Earth is dead. Humanity is hiding.
Invention, progress, change. . . all are forbidden.
Now it's time to change all that.
The science fiction epic of the decade begins here.
Humanity pushed its way to the stars—and encountered the Gbaba, a ruthless alien race that nearly wiped us out.
Earth and her colonies are now smoldering ruins, and the few survivors have fled to distant, Earth-like Safehold, to try to rebuild. But the Gbaba can detect the emissions of an industrial civilization, so the human rulers of Safehold have taken extraordinary measures: with mind control and hidden high technology, they've built a religion in which every Safeholdian believes, a religion designed to keep Safehold society medieval forever.
Eight hundred years pass. In a hidden chamber on Safehold, an android from the far human past awakens. This "rebirth" was set in motion centuries before, by a faction that opposed shackling humanity with a concocted religion. Via automated recordings, "Nimue"—or, rather, the android with the memories of Lieutenant Commander Nimue Alban—is told her fate: she will emerge into Safeholdian society, suitably disguised, and begin the process of provoking the technological progress which the Church of God Awaiting has worked for centuries to prevent.
Nothing about this will be easy. To better deal with a medieval society, "Nimue" takes a new gender and a new name, "Merlin." His formidable powers and access to caches of hidden high technology will need to be carefully concealed. And he'll need to find a base of operations, a Safeholdian country that's just a little more freewheeling, a little less orthodox, a little more open to the new.
And thus Merlin comes to Charis, a mid-sized kingdom with a talent for naval warfare. He plans to make the acquaintance of King Haarahld and Crown Prince Cayleb, and maybe, just maybe, kick off a new era of invention. Which is bound to draw the attention of the Church�and, inevitably, lead to war.
It's going to be a long, long process. And it's going to be the can't-miss SF epic of the decade.
About the Author
David Weber is a science fiction phenomenon. His popular Honor Harrington novels are New York Times bestsellers and can't come out fast enough for his devoted readers, and his novels have regularly been Main Selections of the Science Fiction Book Club.
In addition to the Honor Harrington series, he has written many top-selling science fiction novels, including Mutineers' Moon, The Armageddon Inheritance, Heirs of Empire, and Path of the Fury. Weber has also begun a top-selling epic SF adventure series in collaboration with John Ringo, with four novels so far: March Upcountry, March to the Sea, March to the Stars, and We Few. His novels of the adventures of the Bahzell—Oath of Swords, The War God's Own, and Wind Rider's Oath, another New York Times bestseller—have proven that Weber is equally a master of epic fantasy adventure. He lives in South Carolina.
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Product ReviewLong winded, but an interesting concept. But TOR needs to get a clue about eBooks!
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Product ReviewOK reading these sample chapters and hear what all you have to say. But! I hear the complaining and you have to remember something. David was given a min of 600k for this and something probably closer to 1 or 1.2 mil. That's the going rate for successful authors and I'm guessing he's judged successful. His work is absolutely OUTSTANDING! And engaging! and empathic! Yes Tor screwed the pooch on the price for the ebook. Not sure why. I don't follow those stats. Now ask me about state secession and I can probably give you a better heads up. But the bottom line is an excellent read so far. Typical Weber and he's enlarging his audience exponentially along with making more than bean can afford to pay. A few complain a great many suck them up like pancakes. Wooooo. Keep writing David
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Product ReviewI am about halfway through this book. I think that it is starting out slow, but for the first book in a series you need the explanations for context later on. On a brighter note, I saw this in a bookstore listed for $27.00 originally when it first came out. I just picked it up at the dollar store, for a 1$. If it keeps my interest I may purchase the additional books later on, but not at the prices TOR is asking. I agee with everyone else, the e-book price is way off base.
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Product ReviewPlease note that my rating is for the ebook version and has nothing to do with the story itself. I have read all three of the currently published books in the series (I have the fourth on order) and enjoyed them immensely, but I would much rather spend $18 on the dead-tree version - oops, the hardcover version is currently priced at $15.77 on Amazon.com.
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Product ReviewI read this in paperback on holiday, wanted to reread it and download the sequel because I enjoyed it but...I have to agree with the previous posts. Baen (and David Weber) got me into ebooks years ago and they have my loyalty, but Tor's atitude to ebooks can only result in more people dropping this series from their must read list! Sorry, but there is plenty more quality SF out there that I'd rather pay a fair price for.
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Product ReviewGreat book, but there's no way I'd pay 18 dollars for an ebook. I did still end up buying a used paperback of it.
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Product ReviewLove Baen, Love Weber, don't love the $18 price tag !!! What gives? It's selling for $7.99 over at Amazon. I'm loyal to Baen but not at this price !!!
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Product ReviewI have a kindle and wanted to get this book on it so I wouldn't have to get the dead tree version, however, since the eprice here is 18.00, I opted to purchase the used dead-tree version at amazon for $8.00. I hope the publisher will notice that this is 1.00 less than the normal amazon kindle price. Way to lose a sale!
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Product ReviewGreat book, even if it is more than a little reminiscent of Raj Whitehall and Belisarius.
I've deducted two stars for the price, which is just stupid. I'm definitely not paying $18.00 for a normal ebook again.Posted on
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