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.