The Safehold Series In Order: How to read David Weber’s books?

Written by American science fiction and fantasy author David Werber (Honorverse), The Safehold Series is about the survival of the human race in a future where religion and technology can’t cohabit. The story began when an alien race named the Gbaba started a war against the human race and won.

The last survivors fled to the distant world of Safehold to hide. Centuries later, their descendants have forgotten all of that and are living in an eternal Middle Ages ruled by the Church of God Awaiting. This organization is preventing the re-emergence of industrial civilization. But an android from the far human past awakens and will change everything. Soon, the island kingdom of Charis began to defy the edicts of Mother Church…

How to Read The Safehold Books In Order?

1. Off Armageddon Reef – Humanity pushed its way to the stars – and encountered the Gbaba, a ruthless alien race that nearly wiped us out.
   To survive, the human rulers of the Safehold colony have taken extraordinary measures: they’ve built a religion designed to keep Safehold society medieval forever. 800 years pass. android with the memories of Lieutenant Commander Nimue Alban awakens. “Nimue” will emerge into Safeholdian societyand begin the process of provoking the technological progress which the Church of God Awaiting has worked for centuries to prevent.
2. By Schism Rent Asunder – 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. Despite the implacable hostility of the Church of God Awaiting, Charis still stands. 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.
3. By Heresies Distressed – The youthful Queen Sharleyan of Chisholm has wed King Cayleb of Charis, forging a single dynasty, a single empire, dedicated to the defense of human freedom. And so Empress Sharleyan faces the great challenge of her life unaware of all that task truly entails…or of how the secrets the man who loves her cannot share may threaten all they have achieved between them…and her own life.

4. A Mighty Fortress – The Church of God Awaiting, which controls most of Safehold, has decreed the destruction of the Charisian Empire. Mother Church’s entire purpose is to prevent the very things to which Charis is committed. Since the first attempt to crush the heretics failed, the Church has no choice but to adopt some of the hated Charisian innovations for themselves. Soon a mighty fleet will sail against Cayleb, destroying everything in its path.
5. How Firm a Foundation – 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. But Merlin Athrawes has finally learned what sleeps beneath the far-off Temple in the Church of God Awaiting’s city of Zion…
6. Midst Toil and Tribulation – Reeling from the wars and intrigues that have cascaded from Charis’s declaration of independence, the Republic of Siddermark slides into chaos. The Church has engineered a rebellion, and Siddermark’s all-important harvest is at risk. King Cayleb and Queen Sharleyan struggle to stabilize their ally, which will mean sending troops–but, even more importantly, preventing famine. For mass starvation in Safehold’s breadbasket is a threat even more ominous than civil war…

7. Like a Mighty Army – Fending off the wounded Church, Charis has drawn more and more of the countries of Safehold to the cause of independence and self-determination. But at a heavy cost in bloodshed and loss–a cost felt by nobody more keenly than Merlyn Athrawes. The wounded Church is regrouping. Its armies and resources are vast. The fight for humanity’s future isn’t over, and won’t be over soon…
8. Hell’s Foundations Quiver – It’s been a long and bloody fight, but aided by a stream of inventions, Charis and its few allies seem to have finally gained the upper hand. Now major realms have begun to consider switching sides. To all these ends, Merlyn Athrawes has been everywhere. The secret of who and what he is has been closely held. But a new player has arrived, one who knows many secrets-including Merlyn’s own.
9. At the Sign of Triumph – After eight years of war, it is not Charis but the Church that stands upon the brink of defeat. But the Church still commands immense resources, and ― faced with the unthinkable ― it’s decided that it, too, must embrace the forbidden technology which has carried Charis so far. In the end, it is simple, for only one can survive.

10. Through Fiery Trials – Even though a provisional veil of peace has fallen over human colonies, the quiet will not last. For Safehold is a broken world, and as international alliances shift and Charis charges on with its precarious mission of global industrialization, the shifting plates of the new world order are bound to clash. Yet, an uncertain future isn’t the only danger Safehold faces…

If you like our guide to read the Safehold book series in order, don’t forget to bookmark it! You may also be interested in David Weber’s Honorverse and the Ender’s Game series.