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"A Mighty Fortress" by David Weber (Reviewed by Liviu Suciu)

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Books & Stories - Books

Written by Ares

Monday, 12 April 2010 04:12

Official David Weber Website
Order "A Mighty Fortress" HERE
Read FBC Review of By Schism Rent Asunder
Read FBC Review of By Heresies Distressed
Read FBC Interview with David Weber

INTRODUCTION: "A Mighty Fortress" is the fourth installment in the Safehold Saga of David Weber and after finishing it I could say that Safehold has become my co-#1 ongoing sff series alongside Honor Harrington. While technically science fiction and indeed quite sf-nal in ethos, "Safehold" is much closer to epic fantasy in theme and world building. If Off Armageddon Reef had as main focus adventure and naval battles, By Schism Rent Asunder intrigue and revelations, By Heresies Distressed land war and consolidation, A Mighty Fortress is about faith and then later it goes full circle to the second round of all-out naval battles.

Since I talked at length about the setting and characters in my reviews of volumes 2 and 3 linked above, while the author talked at length about the series in my interview with him, here I will assume familiarity with the context and the main characters and discuss how "A Mighty Fortress" takes Safehold towards uncharted territory and possibly a reinterpretation of what we think we know.

FORMAT/CLASSIFICATION: "A Mighty Fortress" stands at about 700 pages including maps, glossary of characters and some discussion about Safehold's characteristics. There are several threads and tens of POV's, including pretty much all the surviving ones from previous volumes, some of whom did not appear in By Heresies Distressed.

Young Paytir Wylsynn, the former Inquisition Intendant of Charis whose interview of Merlin was so memorable in volume one and who now currently occupies a similar position under the leader of the reformed Church, Archbishop Maikel, and former Bishop Executor of Charis Zherald Ahdymsyn whose relatively mild "admonitions" of Maikel for sedition were another fun part of volume one and who is now a "roving troubleshooter" Bishop of the reformed Church are two of my most favorite characters who reappear quite memorably here.

Outside Merlin, Cayleb, Sharleyan and The Group of Four, there are three characters that have lots of pages somewhat unexpectedly: the Earl of Coris - guardian of Dayvin, the young prince of Corisande in exile - who is summoned to the Temple in Zion for loyalty assessment, General Koryn Gahvrai, former CO of the Corisandian Army and now commander of the Regency Council's armed forces under Charisian supervision and Archbishop Zhasyn Cahnyr of Glacierheart and junior member of the reformist Circle who as we may remember was the only one courageous enough to offer succor to Archbishop Erayk in the Temple prison before the latter's execution at the hands of the Inquisition, execution which was one the most emotional scenes in the second volume.

And not to forget the extraordinary Ahnzelyk Phonda, ultra successful businesswoman and secret leader of the reformist movement in Zion and the two leaders of the Circle, the Vicars Samyl - father of Paytir and foremost rival of Grand Inquisitor Clyntahn - and his brother Hauwerd Wylsynn who are also very important POV's of the novel.

As for classification "sff epic on the grandest scale" is the only one that does justice to this superb novel and series.

ANALYSIS: The titles of the Safehold novels are superb and revelatory at least so far, so when "A Mighty Fortress" was announced and before I knew anything else my first speculation was about what it means; the novel offers two answers, one textual and explicit, but also one subtler and implicit and which has actually been my first guess.

The textual answer which comes somewhere in the second half of the novel is that "A Mighty Fortress" is formed by the Charisian fleet and the sailors and marines that man it. Facing the full wrath of the Group of Four, especially of the Grand Inquisitor Clyntahn who in this novel unleashes once and for all the full force of terror and this time being attacked by a "modern " comparable even if less experienced fleet that outnumbers the Imperial one by something like 3 to 1, fleet that is also much better led than in Off Armageddon Reef, it is up to the Navy of Charis to stop the enemy.

But the novel has also another answer for the title since based on the first half, I can argue that "A Mighty Fortress" refers also to the power of faith in God and here we finally get to actually experience it as the powerful force for good embodied in the true men and women of God from Charis, Corisande and even the corrupt Zion where the Inquisition may torture and murder the reformers and cow their highest level sympathizers temporarily into acquiescence if not submission, but the seeds of change have already been sown.

The 4th installment of the superb Safehold series goes back to the intensity of the first two volumes, with lots of quotable lines, jaw-dropping moments and powerful emotional ones.

The ending is similarly emotional to the one in OAR though I have to say that the book is more like BSRA in the sense that it opens a new arc but not closes it. I heard the series is planned to go 10 volumes, so who knows maybe the next volume will close its first part, maybe not..

It's ha...m Between the two poles of religion and war, "A Mighty Fortress" offers a lot more. There is action galore in Corisande, Zion and on the seas, daring escapes, nasty conspirators, dastardly assassinations, one sword fight for the ages inside the Temple of all places, very, very emotional moments, tragedy and rejoicing, a tense dinner, lots of memorable lines and a baby...

As usual Merlin steals the show in all his apparitions and he has some of the best lines of the novel like the following description of his conversational start with a high ranking opponent in whose apartments the seijin breaks in at night to add more urgency to the respective character's intention to defect:

“I was simply attempting to establish the proper . . . collegial atmosphere.”

The one major surprise I had in "A Mighty Fortress" was in the hints from the author about a possible reinterpretation of Safehold's past and the Church of God's Awaiting true roots and mission.

The ending is similarly emotional to the one in Off Armageddon Reef and while A Mighty Fortress is somewhat more open-ended than the first volume and several threads are left to be continued, there is a lot of closure too and again I cannot say I have a real inkling where the series will go next beyond a very general sense augmented by the twist hinted above.

For the tremendous enjoyment that "A Mighty Fortress" (A++) brought me so far on three full reads plus rereads of the other three volumes and for its great continual re-reed value, I think that this novel is the best sf and even possibly best sff I've read in 2010 so far. Just epic on the grandest scale with everything you want from such.

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