C. O. Thompson wrote:TBird50 wrote:Just finished HFQ and have been reading these posts. A couple of random thoughts. I too was wondering why Merlin/Nimue didn't find a way to blow up the ironclad. Then I remembered that his purpose on Safehold is a bit different from Charis'. He needs to get Safehold to a position where they can battle (and win against) the Gbaba. So he may have wanted to get the ironclad technology into their hands despite the consequences to the ICN and the war.
Also, while I really enjoy these books, I'm a bit concerned about the pace. This book only covered 6 months. How in the world will he progress quickly enough to get to the year 1000 and the return, much less to a position to fight the Gbaba? I'm afraid that there will be a "...and then 100 years later..." type book, which while understandable, I guess, would be disappointing.
TBird50,
First of all welcome to the spotlight... it takes a certain kind of courage to come from the shadows ((even with a pseudonym) people are all reading into everything you try to say <like his tag is incorrect if he is relating to the Ford Thunderbird (aka T-Bird) cause they weren't making them in 1950 > all off the point)
On the one hand, only about six months elapsed but, we get to see how much the effect of the previous years conflicts has been having on the command structure on both sides of the conflict... How causally Merlin's inner circle have become about conferencing by com as contrasted by the effect of Clinton's controlling and conniving to silence his opposition.
My favorite scene may have been when the Helm Cleaver took out the replacement team he had so he could remove Magwaire but right behind that are any that show him unraveling with each report of the Hand of God or liberated concentration camp. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy
Pace... If David uses the same tool he did when Nimune woke in her cave, we only need to see the jihad fall and the return to the original orders (...) turn the page and a squadron is in patrol of the outer solar system.
The capture of Dreadnought was necessary because it helps to bring the rest of the populations tech base up to the standards that will support the rebuilding of space industry and arms support that permit the remaining humans to take on the Gbaba. The Empire of Charis cannot do this alone and Merlin said so in either the first or second book as you allude to in your post.
Hi and thanks for the welcome. My username is a shorter version of my nickname TweedyBird and my birth year 1950, nothing to do with the Ford Thunderbird.
Here is a portion of an FAQ regarding Merlin's mission:
"Readers sometimes forget that while Merlin loves his Charisian allies, regards them as the family Nimue Alban never had in the face of the Gbaba onslaught, his and Nimue’s primary mission is to break the Church of God Awaiting’s stranglehold on Safeholdian society and — even more importantly — on technological advancement. He bleeds inside for every single human being killed in the religious war raging across Safehold, but in the final analysis, Gray Harbor, Cayleb, Sharleyan, and Maikel Staynair are all absolutely correct when they say that Clyntahn would have launched a war against Charis whether or not Merlin had ever waked up on Safehold. Moreover, it’s going to take something as catastrophic as the Jihad to break that technological stasis and keep it broken, and in that regard, the longer the war lasts (in very cold-blooded terms) the better for Merlin’s true mission. I’m not saying that he has reasoned it out that way, but those considerations underlie every single decision he’s made. And, if you’ll recall, when he rescued the kids from the krakens in OAR, and when he rescued Sharleyan from assassination in BHD, he told himself the entire time he was doing it that he couldn’t risk doing it. In those instances, he allowed his heart to overrule his head, but he knows that’s exactly what he did. It was simply something he couldn’t not do, but the sort of things which are being suggested here — traceless assassinations, traceless acts of sabotage, etc. — are things he doesn’t have to do, things he isn’t driven by his heart over his head to do, and things which might actively impede his primary object."
So I think we're right in assuming that unless there is an "unreasonable" loss of life or some over-riding necessity, then any advancements to technology are welcomed and necessary to his final mission.
And regarding the pace, I think it will happen just like you say - "turn the page and a squadron is in patrol of the outer solar system". I just don't like the thought of missing out on the intervening years. Plus the fact, that at its current pace, I won't live long enough to reach the conclusion! Ha.