potential. "Armageddon" only scratches the surface of the aforementioned potential (and it's pretty good). That said, don't drag the series out. That'll kill whatever potential there is, in my humble opinion.
M. Keck
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