Off Armageddon Reef

I’ve heard for a while how awesome David Weber’s books are.  The Honor Harrington series in particular is often remarked upon.  In fact, a couple months ago, a friend of mine asked if I had read any of his books, and I was forced to reply, “No, but I have On Basilisk Station and it’s next on my to be read list.”

And that was true.

Fast forward.  I finished listening to Aristotle’s “Rhetoric, Poetics, and Logic” on audiobook, and I was looking for which book to “read” in audio next (since I’m still in the middle of the final book in Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series in actual text-reading).  I saw that I had “Off Armageddon Reef“, by David Weber, in my audio book library, and I queued it up.

Somehow, I transposed the titles of the two books, “On Basilisk Station” and “Off Armageddon Reef“, in my head, and as the first few chapters of “Armageddon Reef” went by I was wondering how and when Honor Harrington was going to come into play, considering that Safehold is a planet whose people were once star-farers but now are no longer.  It was only after I went back to Amazon to check the titles that I realized my mistake.

Of course, the story of Safehold was compelling enough that I stuck with it…and boy am I glad I did.

As all of you know, I’m a Naval Officer.  In fact, I was commissioned onboard USS CONSTITUTION, and did my first summer on active duty onboard that ship, learning to sail a square-rigged vessel and learning her history and the tales of her many engagements (never defeated).

And so, when it turned out that “Off Armageddon Reef“, though a scifi story, really ended up being a story about Naval warfare in the age of sail….well, there is literally nothing you could do to engage me better than that as a reader.

And boy did it deliver.

GREAT book.  And great depiction of the Naval lifestyle and ethic.

Wow.  Extremely well done.

If you haven’t read this book, you totally need to.  I’m definitely continuing on in this series.

Well done, Mr. Weber.  Well done.