Agreed, I absolutely loved how Safehold explored how a technology base is required for technological advancement. But I really wish he had made this a series of trilogies, where each generation build on the achievements of the generation before. Because we go from Battle of Lepanto to the American Civil War in a decade. It's too much.

I also agree with you that there is a problem with the goodies being too good. Because there is very little peril in the later books.

I would just like to recommend his War God series though. It gets very little love and the original 3 books are great. He restarted the series more recently though and those books are shite.