David Weber's How Firm a Foundation is the latest novel in the New
York Times-bestselling Safehold series begun with Off Armageddon
Reef, By Schism Rent Asunder, By Heresies Distressed, and A Mighty
Fortress.
The Charisian Empire, born in war, has always known it must fight for
its very survival. What most of its subjects don't know even now,
however, is how much more it's fighting for. Emperor Cayleb, Empress
Sharleyan, Merlin Athrawes, and their innermost circle of most trusted
advisers do know. And because they do, they know the penalty if they
lose will be far worse than their own deaths and the destruction of all
they know and love.
For five years, Charis has survived all the Church of God Awaiting and
the corrupt men who control it have thrown at the island empire. The
price has been high and paid in blood. Despite its chain of hard-fought
naval victories, Charis is still on the defensive. It can hold its own
at sea, but if it is to survive, it must defeat the Church upon its own
ground. Yet how does it invade the mainland and take the war to a foe
whose population outnumbers its own fifteen to one? How does it prevent
that massive opponent from rebuilding its fleets and attacking yet
again?
Charis has no answer to those questions, but needs to find
one...quickly. The Inquisition's brutal torture and hideous executions
are claiming more and more innocent lives. Its agents are fomenting
rebellion against the only mainland realms sympathetic to Charis.
Religious terrorists have been dispatched to wreak havoc against the
Empire's subjects. Assassins stalk the Emperor and Empress, their allies
and advisers, and an innocent young boy, not yet eleven years old, whose
father has already been murdered. And Merlin Athrawes, the cybernetic
avatar of a young woman a thousand years dead, has finally learned what
sleeps beneath the far-off Temple in the Church of God Awaiting's city
of Zion.
The men and women fighting for human freedom and tolerance have built a
foundation for their struggle in the Empire of Charis with their own
blood, but will that foundation be firm enough to survive?
Safehold Series
- Off Armageddon Reef
- By Schism Rent Asunder
- By Heresies Distressed
- A Mighty Fortress
5. How Firm A Foundation - Midst Toil and Tribulation
- Like A Mighty Army
- Hell's Foundations Quiver
- At the Sign of Triumph
