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| By Schism Rent Asunder | 
 enlarge | Author: David Weber
Publisher: Tor Books
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $13.51
You Save: $12.44 (48%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  62 reviews
Sales Rank: 12394
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 512
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.1 x 1.7
ISBN: 0765315017
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780765315014
ASIN: 0765315017
Publication Date: July 22, 2008
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Product Description
The world has changed. The mercantile kingdom of Charis has prevailed over the alliance designed to exterminate it. Armed with better sailing vessels, better guns and better devices of all sorts, Charis faced the combined navies of the rest of the world at Darcos Sound and Armageddon Reef, and broke them. Despite the implacable hostility of the Church of God Awaiting, Charis still stands, still free, still tolerant, still an island of innovation in a world in which the Church has worked for centuries to keep humanity locked at a medieval level of existence.
But the powerful men who run the Church aren’t going to take their defeat lying down. Charis may control the world’s seas, but it barely has an army worthy of the name. And as King Cayleb knows, far too much of the kingdom’s recent good fortune is due to the secret manipulations of the being that calls himself Merlin—a being that, the world must not find out too soon, is more than human. A being on whose shoulders rests the last chance for humanity’s freedom.
Now, as Charis and its archbishop make the rift with Mother Church explicit, the storm gathers. Schism has come to the world of Safehold. Nothing will ever be the same.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 57 more reviews...
 Weber's skill shows, but the concept isn't new. August 9, 2008
26 out of 28 found this review helpful
By Schism Rent Asunder is the second book in a new series by David Weber. This book follows up on "Off Armageddon Reef," which established that the world called "Safehold" is a colony of humans that were brainwashed into scientific backwardsness to defend them from the attacks of a genocidal alien race. Set in a time where Safehold has the infrastructure of 17th century Europe and is controlled by a rigid overarching theocracy, "Schism" follows the political machinations in the aftermath of the failed attack by the Church's allies on the island nation of Charis int he first book. Assisted by Merlin, an android with the memories of a woman who died 800 years earlier after a mutiny on the colony ship that brought the people there, Charis prepares for all-out war by seeking allies to defend herself. Much of the content involves meetings, discusions and the like of the various factions involved in the conflict.
I picked up By Schism Rent Asunder recently and finished it today. As a long-time fan of David Weber, I've read most of what he's written over the years. Strangely enough, I didn't realize this was the second book in the Armageddon Reef series and never read the first book. To this book's credit, it does provide enough information in the books early pages to be read without reading the first book.
Weber's story takes a lot of influence from European history, and indeed, his writing shows that he has a lot of depth of knowledge in that subject both with period technology and politics, while throwing a in a dash of sci-fi as well. As always, his political plots are complex and somewhat thoughtful, and his characters black and white in philosophy.
The Safehold series is not particularly original. Other authors have done the theme of a futuristic wizard bringing the dark-ages into technological advancement, including fellow Baen author David Drake in the Bellisarius series. I read another novel like this back in the early 90's. Weber himself did this theme in his Heirs of Empire novel some years back. He even had a monolithic corrupted church as part of the story. Apparently Weber liked the idea so much he decided to expand it. This new series even has a genocidal race of aliens, much like the Heirs of Empire series.
I've made the observation that as he has become more popular and the editors have lifted their length restrictions, Weber's books have become longer, more plodding and filled with political discourse between characters.
Weber has a great ability to make interesting settings for his stories, but as he's progressed in his writing, I've found it more and more boring. It's not that his later books don't have action, or that I crave action, it's just that the expositionary politics ends up dragging down the story pace and overshadowing character development, sometimes almost unbearably. His earlier books, such as the Honor Harrington debut novels and the like were better edited story-wise and have far better pacing.
By Schism Rent Asunder is not a bad book, and it certainly has better story composition than some of the later Honor Harrington novels, but it has very little action and a glacial pace (the book's time frame is about 4 months, hardly any time at all considering the overarching story). I still liked it, but if one's reason for reading this book is because they like the action of Weber's novels, this one is going to surely disappoint. It's almost purely political and probably intended as a major bit of exposition between Off "Armageddon Reef" and his next book.
Still, despite the fact that reading this novel made me feel like I was reading a revised version of Heirs of Empire, I rather liked it. I look forward to see where the series goes. It's probably going to fill a lot of books at this rate. For fans of Honor, this could be bad news... It looks like a new subject has Weber's attention now.
 windy August 20, 2008
21 out of 27 found this review helpful
I have been a fan of Weber for a long time, but it is getting difficult to hang in there. This book is OK, but does not expand the story all that much. Also, it is hard to get into the characters, let alone remember their names. He must like "y's" My biggest gripe is "the story" Between the political discussions ad nauseum, and the military discussions, ditto, the story gets lost in the shuffle. Honor Harrington set everything out by example and told a hell of a story. Once Weber started explaining every little thing, things deteriorated and he needed an editor with a very large blue pencil which noone ever provided. Too bad. However, if you skip the rambling, there is a story there somewhere and it is readable, when you don't care to take your time. It sure doesn't grab you though, which some of the previous books did.
Middle book in a long series July 24, 2008
18 out of 22 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed the first book in the series "Off Armageddon Reef". This book has less action and more political detail. Some of Merlin's secrets are revealed to others and several unexpected alliances are formed. By the end of the book we still have a long way to go to reach the expected conclusion. Based on the pace of the first two books this could easily become a six or ten book series. All in all Weber creates a consistent believable world. Schism Rent Asunder makes me yearn for the next book in the series.
superb title, but an interstitial text July 22, 2008
14 out of 18 found this review helpful
Do you like poetry? If so, the title should appeal. Of all the fiction novels I've read in recent years, it stands as the best title, to me. The deliberately stilted cadence is a provocative evocation of an earlier era. Akin to Lincoln's archaic formulation of the first sentence of the Gettysburg Address. Weber's title fits beautifully as a perfect and literal summary of the book's plot. It is not even a metaphor. Naturally, there is more to the book than its title. But I felt it worthwhile to praise Weber on an inspired choice.
How about the plot? I will try to refrain from any spoilers. Other reviewers will assuredly have no such compunction.
One difference with the earlier book is that the current story seems to have fewer combat scenes. Instead Weber spends exhaustive time fleshing out the dimensions of the struggle. Blending two periods in our history. One is a reworking of the Protestant Reformation and of England in the time of Elizabeth I facing predominantly Catholic Europe. The other is the Napoleonic Wars. The technology and tactics are set in the latter. While the religious kerfuffle is in the former.
Some readers and reviewers might complain about the seemingly interminable religious and political back and forth. We have seen this before in Weber's Harrington series. Some of the later books in that delved into the social and political structures of the warring states. So too here. I suspect he prides himself (and rightly so) in being able to build out a fully formed world.
Weber is adept at this. Plus, given the Harrington series, this book reads like an interstitial effort. He is laying the groundwork for more climatic episodes later. Also, like Turtledove or Stirling, he is stringing out the plot into as many books as possible. Daresay the next book will not be the last of this series.
One persistent frustration is the unfinished business from the start of the first book. When most of humanity was exterminated by aliens. The series chronicles a climb back into space. But will we ever get to a return encounter? Of course, the palliative for smiting the aliens is the bopping of the reactionary human opponents, and we will have to be content with that.
 Excellent Continuation of Safehold Saga July 26, 2008
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
While this book may not have as many combat scenes as some would want, the author continues to build the safehold world. The one thing (besides combat scenes) that David Weber truly excels at is world building.
I'm definitely looking forward to reading By Heresies Distressed when that comes out.
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