Dread Empire's Fall is a trilogy of novels by Walter Jon Williams, consisting of The Praxis, The Sundering, and Conventions of War. It's a space opera in the Napoleonic Navy mode, with our two heros being Lord Martinez and Lady Sula, two young officers in the navy of the interstellar empire that conquered Earth (and several other species's homeworlds) 120 centuries earlier. But the empire is falling apart at the seams as the the last of the Great Masters dies, and the formerly subordinate races start elbowing for power.

The Fleet hasn't fought a battle in millenia, so there had been little chance for promotion for our heros; their ancestry allowed them entry into the officer ranks, but without powerful families to provide patronage, they would never rise above the juniormost ranks.

But in a war, clever and ambitious men and women thrive, as the old guard stick to the old ways and die in blazes of antimatter fire. Martinez and Sula struck me as being modeled on English forebearers, in fact: Martinez is Nelson, and Sula is Drake and perhaps Cromwell. I don't mean to suggest that they are merely copies of the historical figures; but their tactics and situations intentionally echo thier forebearers.

In this, Williams does better than David Weber's Honor Harrington novels, which are also set in a pseudo-Napoleonic space opera regime, but have a less independant background. Weber straight up copied the age of wooden ships and iron men, and gets tied up about the ways space change things. The tactics and technologies used by Williams are much more convincing and three-dimensional.

But be warned: Williams likes to write in a realistic style, not a romantic one. Major characters can get killed in non-heroic ways, and he hates Chekhov's Law and breaks it at every opportunity. Plus, the series was intended to be longer than a trilogy (according to the author's FAQ), and the last paragraph of the third book ends with a kick in the gut for people that like all the heros fat and happy at the end.

Still, I liked it, but I'm not sure I'll read it again unless a sequel comes out, because that kick in the gut still smarts. It's perhaps not as good as his Aristoi or his Knight Moves, but those novels were written when Williams was following the style of Roger Zelanzy. Dread Empire's Fall is in William's own voice, and the better for it.

Posted by: Boviate at 04:01 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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James Triptree, Jr. is a facinating person, and I look forward to reading a recently published biography about her. She was a female author in the man's world of early SF, but avoided becoming a 'token female' like, say, Joanna Russ. Triptree's novels were hard to categorize, except for empty phrases like "new", "different", and "original." Brightness Falls from the Air (BFftA) was written in 1985, late in the author's career. It was reviewed not just by the usual suspects- Locus, Analog, Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine- but by the heavy hitters: the Baltimore Sun, the Washington Post, the New York Times. Reviewers that normally sneer at "genre" works raved over it. That's normally a strike against a SF novel, but BFftA really is so good that the prejudices of the fine-literature crowd could not stand against it.

Normally, I ignore the text on the back of a paperback. It gets written by the junior assistant to the editor's coffee brewer, after a thirty-second skim of the first draft. The purpose of that cover text is to sell copies, and accuracy to the novel is of peripherial concern. But in this case, that back text is an outstanding introduction. Permit me, if you will, to quote it in full:

Sixteen humans have come together on Damiem, a distant world where a dream was once stolen and atrocities once took place. They have gathered to view the last rising of a manmade nova, the passing testament to an unhallowed war.
Soon time will warp and masks will be shed.
Soon some will die, and others kill. Soon some will lie, and others go mad. Some will seek love, and others release. Some will learn names, and others courage.
Some will find justice... and others judgement.
Soon.
Now, sixteen humans have gathered.
To await the light of the murdered star.

BFfrA contains many ideas that you've seen elsewhere, both in SF and Westerns. Novas as warfare, atrocities performed against the natives, corrupt big city types versus pure country folk, evil criminal masterminds and straightforward honest cops. Flying people, aquatic people. And the sorrow of those that have done what they felt was necessary, and live with the consequences. Is there a crime so large that a lifetime cannot provide sufficient expropitiation? But BFftA doesn't read like a retread- more like other novels have tried and failed to cover the same ground.
I was reminded at times of Iron Sunrise by Charles Stross, and Look to Windward by Ian M. Banks. Slaughterhouse Five. Isaac Asimov's Foundation. Murder on the Orient Express.

It is certianly not without faults. The good guys made some mistakes that were difficult to justify, considering the sensitivity of their post and the selectivity with which they were chosen. One of the characters suffers a fate that has more to do with a gypsy curse than "widespread glandular damage". But Triptree is not an author to let trivia get in the way of a good story. This novel is about the ideas, not the facts.

I recommend this book unreservedly. I'm sure it's out of print. Check your library. Check your used bookstores. Read this book.

Posted by: Boviate at 07:37 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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