Andrea S. (andrealmt) reviewed on 4/6/2010 + 14 more book reviews

This is the second book in a trilogy, following "Off Armageddon Reef" and before "By Heresies Distressed." It took me a LONG time to read this book--over a month--and that has to do with Weber's glacial pace. This installment discusses everyone's point of view in the developing war between the island nation of Charis and the Mother Church. Unfortunately, the Mother Church is led by the Gang of Four (i.e., the Bad Guys) who use their position of power to equate their will with the will of God Himself. Merlin, a cybernetic avatar of a centuries-dead young woman, knows better and wants to help Charis in stopping the Gang and the Knights of the Temple Lands using forgotten and forbidden technologies.

Honestly, I love David Weber's imagination and military sci-fi storylines, but this book was a trudge. It is very similar, in fact, to the early Honor Harrington novels ("On Basilisk Station", etc.) in that there is way too much exposition and unnecessary detail. Some very interesting plot points happen in this book (I won't spoil them) and the action sequences feel genuinely warlike--but it takes FOREVER to get there. . . . But, yeah, I'll go back and read the concluding novel eventually.

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