How Firm a Foundation

The island empire of Charis struggles for survival against the powerful Church of God Awaiting, unable to gain ground against the church's superior numbers. At the heart of Charis's effort is a secret known only to the Emperor Cayleb, the Empress Sharleyan, and Merlin Athrawes, the avatar of a woman killed a thousand years ago in a hopeless galactic war against an alien race intent on exterminating humans. Though the world of Safehold has remained hidden from the aliens by forswearing most forms of high technology, Cayleb and his companions know that the only way to survive their inevitable discovery is to acquire the technology necessary to defeat their enemy, despite the church's brutal punishments for what they consider heresy. When Merlin finally makes a shattering discovery about what lies beneath the distant Temple in the church's city of Zion, the war takes on an even more desperate significance.