Customer Reviews

The Praxis (Dread Empire's Fall)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Like most of Walter Jon Williams' books, The Praxis (Dread Empire's Fall) is a beautifully written story of the beginning of the final demise of the Shaa empire, set in far future. Don't let the wormholes, anti-matter bombs and aliens fool you though, if you understand the politics and relationships of the characters in this fine tale, you understand the Roman Empire and how it worked, looked and felt to the upper classes who exploited it for their personal benefit. All in all, the most painless introduction to the politics and life of the Empire which is the most immediate predecessor to modern Western Civilization a fan of space opera is ever likely to encounter.

I'm sorry I'm not somebody for writing great reviews, I'd rather spend my time reading. However, I have to make an exception for this fine piece of space opera.
If you are feeling bored, because there is no new book by Peter F Hamilton to read, the old classics feel a bit too dusty, Weber and Banks haven't produced anything original recently, please, please pick up this book.
It has everything, story telling on a grander scale with a fascinating backdrop of a future universe, to the intimate details of the individual personae and how they come together. I won't give anything of the plot away, you have to read it for yourselves and find out.

As top-end space opera, the Dread Empire's Fall trilogy gives us some interesting premises. The ancient Shaa race conquered and absorbed every sentient race they encountered, including mankind (we "Terrans"). They built their multicultural empire around a rigid hierarchy of nobility not unlike that prevailing in the 18th century, plus an imperial space navy resembling (in its patronage-based promotion system and command structure) the British Royal Navy during the age of sail. Soon after the last Shaa overlord expires a civil war breaks out, as one of the sentient races makes a grab for total power that is resisted by the surviving central government representing all the other races within the old empire. This is a new type of war for both sides: the Navy was created and trained by the Shaa to bombard technologically-inferior species from space, and if necessary destroy them with advanced nuclear weapons. It never faced a battle of equals, and both sides must examine archaic fleet doctrine and learn from hard experience how to wage war against a "peer competitor."

The technology depicted by Walter Jon Williams is futuristically plausible, with spaceships capable of low-fraction light speed and interstellar travel enabled by the existence of "wormholes." Within the star and planetary systems movement and combat are strictly in accordance with the laws of classical physics (e.g., gravitational and elapsed time constraints), so relatively little suspension of disbelief is required. Williams' two protagonists are representatives of the low-order nobility attempting to make their way up the ranks in the Navy and save the empire through a combination of their own remarkable abilities displayed in wartime and their ability to attract patronage from among the higher nobility, where bureaucratic power resides. Professional merit counts, but not all that much. As with the history of the pre-20th century epoch, it is fascinating to study the elites and discern the balance they strove to maintain between class interests and patriotism. I recommend this series to "hard" sci-fi fans tired of fantasy excesses, who also have some appreciation for European history.

The point-of-view characters are vivid and engaging. It's difficult for a genre author to succeed with flawed protagonists, since so many readers want adolescent wish fulfillment. Williams manages it very competently.

Unfortunately I didn't find much else to like about the book. I lost patience with the glacial pace of the storytelling and stopped reading around page 150. I kept waiting for a spark of originality, and it never came.