On the recommendation of Eric Swedin, I recently read the Dread Empire’s Fall trilogy by Walter John Williams. The series is in the military SF/space opera genre, and overall it’s a good read if, like me, you enjoy space opera.
Dread Empire’s Fall: The Praxis begins the series by introducing us to the galactic empire founded by the Shaa, a technologically advanced and immortal race that has conquered all the other intelligent races in the galaxy, including humans. The various races subject races have been integrated into the empire, and human lords and ladies are among the members of the Convocation that rules the empire under the direction of the Shaa.
Now, you’re probably wondering whether such an arrangement would be stable. Well, it has been for thousands of years, guaranteed by the powerful fleet of interstellar warships capable of mercilessly bombing any planet into submission — and by the Praxis. The Praxis is a system of philosophy and knowledge developed by the Shaa, and everyone is required to believe in the Praxis. One of its tenets is that everything that can be known is known — therefore the Praxis is stagnant, as is all of galactic civilization. Stable, but stagnant.
The Shaa are naturally immortal, but there’s a problem with that: their memories are finite. Even with computer enhancement, they eventually become unable to remember the present, and memory itself becomes a burden. So they commit suicide. As the first book begins, the last of the Shaa is preparing to die, hoping that it has properly prepared the empire so that everyone will continue to follow the Praxis, and that the empire of the Shaa will continue unchanged forever.
Well, now, if that happened, it would make for a pretty boring book — and the series wouldn’t be titled Dread Empire’s Fall.
The series follows two main characters and a host of minor ones. The main characters are Lord Gareth Martinez and Lady Caroline Sula, both of them young officers in the Fleet. Both of them happen to be very smart, daring people, and when events cause a rift in the Fleet, they manage to distinguish themselves through bold new tactics. However, bold new tactics do not impress superior officers who are used to doing things in the manner the Fleet has done them for thousands of years.
Martinez and Sula also fall in love, but political maneouvering and hidden secrets conspire against their getting together.
While the books are a fun read if you like space battles, covert operations, and political intrigue, in my opinion the series suffers from one serious flaw, which stems from the Praxis. The major military obstacles for Martinez and Sula tend to be the incompetence or inflexibility of their own superiors, who resist implementing their tactical innovations. But since the enemy commanders show no tactical innovation, most of the time when Martinez or Sula is able to influence the course of battle, it results in lopsided victory.
Don’t get me wrong: I like my heroes to win. But I want them to win against a smart enemy, not a dumb one that never seems to learn anything new. The Honor Harrington series by David Weber does a much better job in this area — most of the time, you may know that Honor will win the battle (because it’s her series, after all), but she’s up against a foe superior in numbers and/or firepower, and so you wonder how she’s going to pull it off this time. Another reason why Weber’s opponents may be more effective as a menace is that we often get a chance to see things from the point of view of the enemy, so we understand what they are doing and why. Even if they are doing something that will enable Honor to win a lopsided victory, we can see how they misunderstand the situation in such a way that their actions make sense to them.
The trilogy consists of The Praxis, The Sundering, and Conventions of War. While the third book concludes the war begun in the first, it seems to leave some loose ends for a future sequel.