The Sundering - Walter Jon Williams

by Harbinger

Hello everyone. It is review time(obviously), I could have been watching episodes of 'Are You Being Served?' my mother has just bought a DVD set.....I don't know how much more I can take!! So i shall make all attempts to avoid mentioning Mrs Slocambe's... well if your British you know and if your not you don't want to know!

My fans (All two of you), may remember I reviewed Walter Jon Williams The Praxis, a while ago well I decide it was high time to review the Second instalment of the Trilogy Dread Empire's Fall. If you want to read the review of the praxis here is the link:

http://hagelrat.blogspot.com/2009/09/praxis-walter-jon-williams.html

When we left the Story, the Empire of the Shaa had disintegrated into civil war with Naxids fighting all the other races including Humans. Things are going badly for the 'Loyalists', after a heavy defeat there are only 6 ships left in the Home Fleet and there is little time to Build more. Gareth Martinez, now a Lieutenant-Captain has surprised everyone including himself by being a good commanding officer and becoming a hero. This has upset the snobbish peers back home who are looking for any excuse to clip the wings of this strong accented man. He is till trying to contend with his Brother Roland's constant attempts to pus the Martinez clan up the ladder.

Lady Caroline Sula, remains her witty cynical self, she has to contend with her own challenges, from unscrupulous censors to organise a guerrilla defense of the Capital of Zanshaa. Plus the fact she clearly still fancies Martinez, but in typical girl fashion is confused by the whole thing. Of course we must not forget the secret hiding behind her beautiful face that she is not who she appears to be.

Any way I think this is an improvement on the first book. I found the battles a little less complicated and a little more frequent. The political intrigue steps up a level as Martinez's enemies struggle to find ways to clip the wings of a man, who is after all a War hero. I found Sula really come into her own in this one, she is able to display her intelligence more easily. You also get a greater sense of both Sula and Martinez having to bang their heads against the wall trying to get the snobbish old order to be more pragmatic instead of clinging to old ideas that no longer work.

I do have one reservation however and that is the increasing moral ambiguousness of the story. With both sides in the war claiming to be the 'loyalists' and neither really batting an eye lid at genocide. However on the whole I think the book is an improvement on The Praxis, and good qaulity space opera so give it a try.

Now I am going to go throw the DVD player out the window.

TTFN