BY SCHISM RENT ASUNDER

The middle book of a planned space-opera trilogy is a complex story of politics, religion, and warfare. David Weber owes a debt to reader Oliver Wyman for making the many characters distinct in his narration, a challenge in a book with so many characters and plots. Wyman has a soft voice, which he uses to great advantage to give characters distinct accents or combinations of many familiar dialects. Some are clearly meant to be blue bloods. In Weber’s futuristic world, humans use ships that sail the sea and space for commerce and battle, an interesting concept. The kingdom of Charis, with its mysterious counselor, Merlin, has defeated most its enemies, except the biggest one—the Church of God Awaiting. And therein lies the tale. M.S. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2008]