Safehold Series - "Charis expects that every man shall do his duty."

Let me start this post with an aside... the way Canadian bookstores handle their books is ridiculous. You have a situation where half the time you pick a promising title off the bookshelf, it'll end up being Book 2 of the Such-and-Such series or Book 3 of the Awesomeness Trilogy. And then you'll look at the bookshelves and find that the first book isn't there.

Such was the case with a book I saw called 'By Schism Rent Asunder' by David Weber, which is the second book in the 'Safehold' series. Fortunately I was able to remember his name and acquire both books. Unfortunately, they weren't particularly good.

Whenever an author writes anything, it's natural to get attached to your characters. As you walk down the dark, cold and lonely path that is authorship, your characters become not just your friends but rather a part of you. There is a danger in this, however... because if an author gets too attached to a character, he or she will become hesitant to do anything bad to them or portray them in a bad light.

This is the pit that Weber falls into, but he doesn't just do it for one or two characters. He does it with an entire country.



So very quickly:
The premise of the book is that a human space colony has reverted to a 15th century technology and is dominated by an anti-technology Church. The plot revolves around a nation that rebels against said Church with the help of an ancient robot girl wizard man. This results in a holy war. There's a lot more to it than that (the Church was made by some asshole colonial administrators and the rest of humanity is wiped out), but that's the gist of it.

The Kingdom of Charis is the country that's in rebellion. At first, you get the idea that what's going on is that the robot lady man is trying to subtly guide the people there back to the path of technology, but as the story goes on it becomes apparent that what Charis is actually just the sort of place that Weber thinks he would like, filled with the sort of people Weber wouldn't mind hanging out with. With very few exceptions, everyone in Charis is a paragon of virtue who values Human Rights above all else. Meanwhile, most people from the Church are either corrupt/evil or going through some sort of moral dilemma that boils down to 'Oh no, I love Mother Church, but Charis is just so right!'

Honestly, it's ridiculous. This is probably the most unrealistic book about a Holy War that anyone could ever write. At one point, the Church's Inquisition massacres a bunch of innocent Charisian merchants and their families (including women and children!) for being heretics... when news gets back to Charis, there's a scene in a bar with common sailors and soldiers talking over drinks that goes something like this:

"How dare they massacre our merchants! I say we go over there right now and burn their whole city down, women and children and all!"
"Oy! I didn't hear about no women and children attacking our ships!"
"Yeah! We can't sink to their level! I'm as upset as you are, but vengeance only begets more vengeance! We must respond in a measured and proportionate fashion"
"My apologies for my hasty words, friends. I spoke out of passion."
"Don't worry, we all make mistakes. Care for another drink?"

Honestly, it's ridiculous. Common sailors and soldiers reacting to a massacre of their fellows with restraint and reason in the midst of a religious war. Yeah that's incredibly realistic, Weber!

Charis also can do no wrong in the books. It's really a nation of overpowered Mary Sues. Weber spends hundreds of pages building up to epic sea battles, which Charis proceeds to effortlessly win. One major Charisian character has died in two books and his death was preluded by pages upon pages of 'HEY SYMBOLIC DEATH COMING UP'. At one point, it looked like one of the major characters was going to be assassinated, but that got Deus Ex Machina'd. The assassins were killed and said character went on to give a long speech about how Vengeance Is Wrong while still drenched in their blood.

To make matters worse, there were a few other characters that were against Charis that I actually liked, but they end up seeing the light and joining Charis, which pretty much leaves only the "Grrr we are the Evil Church" people on the other side.

I honestly would put it down to cowardice. Weber created this nation of Charis that he thought from the get go will be a place where people he likes will live and make didactic speeches about relgion and tolerance and being a good sort of person. Because Weber likes Charis so damn much, he sabatoges his own writing and makes the whole 'war' so damn one-sided that it's just ridiculous.

Good writers are willing to let bad things happen to good people. Not just that, but good writers have to be willing to let a good person appear in a negative light now and then. That's what keeps a story interesting and engaging. But alas, David Weber is not a good writer.

I'm probably being too hard on him. I mean, the books were page turners and I'll probably read the third one whenever it comes out (though not right away). But alas, until Weber learns to step back from his characters and learn to write what is best for the story he's telling rather than what's best for the characters he's writing he will forever remain in the pits of mediocrity.