On book 3. Please tell me this series didn't peak on book on

I really enjoyed book one. The premise, the characters, the strategy, etc. I made it through book two. I'm now about 1/3 through book three and starting to doubt continuing. This is partially my fault, I think. I kind of expected a leap in time between books to some pivotal points in safehold's history where Nimu nudged things, culminating in a scifi battle with the big bads... but it appears the series is going slog through every minor skirmish, diplomatic exchange, dinner party, and wedding. I'm not sure I can tough it out.

oceankebro9 wrote:I really enjoyed book one. The premise, the characters, the strategy, etc. I made it through book two. I'm now about 1/3 through book three and starting to doubt continuing. This is partially my fault, I think. I kind of expected a leap in time between books to some pivotal points in safehold's history where Nimu nudged things, culminating in a scifi battle with the big bads... but it appears the series is going slog through every minor skirmish, diplomatic exchange, dinner party, and wedding. I'm not sure I can tough it out.

Well, I'm afraid you would be disappointed. The further series would come, the leas would be action, and more wunderwaffe, wunderwaffe, and wunderwaffe, Nimue not "nudging" but basically kicking the situation for "good guys" constantly (recall all this "I would use Charis for greater purposes" from first book? Well, it would be essentially dropped, because Nimue completely persuaded herself that "good for my toys from Charis, good for all humanity"), good guys gloating (yep), and bad guys turning more and more dumb & cruel, so we would not forget how BAD they are)

I felt the same way after the first few bokks and if thats the case I would suggest just jumping ahead to At the Sign of Triumph. I know that some may love all the infodumps, and reliving the industrial revolution, but to be honest, for me I found it all a bit tiring and repetitive. It felt to me that ATSOT finally had an urgency about it, bringing an end to the first cycle, that had been missing since the first book.
Of course its all opinion, FWIW

oceankebro9 wrote:I really enjoyed book one. The premise, the characters, the strategy, etc. I made it through book two. I'm now about 1/3 through book three and starting to doubt continuing. This is partially my fault, I think. I kind of expected a leap in time between books to some pivotal points in safehold's history where Nimu nudged things, culminating in a scifi battle with the big bads... but it appears the series is going slog through every minor skirmish, diplomatic exchange, dinner party, and wedding. I'm not sure I can tough it out.

If by the big bads you mean the Gbabba: As far as I understand a battle with the Gbabba is not currently planned in the series. Rather as an epilogue or so. I hope I turn out to be wrong since like you I'd like to read that as part of the story.

I think you are misremembering what Himself has said.

Which was rather more to the effect that _if_ he found that he wasn't likely to last to the end he'd make sure that we at least got confirmation that it happened.

Something that is quite different from saying that there's no plan to tie it all up in a big neat bow.

Bruno Behrends wrote:

oceankebro9 wrote:I really enjoyed book one. The premise, the characters, the strategy, etc. I made it through book two. I'm now about 1/3 through book three and starting to doubt continuing. This is partially my fault, I think. I kind of expected a leap in time between books to some pivotal points in safehold's history where Nimu nudged things, culminating in a scifi battle with the big bads... but it appears the series is going slog through every minor skirmish, diplomatic exchange, dinner party, and wedding. I'm not sure I can tough it out.

If by the big bads you mean the Gbabba: As far as I understand a battle with the Gbabba is not currently planned in the series. Rather as an epilogue or so. I hope I turn out to be wrong since like you I'd like to read that as part of the story.

oceankebro9 wrote:I really enjoyed book one. The premise, the characters, the strategy, etc. I made it through book two. I'm now about 1/3 through book three and starting to doubt continuing. This is partially my fault, I think. I kind of expected a leap in time between books to some pivotal points in safehold's history where Nimu nudged things, culminating in a scifi battle with the big bads... but it appears the series is going slog through every minor skirmish, diplomatic exchange, dinner party, and wedding. I'm not sure I can tough it out.

It depends on what you want. If you want all action and a quick resolution you're reading the wrong author. A quick resolution to ANYTHING is not his forte.

If you want an enjoyable fictionalized retelling of the industrial revolution with a fair amount of action on the way, enjoy having the society and world being brought to life by adding background and a well described setting, and are willing to occasionally just skim through some pure fluff, well then keep reading.

If not, then don't.

oceankebro9 wrote:I really enjoyed book one. The premise, the characters, the strategy, etc. I made it through book two. I'm now about 1/3 through book three and starting to doubt continuing. This is partially my fault, I think. I kind of expected a leap in time between books to some pivotal points in safehold's history where Nimu nudged things, culminating in a scifi battle with the big bads... but it appears the series is going slog through every minor skirmish, diplomatic exchange, dinner party, and wedding. I'm not sure I can tough it out.

Hiyas, I can only hope you are still reading this forum thread.

I just felt I should mention that... (and this is only my opinion), book 4 is a REAL slog. Its slow, and it was boring.

However, 5+ were MUCH more interesting and I had zero complaints about them.

I enjoyed all the books, the way they were written, but then that's me and others may have different opinions

I have reread the Series the past few months and I have to say: yeah everybody has very different opinions.

I for one thought the second book the weakest by far and book 4 and 5 the best ones. With book 4 having the best story structure and book 5 the best writing. As others have said I don't have any particular problems with the books 6 to 9. My opinion is that no one book distinguishes itself from the others all that much. Don't get me wrong, I still think they are good as a whole whith an oddly satisfying ending, just not as stand alone books.
Book 10 is a special case: I thought it interesting with many good ideas and, for the most part, good writing (It got a bit too mushy a few times for my taste). The problem is that the series was at a point where it could have been seen as finished and I would have been content to not getting a new book. But Book 10 reads in many ways as what it is: A prologue to a new storyarc and I for one would be very unsatisfied if that won't be continued.

Edit: To go back to the question of the first post: Yeah, I agree. It would have been a far better series if there were more time jumps. Simply because many things and developments take a lot of time, even if you know exactly where you are going and what you need to do to achieve it.
If you can ignore that and can get through the slog (I personaly skip the sermons), it's quite a good series and funnily enough the last book fulfills the expactation the most.... it just makes it so that there isn't a satisfying ending to a storyarc.

I've re-read the series a couple of times. Each time I start the series anew the constraints of Safehold's tech jolts me a bit. I am reminded just where Nimue must start as Merlin. I am reminded just how much the characters and setting drive the story. From that perspective the level of internal consistency the story contains draws the reader in and keeps him immersed in Merlin's et al efforts. As with all stories there are ebbs and flows. However, the characters and setting compels me to return again and again.

Long story short, by the third book the reader is thinking about the books in terms of the overarching story. By the end of book 10 it is very difficult to separate the stories by the books that tell it. I can't wait to read more of the story and discover just how much of RFC's forshadowing I recognized accurately.