The Saga of the Seven Suns

Kevin J. Anderson has done a remarkable job in creating this Saga which is composed of as many books as there are suns in its name. It is a single, continuous story that picks up in one book just where the previous one had ended, taking the reader on a long ride.

The characters of the novels are well crafted and at no time do you have the feeling that you are reading something which is not relevant to the story line, regardless of whether the passage is about a little girl in an out-of-the-way colony planet or the King of multi-planetary confederation. Everything is weaved into a pattern and contributes to the overall story.

By Schism Rent Asunder, by David Weber

This book is a sequel to Off Armageddon Reef and a very good one at that.  When I finished reading Off Armageddon Reef I was eager to find out how the story would continue.  Not only had I liked the characters but the whole situation in which we humanity finds itself in its new home in the planet Safehold is intriguing.

By Schism Rent Asunder takes us through the continued, and unstoppable, events that were triggered by the events in the previous book.  As with with Off Armageddon Reef, By Schism Rent Asunder is the kind of book which you will not want to put down.  In this book David Weber seems to have done a great job of controlling his usual tendency to sometimes indulge in long descriptions and the book flows very well.

Upon reaching the end of the story I was left, once again, with a craving for more information about what will happen with the main characters and how will events turn out for the last remnants of the human race.  Having to start a civilization entirely from scratch could not be easy, but having to do so with the weight of religion which was specifically created to prevent technological innovation certainly seems to be a challenge. 

Off Armageddon Reef, by David Weber

I've recently read Off Armageddon Reef, David Weber's most recent title and the first in a new series which introduces an entirely new universe. I have read almost all books in Weber's Honor Harrington series and have generally liked all of them and when I stumbled upon a reference to this book I got drawn in by its description.

Off Armageddon Reef is a book set in a distant future when humanity has been almost totally annihilated by a xenophobic race: the Gbaba. One planet remains and in order to escape destruction at the hands of the Gbaba, humans had to abandon all technology which might send energy emission out to space. In time, without technology, all this is forgotten and nothing but an artificially created religion is keeping the last humans from inadvertently repeating the steps that led to the destruction of Earth and all its colonies.

That is when secret plans are put into action and the actual story begins.

In this book Weber manages to bring together high-tech science fiction and a pre-industrial civilization which bares close resemblance to the 1700s and early 1800s of Earth history. In is interesting how he manages to nicely combine the last remnants of the original human civilization's advanced technology with a universe that has all the elements of a passion that we share, the Horation Hornblower novels by C.S. Forrester.

Though, as usual, Weber tends from time to time to over-describe some scenes of the story, this does not detract from the actual story line and if you just bear with it the story is quite enjoyable and entertaining. I've read some unfavorable comments about the names of the characters in the book which do look quite strange and seem to be variations of current names which would have changed and evolved over the long period of isolation the books civilization is gone through. It is an interesting touch but it does tend to be a bit confusing at times. Again, I feel this did not affect my enjoyment of the story.

I'm looking forward to reading the sequel to this book: By Schism Rent Assunder, which is due to be released in July of 2008.

Welcome to The Longo Review

Please don't let the impressive title for this blog give you a wrong idea. This blog is not going to stuffy or overly formal. In fact, all I'll be writing here are my personal opinions about Books, eBooks and eBook reading devices.

I'll comment, also, on online stores and book-related services and on my personal experience in using them. It is not my intention to speak ill about any book, author or store so I'll be focusing on titles and authors I've liked, when commenting on the books. When commenting book related products such as reader devices and software and online stores and services I'll try to present as impartial a commentary as possible, while still giving you all the information you need to evaluate if such devices or services are of interest.