I doubt that this trilogy will advance into space and fight the Gbaba. Even with a higher starting-point once the Safeholdians get up to where the Terran Federation were, technologyically, it would take a long time for Safehold to build a space navy capable of taking on the Galactic Bad-Ass Biker Association. Maybe decades, more than likely centuries.

Which would be a topic of a second series, something along ‘A Crisis Of Faith’, which would lead to a civil war in a nascent Safehold Confederation between hard-line conservatives (Those who believe in the Gbaba and that they must be stopped, but not ready yet, must keep strong power and control) and radical liberals (Who do not believe in the Gbaba and want to remove all the controls and stops the conservatives have put in.)

The interesting bit is where Nimue Alban would place herself – possibly with a small group of progressives, who want to relax SOME of the restrictions and that should they meet the Gbaba, they’ll be able to win in the end (Slightly weaker than Earth was in Apocalypse Troll), but the Gbaba do exist. The only problem is that these moderates are definatly the minority, and I doubt that ‘Merlin’ would make an appearance, else completly fudge up the Safeholdian cultural psyche any further…

…well, that’s how I’d set it up.

What I want to know is 1: Will weber take shortcuts or see the detailed stories through? 2: Does Nimue ever get to come back? and 3: Where’s Elvis?

Also I forgot to mention in the tech development section:

Smoke warfare
Better grenades (stick grenades maybe)
and dehydrated rations (hurray… )

Incendiary anti-ship rounds, possibly shaped.
Explosive anti-infantry rounds.
Puckle Guns (Basically the equivalent of belt-fed Gatlings that have more primitive cartridges and a slower rate of fire).
Specialized infantry. (Explosives experts, engineers, etc.)
Basic bulletproof vestments (using composite materials available on Charis like that bamboo analogue’s fibers)
Binoculars

Artillery tactics that work beyond visual range, angle of fire, trajectory analysis, etc… And flag/lamp signals to boot (Merlin can introduce Morse Code).

As to the Order of Saint Zherneau, I believe that Merlin is about to find a means of introducing a cultural revolution by proxy of the brotherhood, like his technological proxies.

I agree on your point. For my space opera novel, I quite deliberately gave the side you saw the advantage of numbers but a very serious technical inferiority.

George

I agree that Tarot is far weaker than Corisande, not to mention that instead of invading Corisande the alliance might invade Zebediah and install the Duke as a Prince of a nominally somewhat independent state. However, Tarot is closer, and is a sea power that if it recovered might be able to ferry an army from one of the mainland empires onto Charis. At the moment, Charis has near-total control of the sea, but concentrating against Charis would weaken this control.

On yet another hand, at this point Chisholm has naval superiority over Corisande, has some sort of an army not lost at sea, and rather than sitting on her backside the Queen of Chisholm might start trimming away at Corisande without being polite about waiting.