Like a Mighty Army: A Novel in the Safehold Series (Safehold, 7) Paperback – December 30, 2014

1. I've read all of the books in the series and I'm enjoying them2. The Good: This book is a page turner filled with advancement and some thread conclusions for events from the previous book. The last book left our heroes in a semi-stable, but dangerous position. The PTSD that our hero Merlin was living with was debilitating and painful to read, but you did care for the character. While not completely resolved, there are elements and threads that show it is being coped with. While there are still almost too many people to care, and the Y in the names make them all string together in a mindless blur, you're exposed to many people from books as far back as the third one that you can finally care about. Baron Green Valley comes to mind. So too are some of the villains filling out as better people. Less two dimensional bad guys. There's a powerful twist in the books that helps to renew the story a little and give an additional character in the mix that I hope isn't a missed opportunity.3. The bad: Editing and typography are better, but there are some mistakes that seem to defy correction. There's still a Mary Sue effect going on with some of the major characters, but this is what we buy these books for. The story is still mired in a little problem. Each book is roughly a year of advancement, and the technology has climbed from rowed war galleys and matchlocks to rifled artillery and ironclads. The enemy everyone who reads these books want to see challenged are the Gbaba, and if you've forgotten who they are, this book does an excellent job of reminding you. Not by showing you the Gbaba, but reminding you that this is why they fight. That said, there are probably 30 books between here and there at the rate we're looking at. Additionally, there are still some elements of offstage play that are exactly what should be written while huge chunks of expository dialog should have been lysed.4. Why buy the book?You should only read this book if you've read the previous 6. Weber has finally stopped with the 100 page playbacks for anyone who didn't buy the other books. HOO-RAY!!!!There are 2 moments of absolute joy, and there are several fights as well as an elementary discussion and training on how to shoot single action. The author is enjoying himself when he writes the book, and what he's talking about are hobbies and specialties he has a great deal of expertise in. He seems to still enjoy this series unlike the recent Honor books, or his delving into vampire lore.Additionally, at 600+ pages this book makes a trip from New York to San Francisco positively fly. It's just about the right size to do it cleanly.

Boy, I really don’t know how I feel about this book or about this series anymore. On one hand, I love the series. It’s an awesome, epic story told by a fantastic writer. On the other, like so many other people, I’m getting so darn bitter about the author and his stupid manipulations of us, the readers he obviously holds in disdain, so he can sell a zillion more books. His books move at glacial paces, almost nothing of note ever happens, no progress ever gets made, we’re never much more further along in the story line than in the previous book(s). My God, at this rate, I’m easily going to die before the series ends!!! How in the world Weber expects to move from steam engines and breech loading rifles to plasma weapons and space ships to fight aliens in outer space in a few more books is beyond comprehension. It’s literally impossible at his pace. His books go at about one year per book. This was his seventh book. We’ve come seven years. We’ve gone from cannon balls to artillery shells. Wow. Impressive. Not. At the same time, the story is so amazing and so compelling, that you just want to know how everything is going to work out, what’s going to happen to Charis, to the Church, to Merlin, to the main characters. What’s going to happen??? I want to know!This book is no different from the last book. We’re still fighting land battles in Siddarmark. However, at least, tides have turned from the last book and in this book Charisian forces are kicking the heck out of Church forces and their allies all over the Republic and it’s sweet justice to see. Additionally, there are two or three big plot twists, which should and probably will prove interesting in future books — all 45 of them, I’m sure — and the very end of the book is pretty cool and makes me want to read the next book immediately.The same problems exist in this book, only more so. The naming conventions are still a nightmare. Changing all the vowels to consonants is insane, but Weber does it, so you have names like Wyllyys and junk like that. And that’s an easy one. He likes to throw as many “y,” “z” and “r” letters into names as possible as replacements for “i” and “e,” etc., and it is enough to make you want to kill the man. Then again, if you’ve made it this far in the series, I guess you’re used to it. I’m still irritated at all of the titles though. Everyone is a baron, earl, prince, upper priest, vicar, bishop, duke, princess, etc, and adding that to the names is enough to drive anyone nuts. Then there are Weber’s pet phrases that he uses repeatedly. Everyone “snorts.” I’ve never seen so many people snort in my entire life. It’s freaking insane. Everyone, including the women and girls, “bare their teeth.” Um, excuse me? This is my pet peeve, I admit, cause I’ve mentioned this in reviews of previous books in this series, but WEBER, no one bares their dang TEETH!!! Dogs bare their teeth. Wolves bare their teeth. HUMANS DO NOT BARE THEIR DARN TEETH!!! And he has to have every character in the book do it at least three times on probably every other page through all 900+ pages throughout the book. It’s brutal. To make matters worse, everyone — all of the bad guys and all of the good guys — do the following: when they are talking with people and, no matter how serious the topic, like they’re about to die in battle, they are for some reason possibly amused, their lips possibly “twitch.” Twitching lips. Oh my God! I must have read about twitching lips some 150 times in this book. Seriously, sometimes I wish Weber would have a fatal heart attack so I wouldn’t have to read this stuff anymore cause as long as he writes these Safehold books, I’m going to read them, cursing his name the entire time. But as much as I resent him, I love these books so much. And I’m not the only one who feels this way. Go through the online reviews. Most reviewers feel like me. Most hate Weber for his naming conventions, for his plodding pace, for his making this into a 40 book series, for his overused phrases, but everyone says they have to keep reading because it’s such an amazing story and they have to find out what happens and it’s true. It is. And I do. I just wish I could sometime this century. I’m hoping the war in Siddarmark will end sometime in the next three or four books. That will mean it will only have taken six books to get through this stupid war. Then we can move on to the Temple Lands and attack Zion and the Group of Four and unseat the Church. Sweet justice, then. Because of how this book ended, I’m anxious to begin the next one, as I said.This book was good. There was plenty of action. A lot of battle action. A lot of tactics. Far too much about supply lines though. Far too much about gunpowder and the speed of bullets. Skip that stuff, Weber, and cut down on the book’s size for our sake, please. Just get to the action. Weber can do a battle like no other. He’s a master. He just gets bogged down in the tactical details from all sides and it’s agonizing at times. Also, one of the faults of this book is that there are so many minor characters and so many chapters and sections opening with minor characters that you have no idea who they are or what army they’re with or who they fight for or anything until you’ve read a little while and it’s annoying. Speaking of characters, again, there are far too many. At the back of the book, there are at least 80 pages of characters listed in an index, which is insane. I have no idea how Weber keeps track of them. I certainly can’t. I’ve said this before, and so have many other people, but he seriously needs several editors, because he obviously has none. This is a five star book with three star problems, thus earning it four stars. Similar to several other Safehold books. I wish Weber would learn from his mistakes and/or listen to his readers. I guess he’s too arrogant for that since he’s obviously making tens of millions of dollars from us. If you’re reading the series, the book is obviously recommended. If you’re not, don’t read it; begin with the first book. You won’t understand it if you don’t.

Liked the series a lot. It's a difficult read but worth it in the end. Best sci fi and fiction mix ever

comme le reste des livres de l'auteur super comme le reste des livres de l'auteur super comme le reste des livres de l'auteur super

The seventh in his series, and the books keep getting better and better. Unlike his Honor Harrington series which later lost cohesion and focus. This story line is going really well and this book is a very well written book with an excellent story line. Of course for new readers would recommend they start with book one of the series to really appreciate and enjoy this series from David WeberAll in all a good book to have and add to ones collection, highly recommended !!!

This is a great series that has had me hooked from the beginning. This book sees the mainland battle hotting up and the setting up of some major naval action for the next novel. We see the introduction of a major new/old character (sorry no spoilers you will have to read the book) and the evil David Weber leaves us with a major cliffhanging surprise on the last page. It is such a shame that we have to wait for the next book which I assume now will be next year because of the extra wait for this one.I really recommend this series - it has some major baddies that you will love to hate but this are basically small fry compared to the major baddies that we know are coming in the future.

One of my favorite books from the series so far. I don't get why people still complain about the detail David Weber puts in into his books. If your read the previous titles you should know what awaits you otherwise it's a great read and further develops the struggle on savehold. A fan of the series cannot be disappointed by this book.