[By Nic Lindh on Monday, 09 April 2007]
The Sundering: Dread Empire’s Fall continues the story begun in The Praxis (my review here) about the fall of the Shaa Empire.
As the title suggests, things are not going well for the empire.
Like its predecessor, The Sundering is pure and gleeful Space Opera, with a galaxy-spanning empire, huge space battles, and nefarious aliens.
Walter Jon Williams attempts and to some extent succeeds in drawing multifaceted portraits of both his protagonists and the society in which they operate, separating the series from run-of-the-mill Space Opera, but the time the novel spends on the political aspects of the empire’s falling apart, and the stagnation and corruption rampant among the highest levels of society, does slow it down a bit.
However, the action sequences are extremely well written and paced.
If you liked The Praxis, you’ll like The Sundering.
Related Core Dump reviews: