Books › How Firm a Foundation
How Firm a Foundation
848 pages
A tense, high-stakes military sci-fi epic where a desperate empire fights for freedom against a massive, corrupt religious regime.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like standing on the edge of a knife, surrounded by the grim realities of an asymmetric war. The atmosphere is embattled and dread-soaked, driven by an urgent pace as the stakes continually escalate from naval skirmishes to the shadowy threat of assassins and religious terrorists. It is a sprawling, epic experience that balances the brutal, bloody cost of survival with a defiant hope for human freedom and tolerance. The prose is detailed and action-oriented, immersing the reader in the tactical desperation of an empire outnumbered fifteen to one. It will deeply satisfy fans of military science fiction who crave massive scale, high-stakes political intrigue, and the thrilling tension of a desperate fight against overwhelming, corrupt forces.
- Mood
- embattled
- tense
- dread-soaked
- epic
- Tone
- urgent
- grim
- defiant
- earnest
- Pace
- propulsive
- Themes
- survival against overwhelming odds · religious corruption · the cost of freedom · asymmetric warfare · technological secrets
- The writing
- Detailed and action-oriented, focusing on the grim realities of war and the sprawling scope of an embattled empire.
- The arc
- Moves from a desperate, defensive struggle for survival to a high-stakes, perilous push for ultimate freedom.
- Who it's for
- Fans of sprawling military science fiction who love high-stakes tactical warfare, political intrigue, and fighting against tyrannical religious zealots.
Content notes
- brutal torture
- executions
- murder
- terrorism
- child endangerment
- warfare
About the book
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?
Description from Open Library.
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