The Geeks welcome writer David Weber, author of the popular and bestselling Honor Harrington novels. Weber joins the geeks to discuss his latest novel ‘By Schism Rent Asunder’, the sequel to last year’s bestseller ‘Off Armageddon Reef’. These novels form a new series that sees a nearly destroyed humanity driven from home to a new colony, where they are forced to give up scientific inquiry, technology, and higher mathematics in an attempt to avoid detection by a an aggressive alien race known as the Gbaba. Weber is a master of science fiction, and has deftly handled future technologies and physics in the worlds and universes he creates. Rick Kleffel of [The Agony Column|http://www.trashotron.com/agony/] will also be in the studio.
Ever wonder why your cell phone has 4 or 5 bars of signal strength, but your audio quality is really bad or the connection drops? How about that wacky battery meter that seems to never be accurate?
! Reading and Signing
David Weber will be reading from ‘By Schism Rent Asunder’ (Tor) at 3:00 and signing books at [Borderland’s Books|http://www.borderlands-books.com/] in San Francisco on Saturday, August 2nd at 3:00 pm.
! David Weber Biography
David Weber is an American science fiction and fantasy author who has been called science fiction’s biggest phenomenon of the last 20 years. In his stories, he creates a consistent and rationally explained technology and society. Even when dealing with fantasy themes, the magical powers are treated like another technology with supporting rational laws and principles.
Many of his stories have military, particularly naval, themes, and fit into the military science fiction genre. He challenges current gender roles in the military by assuming that a gender-neutral military service will exist in his futures, and by frequently placing female leading characters in what have previously been seen as traditionally male roles, he has explored the challenges faced by women in the military and politics.
His popular Honor Harrington novels are New York Times bestsellers, and can’t come out fast enough for his devoted readers. In addition to the Honor Harrington series, he has written many top-selling science fiction novels, including Mutineers’ Moon, The Armageddon Inheritance, Heirs of Empire, and Path of Fury, Off Armageddon Reef, and By Schism Rent Asunder. David Weber currently lives with his family in South Carolina.
! ‘Off Armageddon Reef’
[weber_off_armageddon_reef.jpg| After fleeing the vicious Ghaba, the survivors of the human race retreat to the distant planet of Safehold, where they sacrifice basic human rights for the preservation of the species. To avoid detection by the aliens, all technological advancement is forbidden, effectively throwing Safehold back into a dark age that is centered on a newfound religion. But there is a small faction of Safeholdians—aided by a cybernetic avatar from the distant past—that still believes in individual freedom and thought, and that technology is vital for man’s ultimate survival. A daring, and dangerous, plan is hatched and Off Armageddon Reef peaks in a navel battle led by the Kingdom of Charis—a battle that could change the entire future of Safehold…]
! ‘By Schism Rent Asunder’
[weber_by_schism_rent_asunder.jpg|In ‘By Schism Rent Asunder’, Safehold has been revolutionized. The mercantile kingdom of Charis has prevailed over the alliance designed to exterminate it. Armed with better sailing vessels, better guns, and better devices of all sorts, Charis faced the combined navies of the rest of the world at Darcos Sound and Armageddon Reef, and broke them. Now, despite the implacable hostility of the Church of God Awaiting, Charis still stands—still free and still tolerant—an island of innovation in a world in which the Church has worked for centuries to keep locked in a medieval level of existence. But the powerful men who run the Church aren’t going to take their defeat lying down. Charis may control the world’s seas, but it barely has an army worthy of the name. And as King Cayleb knows, far too much of the kingdom’s recent good fortune is due to the secret manipulations of the being that calls himself Merlin—a being that is more than human. For on Merlin’ shoulders rests the last chance for humanity’s freedom. Now, as Charis and its archbishop make the rift with Mother Church complete, the storm gathers. Schism has come to the world of Safehold, and nothing will ever be the same.]
! At the end of this episode
“Every step that our technology advances gives us a greater ability to live up to our supposed belief in the dignity of the individual human being and the rights and the options of the individual human being.” — David Weber, August 2nd 2008.
