At the Sign of Triumph: A Novel in the Safehold Series Hardcover – November 8, 2016

If you've read Weber's Honor Harrington series, you will likely enjoy this one, the Safehold series. It's planetbound, and has some aspects of wet navy milfic in it, and also some land-based milfic, but, as with HH, it's about the people, not the details. The premise is that humanity has lost a war with another species, and a small selection of people fled to a distant place to rebuild civilization. The issue is that the people in charge of reviving everyone had the power to make them forget what happened before, and chose to institute a strong anti-technological religion to keep the people from being detected by the inimical race. Insert a human from that fleeing era whose brain has been recorded and who is offended by the abuses of the First People in creating what has become a very very severe and repressive religious regime, with some robotic tech able to apply kinetic bombardment to any tech located which uses electricity. The person whose brain was recorded is inserted into a biological android which is indistinguishable from a human, and they have identified a people with the capacity and the intention to stand up to the religious oppressors. This is the ninth book in the series, you probably want to start with the first one, although they are written to be somewhat standalone.

Daiffyyd Weybbrr is one of my favorite authors. Occasionally he lays a clunker, and some of the things he does can be annoying, but, overall I look forward to his books. This book, the last in a rambling series, is, in my opinion, one of his better efforts. I learned to read using the "look-see" method. It has served me well, and I read quickly with good comprehension. In this entire series Weybbrr's conventions for writing names caused me to stop, read the name phonetically and go on. It is an interesting device. Perhaps, if more novels are forthcoming in this series Mr. Weybbrr might consider that English script is generally not necessarily totally phonetic, and, if everything is not written in the way the names are, perhaps it would be just as well if the names were written using the familiar English Orthography. That said, I really enjoyed this book. It didn't end with a neat total resolution, but as things really do, with a patched together compromise. The Church Langhorne wrought survived, and its many believers went on believing and kept some part of their lives which were, in many cases, uphended. The whole series explores the effect of technology on military tactics, both sea and land. Weybbrr's strength is detail, and using it to examine his larger themes. His weakness remains a tendency to cuteness which can be annoying (see above) and the exploration of personal relationships. He takes me back to Saturday matinees and cringing at the mushy parts and waiting for the fun to begin again. All in all, the total series is a good, honest read which is informative on many subjects. It's good reading.

I judge books by their ending and cycles by their last volume.For example “The Witcher” cycle is very well written, but the ending is so banal, that it spoiled 4 volumes of very, very good work.It's not the case with Safehold and "At the Sign of Triumph."This is a very good, I don't hesitate to say "genius" ending of a very good series. Those who didn't read previous volumes should jump straight back to #1,Those who read all the previous parts can confidently buy and read the last volume.The Safehold series is as much about warfare as it is about God. The ending of this book ideally reflects that point.We don't live in a perfect world where at the end main characters live 'happily ever after'. The part of life is always this ounce (or pound) of uncertainty what will happen next.The same happened at the end of "At the Sign of Triumph." The immediate goals have been accomplished, but there is still uncertainty when it comes to the future. What will happen with the Church? Will "archangels" arrive soon and what they will decide? How it will be possible to overcome the orbital weapon stations without developing high technology?The author leave those question unanswered and I like it that way. This made Safehold series not some fairytale, but a great piece of prose that tackle the most fundamental issues of human existence.

Very typical of Weber Safehold srries, lots of detail, lots of battle scenes, lots of characters, and stories told from both sides. With some sympathy for both. Zaspahr Clyntahn continues as the all black hearted bad guy. Even though by this book, the tide has turned, and the heretics war appears won, the scale of battles and atrocities grows to a fevered pitch. Unlike the previous volumes, this one ends! SF has a number of great yarns about the uplifting of the end of technological civilization . This series is one of the best. And, Weber promises more. Each book in the series is a huge novel, abundant with characters, some hard to keep track of. Many twists and turns, and even good reminders of real history. Lots of fun, but not an afternoon's quick read. Highly recommended.

I really like this Author and am enjoying this series.

AT THE SIGN OF TRIUMPHThis involving novel provides a conclusion to Weber’s Safehold series, though it is open-ended enough to allow for continuations. Still, the Church’s armies have been defeated and are in full retreat, their reluctant allies are defecting, and the main instigator of the jihad, Clyntahn, the Grand Inquisitor himself, has been captured. The survivors are suing for peace.In many respects this is a satisfying conclusion: the evil regime is overthrown, the good triumph, and the journey through a well-constructed science fiction world has been exciting. There are, however, problems. Despite the book’s length, the enemy’s final collapse feels a bit precipitous, though that certainly does happen in war (South Vietnam?). Since this has been a long series, it can be hard to keep track of all the characters, especially since their names are spelt in an unfamiliar way. Newcomers will be at sea, and even readers who have followed the series faithfully may have problems remembering details from novels published up to a decade ago. The absence of maps in a story largely devoted to military campaigns is frustrating. (I know, readers are urged to consult them on-line, but who wants to lay aside the book, crank up the computer, and track down the site? Disrupts the flow of the plot.)These are problems endemic in a long series with so broad a scope and so many plot lines, but in this book the author has done little to provide a backstory. Not only would he not want to slow down the action, but he may have assumed that those who buy this book would have read earlier books in the series. He is probably right. The action scenes are exciting, and it is gratifying to see the villains receive their just desserts. Definitely recommended to fans of the series; others should start at the beginning. It is well worth it.

Completed my collection..great!

Sometimes it is a bit too confusing with detailing so many things. You can easily lost your track.Thanks for everything, waiting for the next episode :)

Man kann viel über Safehold diskutieren, ob Vergleiche mit der Geschichte passend oder ob es nicht ein wenig zu viele Charaktere sind (Band 8 hatte gefühlt 100 Seiten allein Auflistung der Charaktere und wo man sie erstmals in den Büchern findet) und ob es zuviel persönliche Eindrücke zu den Charakteren enthält.Wer die letzten acht Bände gelesen hatte und seinen Spass hatte, der wird auch diesmal seinen Spass haben. Wer sich die letzten Bände über die Namen mit "y" oder die langgestrecke Erzählstruktur geärgert hat, wird sich auch diesmal ärgern.Das Buch setzt die Reihe fort wie man sie kennen und lieben oder hassen gelernt hat und das macht David Weber hier ziemlich gut. Nur das Ende hätte er gern noch auf weitere 800 Seiten ausdehnen können, zwischen Kerker und Galgen mir ging es einfach zu schnell zu Ende.

Possibly the best book he's ever written. A truly satisfying conclusion to the war that was always the main star of the series, even if some of the plot points are left unresolved, that really just reflects the way wars rarely fix all the problems that create them. Weber restrains a lot of his worst habits as well; at almost no point does he start the chapter, write three lines of dialog between characters and then dump twenty pages of exposition on us. He's still a little heavy handed with expo, but it's much improved now.Weber's strength is his lovingly rendered action scenes. I deeply enjoy reading Weber's battlefield accounts and shipboard action, and this book, and this entire series, is packed with them. I would be very disappointed if Weber stopped writing historical or, in this case, quasi-historical stories.