Honest Opinion (May Contain Spoilers)

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.

I'll be sad if we don't see the Thing(s) Under the Temple in action.

TBird50: Good call.

Many people on this forum forget Merlin's goals and mission. It is not "Charis uber alles." It is overall tech advance - getting the genies out of the bottle worldwide. Thus undermining church dominance and setting up pre-requisit tech for getting back into space and defeating the Gabba.

Destroying the ironclad would have done nothing to further Merlin's goals and mission. Charis might get hurt by this but, this is not the first and probably not the last time that Merlin's objectives have clashed with Charis in the captured tech arena.

Expert snuggler wrote:I'll be sad if we don't see the Thing(s) Under the Temple in action.

Snuggler,
Ha at me, I just realized that my dyslexia caused me to be thinking of you as Expert Smuggler and that is a world of difference away... Any way, what I was going to say before the lightning bolt of revelation was, I agree the "Thing" under the temple has to be dealt with but, would you agree that the orbital platform has to be taken out first to de-fang the beast before the attempt is made? If an AI wakes up, or the last of the command team and he has no bullets in his gun, all he can do is "grow a pair" and fight or take to his heals in flight. There is enough indication (in the glimpse we got from Kohdy's journal to indicate that the leaders in the War of the Fallen are like the Inquisitors who are thugs and bullies that hide behind others and slink off into the night when the see that they are about to fall. Where did Schuyler and Charro depart to?

To the point that TBird50 raised in the last post... the hubris that compelled Clynthan to the moves he made is not unique in humanity (this is what makes the situation believable as it unfolded)and because he is not capable of humility, he must be humiliated, broke fully, and even then, he has demonstrated that he shares the DNA with Langhorn or Charro (whichever megalomaniac we finally learn is responsible for the hard line attitude that the Order of Schuler has against technology.

For what it is worth

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.[/quote]

TBird50,

I strongly hope that at least three of us who began life in the 1950's live long enough to reach the conclusion of this story ... you, David Weber and of course selfishly, me...

C. O. Thompson wrote: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.

TBird50,

I strongly hope that at least three of us who began life in the 1950's live long enough to reach the conclusion of this story ... you, David Weber and of course selfishly, me...

I put this thread up because While I think is very good and proper that RFC is fleshing out every single encounter, I do not think that all of them should be published, the pace should be different following only elements important to the main plot, in other words pick Merlin and Nimue give us their POV and move the pace at a good enough speed, because getting to a point where oh yeah turn the page and now we have them on control of the solar system, that is going to be frustrating, I loved the pace of the first book, plenty of time, plenty of upgrades and some very concise comments about those upgrades and the effect they had in society, that I thought was great, and near the end of the book 1 big battle, Nowadays is 2000 small battles no plot advancement, no technology advance and no comment about the effects that those technologies and factories are having on the multiple different societies like corisande, chisholm, emerald, and obviously old charis, frustrating doesn't even begin to describe how I feel.

I've also been thinking about the Archangels lately. To be able to return in the year 1000 (or maybe it was after 1000 years) it seems apparent that they are in cryo-sleep somewhere. Where would that be do you suppose? Perhaps under the temple??? I don't recall if there is a moon, but I suppose there could be a "Nimue's Cave" on the backside of the moon, or maybe a compartment attached to the Rakurai. I'm leaning towards under the temple myself. I've forgotten what Wylsynn's key told us, tho, so perhaps there is something there that would negate that possibility.

Except that there's a time limit on cryopreservation which is much less than a thousand years.

Considering both the cryo limit and the hate of PICA's, I'm not sure what will be awakening, but I'm sure David will present it in a way that will be surprising and at least mostly believable.

That's kinda the way that he does things, after all, isn't it?

How about a very smart AI (from Hamilcar)?

AIs go unstable with time. Can you "freeze" and "thaw" one? Easy with today's computers, but that doesn't mean AIs work the same way.