By Heresies Distressed (Safehold Series #3) by David Weber
I like these books for the way they mix lots of interesting SF tropes (for a start, "retrograde colony" - Safehold is a colony that (deliberately) has regressed technology, and
"magical technology" - Merlin Athrawes has "powers." As a robotic survivor of the original colonial power s/he has abilities and resources that verge on magic to the Safeholdians...). I don't mind (though mostly blip over) the (sometimes interminable) military details. And I really like the church/state issues and how they're handled. Weber's retelling of the Reformation is well done - I expect he's benefited from the alt-history 1632/Ring-of-Fire series
But... the thing that makes me nuts at time is the goofy naming Zhaspar, instead of Jasper, Zhames instead of James and so on. I recognize he does this to make the society a bit alien or altered... but the odd spelling is often a roadblock to my reading. I'm curious (but haven't checke yet) how the audio books render these names.
...sometimes they drive me nuts. It's
1) L:
