Just Finished Reading: The Sundering by Walter Jon Williams

This is the middle book in the Dread Empires Fall trilogy [have you noticed that everything seems to be a trilogy these days?]

Taking place in the far, far future it continues the story of the slide into chaos and civil war of the 10,000 year old Empire of the Shaa. With the death of the last of the galactic ruling race a power vacuum is created that some other alien races are all too eager to fill. The Terrans in particular have other ideas and the ensuing arguments soon degenerate into a shooting war. Two heroes emerge out of the chaos – Lord Gareth Martinez, a despised provincial Peer and the Lady Sula, a woman with a mysterious background.

I really enjoyed the beginning and end of this book. Unfortunately it did sag rather a lot in the middle. The first third [chocked full of space battles] concentrated on the exploits of Martinez as he reshaped the hopelessly outdated tactics of the loyalist fleet, the end third concentrated on Sula as she learnt the art of armed resistance to the capitals new occupying power. The middle third concentrated far too much on the Empires internal politics and the love lives of the main characters. It wasn’t awful, but it was pretty boring. However, the other two thirds more than made up for this shortcoming.

As a sociologist [by training] I’m always interested in the construction of alien or future societies. Here Williams appears to have written the British Empire ‘large’ with tales of Peerage and patronage. Not exactly radical but it works quite well in context. Not a bad book and I’m certainly looking forward to part three – but not the best thing Williams has written to date.