Around the 1st of each month (certainly later if there’s a holiday!) the Tor.com eBook Club gives away a free sci-fi/fantasy ebook to club subscribers.
We’re happy to announce that the pick for January 2017 is: OFF ARMAGEDDON REEF by David Weber, the first book in Weber’s “Safehold” space saga.
David Weber’s unique SAFEHOLD series combines medieval fantasy with spacefaring sci-fi to produce an epic that asks pointed questions:
How much do we allow ourselves to be limited by our own belief systems? How much do we need those belief systems in order to give us something to strive towards?
Hunted by the Gbaba, the human rulers of our refuge planet of Safehold have taken extraordinary measures to keep us hidden: using mind control technology to create a religion that keeps society medieval forever.
800 years pass. In a hidden chamber on Safehold, an android from the far human past awakens, determined to restore technological progress to humanity. The android takes a new gender—male—and adopts a new name: Merlin.
OFF ARMAGEDDON REEF is available for download from January 4th through January 11th
Note: If you’re having issues with the sign-up or download process, please email ebookclub@tor.com.
Happy reading! To keep track of Tor.com eBook Club offerings and discussion, just bookmark the Tor.com eBook Club tag page.
I’m many books into this series, so I guess I’d recommend them. The good: The author is quite good at dialogue and tactics and humor. The less good: The pacing is such that I’d guess there’ll be a dozen books before we get to some of the meaty sci-fi stuff the books promise. He appears to love the technical details of weapons improvement, and if you don’t, you’ll find about a third of each book a bit of a slog. Enjoy!
The SF of the opening might not ever get repeated. But on the other hand, the series just finished a main story arc. So all the books currently out form a complete story. On the tentacle, I think there’s another arc that should be the same length as this one. On the pseudo-pod, there’s at least one unsubtle political jab that could be fairly irritating.
All in all, it’s fairly solid tech and competence porn that doesn’t ask a lot of its readers.
This book is excellent and sets the stage for an exciting series . . . however . . . and you knew there just had to be a however . . . the later books don’t add much to the story progressing. It’s like a great trilogy stretched to a dozen books unnecessarily. If some editor convinced the author that more books is better, they need to be fired, preferably from a Safeholdian cannon. The problem is I am finding Weber’s Honorverse books the same way. When you can rip out 90% of the pages and don’t have much impact of the main story, you have to start wondering if it will ever end. I’ve quit buying Weber books, and I have quite a collection. Now I simply peruse the books in the bookstore or library before deciding to even consider a purchase. For a while the decision to purchase was a no-brainer, but no longer. I have re-read this book and the next 4 in the series any number of timed, but the ones that came after are just filler and not worth much time.
Thanks Tor!
wont let me download it keeps sending me to Barnes n noble to buy it. i dont want it in nook format i prefer kindle.
USA only, it should be somewhere in the post. ????
Though I enjoyed parts of the book, Off Armageddon Reef suffers from a lack of dramatic tension. The heroine is literally invulnerable to harm, possesses the ability to see practically everything her enemies are planning, and has the knowledge to supercharge Team Good Guy’s technological and industrial development. The villains are despicable, but not particularly competent or intelligent.
If the villains were invincible, could spy on everything the heroes did outside of one specific location, and had access to advanced technology, that would be a promising idea for a story. The heroes would have to be extremely smart and careful to avoid suspicion, outmaneuver their enemies, and find a path to victory. Since the main protagonist has these powers, though, they don’t have to be particularly intelligent or capable. Who needs to be smarter than your adversaries when you can see their every move?
I have not been able to finish this novel, perhaps for the reasons that Mike and dptullos mention — the details of the implementation of new tech get lots of attention and although numbers are against the protagonists, they have far superior information and a superhero of sorts. I’ve read series where attention/word count was given to technical aspects before and finished the novel but I’m not getting a sense of urgency/drive from this plot. I’ll just dive into February’s choice.