By Schism Rent Asunder by David Weber

A thousand years before, Humanity was running from the alien Gbaba, who had wiped out not only the colonies that Earth had seeded amongst the stars, but their homeworld itself. To survive, the last remnant of humanity split off into seed colonies that would need to hide their incredible technology to keep the colonists safe from the Gbaba. One of the head scientists on the project for a particular seed colony intended to start a colony from the basics, and keep humanity free of technology by forbidding it to them, and wiping their memories of their former lives.

Langhorne was able to do this with the help of the other scientists, but he would never have allowed his own memory or that of the other scientists to be wiped. When he wanted to Lord it over the other colonists, known as Adams and Eves, and have them think of him and his fellow scientists as Archangels who ruled the church he'd created to keep the Adams and Eves in line, one of the scientists, Pei Shan-wei, rebelled against him, along with the scientists who were not entirely sanguine about the whole idea. A tremendous war was fought, and Pei lost, and was written into the book of Holy Writ as a figure akin to Satan.

Now, almost a thousand years later, the Church that Langhorne created is almost wholly corrupt, run by a secret body (secret to the worshippers of the church) called the Group of Four. The Church controls the world through proscriptions against certain kinds of technology and no land dares fight the power of the church.

However, one other thing survived the great war: a cybernetic body called a PICA, into which was loaded the personality and memories of a young woman named Nimue Alban. She is Pei Shan-wei's secret weapon to overthrow the body of the church and lift humanity to the stars once more.

Nimue had to take on a male persona, because men had far more privileged positions than women, most of whom spend their lives marrying and giving birth to children. With her cybernetic body, this was no problem, and she soon looked just like a man. She then searched for a place a little more open to change than the rest, a place where there was still some innovation being worked on, and settled on the island nation of Charis. Charis was a nation of merchants and shippers, and its location far from church lands mad it perfect to begin her campaign against the church.

But the church already has its own plans for Charis, for it had been a nation of innovators and free thinkers (as far as one could be under the rules of the church), and planned to simply detroy it, and all its people, as an example of what happens to those who push change too far. And when Nimue rescued the Crown Prince, Cayleb, from an attack, she became his bodyguard, presenting herself as a seijin, rather like a wandering martial-artist/philosopher, named Merlin Athrawes. Slowly insinuating herself into the corridors of power, she told Cayleb that she had "visions", including one of the attack she fought off, that could help both him and Charis. She soon proved this when she passed on information that increased the power of Charisian merchant ships and enabled them to increase manufacturing of high-quality goods to make the nation even richer.

She also passed along military information on how to build rifles and artillery pieces, knowing that the church was going to move against Charis in the near future. This was proven true when the church bribed and blackmailed five other nations into using their navies to attack Charis all at once in a massive convoy. But since Nimue was able to use tiny spy sattellites to spy on the entire world, she, in the guise of Merlin Athrawes, was able to spread the alarm. And the new ships Charis had been constructing took on the combined navies and won, at a place called Armageddon Reef. It was not without cost, though, as King Haaralhd, Cayleb's father, perished aboard the flagship of the fleet.

Now, Cayleb is King, and it is obvious that although he won the battle off Armageddon Reef, the Church will not give up attacking the island nation of Charis. Not all his people support him in his fight against the corrupt church, and these Loyalists are turning to acts of terrorism, helped along by agents of the Church. He needs allies, and he needs them quickly. But where can he turn for help?

Merlin has an idea, and the notion that Sharleyan, the Queen of the fellow Island nation of Chisholm, would make the perfect ally, not to mention wife, of Cayleb. Even though her nation was blackmailed into allying with the nation of Corisande, whose ruler, Hektor, was responsible for the death of her father, by the church, Cayleb has treated her only with courtesy He even returned the Chisholmian ships which survived the battle at Armageddon Reef to her nation. Now, he sends his most trusted advisor to her with a proposal of marriage.

Sharleyan, already wondering how her nation is going to survive the war between the Church and Charis, realizes that if the Church of God Awaiting can destroy Charis for no reason whatsoever, they can also do the same, to any other nation they desire. This frightens her, and her awareness of the rot afflicting the church also disgusts her. So when the proposal comes, she is more than ready to agree to the marriage without even having met Cayleb. When she accepts, she sails for Charis in the company of many of her advisors, leaving her most trusted advisor at home to administrate Chisholm while she is absent.

In the meantime, though, the church is not lying inactive. The former archbishop of Charis had been called back to Zion, Capital of the Church lands and home to the former home of the Archangels, now the premiere building of the church. Erayk Dynnys, the former ArchBishop of Charis, has been charged with Heresy. The Church will torture and execute him, but not severely, as long as he still supports them at the end. However, his faith has returned during his imprisonment, and when invited to speak before his death, instead of a confession, he speaks out on the rot within the church and is tortured to death most harshly. His wife and two sons, who have been hiding out within the capitol, escape and return to Charis.

Meanwhile, the Church seeks other ways to bring Charis down while they build another, better, larger navy to attack Charis. They attempt to have Charisian ships confiscated in the Kingdom of Dohlar, knowing that the Charisians prosper by means of all the trading they do, but the troops there botch the attack, turning it into a slaughter that engulfs both the Chisholm ships in port and the Dohlarian troops attempting to subdue them. While some of the Charisian ships get away, the survivors from the other ships are nearly massacred by the Dohlarian troops, egged on by the men from the Office of the Inquisition who accompanied them. Only fourteen Charisians survive to be taken into custody, and the church blames the slaughter on the Charisians, making it seem that they provoked the attack, but the Charisians are enraged by the news, and use part of their massive new fleet to blow the Dohlarian port section and gunnery batteries to bits with their new cannons, and ensuring that not a single building within two miles of the port survives still standing. While no one is to be killed, of course, it cannot be guaranteed that the destruction will be without bloodshed.

Back in Charis, Cayleb and Sharleyan have met and married, and turn their attention to Emerald, another island nation besieged by Charis. The ruler of Emerald, Narhman Baytz, has had his country surrounded by the Charisian fleet, cutting him off from any other nation. In addition, there is bad blood between the two nations because of Emerald's attempts to have Cayleb assassinated, twice. But Cayleb stretches out the palm of peace and has Emerald join the Empire of Charis, now consisting of Charis and Corisande. Nahrman is not killed, but will have to rule under the oversight of Cayleb and Sharleyan, and instead of being killed, he is installed as the director of the Intelligence service. Not thinking that he and his nation would ever come out of the conflict so well, Nahrman swears loyalty to Cayleb and Sharleyan, making the new Empire even stronger.

Next on Cayleb's agenda is Chisholm, and as he and his fleet sail towards another battle there, the Church prepares to put Charis under interdict, and excommunicate Cayleb and his advisors, bringing them one step closer to declaring Holy War for the first time in its history.

I really enjoyed this book, which mixes Sci-Fi with strong historical elements. Even though the novel is set in the far future, the historical feeling is there due to the lack of futuristic technology on the part of the nations doing the fighting, so you often get the feeling that you are reading something set sometime between the Renaissance and the Napoleonic Wars, in time, anyway. And the presence of Nimue/Merlin and her access to advanced technology, satellites, and so on barely impinges on the rest of the action.

And oh boy, is there action! Lots of naval battles, diplomatic maneuvering and churchy stuff abounds. But there is still plenty of non-action stuff to even it out. If I had any problem with the novel it's that it reminds me a bit too strongly of Weber's other space series, the Honor Harrington series, with noble titles and names just too closely paralleling those used in Honor Harrington for me. White Haven= Gray Lock, and so on and so forth. The other thing were the tricked out names of the character, and my mind always got busy translating them. So when I saw that the ruler of Emerald Island was Norman Bates (Nahrman Baytz), I completely lost my willing suspension of disbelief for disbelief of an entirely different sort.

On the other hand, the book is good. The story is well-told, exciting and more than keeps your interest with exciting action and suspense as you wonder how the Kingdom, now Empire, of Charis is going to survive. And the plot thread where you realize that Pei Shan-wei had other ways for knowledge to survive the great war she fought against her fellow scientists was amazing and enlightening, and provided a welcome explanation for why the Kingdom of Charis was always so innovative.

While the first book ended in the aftermath of a battle (Off Armageddon Reef), this book ends with Cayleb sailing off to another one, yet it is not a letdown, for both Kingdoms have been preparing for this, and I can't wait to read the next book. As the sides jockey uneasily towards conflict, what will be the outcome for the planet? Can Merlin and the Charisians win the war and restore peace, technology and culture to the planet before the Gababa find them and slay them all? Or will humanity continue to moulder away, protected from all they could be by the words of a single man who thought he knew best?

The answer to that is unknown, but I'll be waiting to read the answer, however long it takes!