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Dread Empire's Fall: The Praxis
So it's a damn, damn shame that DEF:tP feels like it's written by Weber, because I really like Walter Jon Williams. I liked his cyberpunkish Hardwired and Voice of the Whirlwind. I liked his fantasy City on Fire and Metropolitan. I really liked his story of how a culture may select Gods to manage the most dangerous of technologies (Aristoi), and I thought his comedies (The Crown Jewels, Rock of Ages, and House of Shards) were, well, just damn funny.
I don't know what happened here, other than maybe Williams has Weber's arm up his ass -- that's the only explanation I can come up for this book.
The background, at least, is somewhat interesting: The Shaa, an alien race, have subjugated everyone around them for thousands of years to the point where nobody even thinks of the concept of rebellion -- everyone's been assimilated into the Shaa empire. This includes the Terrans (whose process of subjugation is the cause of the naming of the battleships Bombardment of Los Angeles, Bombardment of Delhi, Bombardment of Buenos Aires, and a few others) and the Naxid, who were the first race to be subjugated by the Shaa. The Naxid, by the way, are insectile (or insectoid, as the book prefers to call them). As everyone knows, insectile creatures are inherently evil. You'll be happy to know that one of the other races, the Torminels, is a race of nocturnals hunters, with "a plump and furry body." As is appropriate for teddy bears, the Torminels appear to be relatively harmless but when pushed are discovered to be ferocious and honorable fighters. Gotta love the Ewoks!
Anyway, back to the story: Everyone's living in harmony. Unfortunately, the Shaa, who are functionally immortal, have been slowly suiciding because, well, they're bored, and finally the last Shaa kills himself. Will the perfect order his race forced the universe into remain unchanged as he wished? Don't count on it.
Remember the Naxid? They're insectile (sorry, insectoid), and so do the only thing that an insectile (or insectoid) race is allowed in sci-fi books: They try to take over. All the other races band together to try to beat them. Apparently, Dread Empire's Fall will be the saga of that war. Thousands will fight, and millions will die. No one knows who will live and who will die. Anyone's life could be snuffed out at the next moment.
Well, as long as we define "anyone" to be "not Gareth Martinez or Caroline Sula." See, Gareth Martinez (who, by the way, is tall and considered handsome by some, very intelligent, and is cursed by a provincial accent and a lowly birth that means he just gets no respect) is one of our two protagonists. And Caroline Sula, described as "pale, nearly translucent skin, emerald-green eyes, white-gold hair worn collar-length ... Martinez threw the picture into 3D and rotated it, and Sula didn't have a single bad angle" is also very, very smart. Caroline, by the way, has a nasty little secret that you'll be very, very surprised to have revealed to you if you've been recently lobotomized and consequently not figured it out fairly early in the book.
Anyway, The Praxis covers the death of the last Shaa (whose name is Anticipation of Victory, by the way. Normally referred to by everyone as Vic, I'm sure, unless his mother was very angry at which point I'm sure it was "Anticipation of Victory you clean your room RIGHT NOW!") and the beginning of the take-over attempt by the Naxid. You'll be delighted to know that Martinez figures out what they're up to, but nobody listens to him, so he only manages to save one ship. And then, against overwhelming odds, manages to escape. You'll be delighted to find out that our heroine, Caroline Sula, when put in her own precarious position (not to blow the plot, but it involves overwhelming odds against her and almost certain death) manages to do PHENOMENALLY well. Really, she becomes quite the hero. No, wait, why is everyone laughing?
Gareth and Caroline, by the way, hook up very briefly but due to Caroline's little secret not much comes of it and she runs away to ignore him for approximately 400 pages until, three pages before the ending of the book, she sends him a note that basically says "Wow, you and I are both the heroes of this saga and so are destined to be incredibly lucky. Wanna hook up?" No, I'm not really embellishing this much.
The aforementioned 400 pages pass by relatively quickly (how quickly? I bought the book approximately ten hours ago, and have spent much of the intervening time having dinner with my family, downloading p^Hdrivers from the net, and writing this minireview). They are filled with one-dimensional characterizations (see this good-for-nothing non-com? Don't worry about him -- he'll be good-for-nothing until the last drop. This tough but incredibly smart retired weapons chief? Good guy. You can trust him not to screw up. Ever. This aristocracy Captain who likes soccer more than having a functional warship? Go ahead and write him off) and questionable strategic thinking.
Williams does throw some interesting twists into the DEF universe. The Shaa empire is ruled by the laws of The Praxis, the major religion everyone's bought into. The Praxis forbids most of the more interesting uses of technology -- bioengineering is forbidden, as is AI. FTL weapons are non-existent and FTL travel is done only through wormholes. This means that when dealing with intrasolar warfare, the main weapons are missiles. However, because missiles can't be controlled by AI, and because communication can't be FTL, the further away the missiles are from you (and the closer to the enemy), the less able you are to control them. Hence, missiles are shepherded by pinnaces, small one-person ships. Typically, a pinnace controls a volley of missiles and flies with them toward the enemy. If the pinnace pilot is very lucky and very good, they even survive, though most people don't think of this much as the last conflict the Shaa empire had (before this upcoming rebellion) was 3400 hundred years ago and lasted six days. Aside from wormhole travel, all other tech is decidedly hard sci-fi -- lasers and missiles, and both explosive and propulsion power is provided by simple anti-matter. Acceleration couches are an important fixture on ships. In fact, acceleration plays a pretty important role in most of the battles (and Williams makes one of the races both supreme tacticians and incapable of anything more than 2G. OK, that's different).
Really, though, there's nothing there to redeem the one-dimensional characters, the simplistic prose, the improbable odds our heroes manage to slog through with great distinction, and the waste of your time. If you like Weber's Harrington series, you probably want to check it out. If you're the sort of Walter Jon Williams fan who simply has to read everything he writes, your decision will be clear. As to the rest of you ... stay away.
In case you're interested, Williams has a homepage.
You can purchase Dread Empire's Fall: The Praxis from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
I can confirm its location... but not its existance.
I couldn't agree more about the Honor Harrington series. Its absolutely terrible. Sci Fi books commonly have problems with depth of characters but at least in most books there is some. Stephen Donaldson's Gap series is an example of how SciFi should be (although I generally prefer the Fantasy for this reason). Why do people like the Harrington series?
...but I generally don't finish crappy books.
As encouraged by Baen Books, don't blow a wad of money on the Honor Harrington books until you know you are going to like them. How do you know? You read them for free on my website. :)
http://baen.ghostwheel.com/
_IF_ you get hooked, then buy the books.
-Chris
-- This sig is only a test. If this were a real sig it would say something witty. --
"Yes, you should buy all these books. They're very good... FOR MY SALES COMMISSION"
Oops, I said the quiet part loud and the loud part quiet.
The book, like this review, is a collection of cliches that aren't necessarily true?
Sheesh.
Oh, and the reason that the Honor Harrington story is told the way it is -- it's a retelling of Horatio Hornblower, which is written the same way. Not everything is sci-fi...
--
Vote for your hopes, not for your fears - Vote Third Party
All of the Books Baen gives away for free can be found at the Baen Free Library.
David Weber, the Honor Harrington series consists of:
Book 1: On Basilisk Station
Book 2: Honor of the Queen
Book 3: A Short Victorious War
Book 4: Field of Dishonor
Book 5: Flag in Exile
Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
Book 7: In Enemy Hands
Book 8: Echoes of Honor
Book 9: Ashes of Victory
Book 10: War of Honor
What I found interesting was the entire system of government that Weber sets up. On the original planet, he creates a parlimentry democracy with power balanced between The Queen, The House of Lords (aristocrats desecneded from the original settlers), and The House of Commons(elected representatives of the people). (Can you say British Parlimentry with a twist?) On a more feudal planet Honor Harrington is one of 72 Steadholders (a feudal lord with the power of life and death). Thier evil(TM) enemies are the republicans, who have a quasi-communist society that borrows names shamelessly from revolutionary france. Despite this it all blends together and seems workable.
I find the idea that a futuristic society could consist of something other than a Planetary Council/Senate/clone of modern american system very interesting. And I do feel you're being just a touch unfair with the one-dimensional concept, I actaully enjoyed reading all of them.
Actually, I find things like this useful to an extent. For example, if I happened to like the book series he mentions in his chapter then perhaps I'll take his comments differently and buy Praxis. This is one of the reasons there are so many critics - people tend to agree with some and disagree with others. Having him tell you what he likes provides useful background to those who have read that series. So relax, ok?
It certainly is. I thought there might be something wrong with me for thoroughly detesting Honor Harrington. The series has got its fanboys out in force in a lot of places. And David Weber is the kiss of death as a writer when he doesn't have David Drake along to smack him around. So now I have a good quick'n'dirty frame of reference for approaching the style of this book. Which is probably not to my taste. I love good trashy space opera, but to me that means Lt. Leary Commanding or Hammer's Slammers, not Honor Harrington. The nice thing about this issue is that you can check out both characters/series/universes for free at baen.com in their free library area. To me, sci-fi is a guilty pleasure, and I feel like I'm browsing porno when I'm in the sci-fi section... That is, embarassed that someone I know who doesn't share my bad taste will see me there. Why is that? Because so very much of sci-fi is excrable. For every pre-Stranger Heinlein or Keith Laumer or Iain M Banks book out there there are a hundred Honor Harringtons... And so how will people judge my taste when they see me with a paperback with a guy/girl in a spacesuit super-imposed over an airbrush painting of a space battle? The same way I'd judge someone coming out of the romance section with a lurid looking "Sweet Savage Something" clutched in her clammy paw.
"Wow. Now THAT'S a lot of angry Indians." - Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer
Weber's characters have strengths and weaknesses. Honor isn't perfect. She has more character flaws than any hero from Star Trek or Star Wars. She's into revenge, and makes some mistakes because of it.
Her real strength is tactics. That makes sense; she's in a navy that trains and selects for tactical skill. She doesn't get that skill by magic; she goes to the Academy and works her way up to command over many years.
The Peep leaders are Weber's most complex characters. Some of them are boors, yet even Warden Tresca plays chess by mail. The Peep military commanders are in tough positions, caught between their political masters and military realities, and deal with them in different ways. Most just do their jobs. One or two go over to the Manty side. Some die for the People's Republic. Some try a coup. Rod Pierre (oh, please) has a tiger by the tail and can't let go; he's portrayed as ruthless but not evil.
Weber is writing for people who know what Jellicoe did at Jutland. Battle charts wouldn't seem out of place in Weber's books. Fortunately, like Tom Clancy, he has the sense to avoid them.
It's unusual to see tactical skill in SF. Usually, there's too much individual heroism and not enough planning. Historically, it's hard to find any example where individual heroism changed the outcome of a major war. But it happens all the time in fiction. David Drake gets this, and he's gradually been pulling SF around.
Tactics in print SF are bad enough, but in movie SF, they're appalling. Nobody in the Star Wars universe has any decent tactical sense. On either side. Much like World War I. Dune. Starship Troopers. Battlefield Earth. The list of bad examples goes on.
For those not familiar with the books, the story revolves around one Mister Thomas Covenant, author and husband in contemporary America. He seems to have everything one could ask for, a loving wife, a newborn son, and a best selling novel. However, things start to unravel as success is not everything it's cracked up to be. His wife takes his son for an extended visit to see the relatives and Covenant begins on his second book. His wife returns to see that he has not taken care of himself, and he has appeared to have a gangrenous sore on his hand. A trip to the doctor verifies the wound as the first stage of leprosy -- at which point his life comes crashing down around him.
After spending months in a leprosarium, Covenant returns to his little town to discover he is an outcast. His neighbors pay all his bills, deliver groceries to his doot, etc. Out of sheer will to surive Covenant walks to town to pay his telephone bill, and on the return trip sees a strangely dressed beggar. Covenant nearly gives him his wedding ring out of disgust, but is refused, and goes on about his business. Just as he is crossing the street he hears sirens and is hit by a patrol car.
He wakes up, not in the hospital, but in a cave where he meets the the Cavewight Drool Rockworm who has summoned him from his world with the Staff of Law. Covenant, of course, believes he is hallucinating... and the story goes on from there.
In Lord Foul's Bane, and the other two in the trilogy The Illearth War and The Power That Preserves, tell of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever in this trials throughout The Land, a fantasy world populated by wights and giants and men. Covenant is called 'unbeliever' because he refuses to accept what he sees at face value -- the strange world around him -- and goes slightly mad at the prospect of being magically healed of an incurable disease. He bears a weapon of great power, his wedding ring of white gold, something altogether unlike anything else in the Land, which is part of its power. Like the Lord of the Rings often the story centers around the ring of white gold and there is an evil lord seeking it and to destroy the Land. That is where the similarity ends, however, and much in this novel is, well, novel.
I disagree that the books are badly written. On the contrary, Butane Bob's hatred of the books and the main character are not by chance but by design. Thomas Covenant is, without a doubt, the most un-heroic and dislikeable character in fantasy fiction. He would be pitiable if he weren't such an ass. But as I said, it is not because the books are poorly written or because the author's concept is weak. No, these books are remarkable and intriguing, yet uncomfortable to read. Finishing them requires an effort of will, not unlike the effor of will the main character exerts to maintain his sanity. If you, dear reader, pick up these books do not expect a light and fluffy reading experience filled with tales of heroic deeds and comic relief. No, this is a story of woe, the protagonist is an anti-hero, alternatively pitiable and despicable, and his magical ring remains unscrutable, beyond the ken of the character in question.
Though it is difficult for me to say I enjoyed reading these books, I can honestly say that I am not unmoved by the story. I feel I have accomplished something by making it through to the other side but unsure that I am the same. One of the qualities of Great Books is that the reader is moved. In some stories, one is moved in faith such as in the Chronicles of Narnia, or moved to love and modesty such as the Lord of the Rings, or even to despair such as from The Brothers Karamazov. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant are not comfortable books. After reading them you will not feel happy, or content, or with peace of mind. But you will feel. The sensation of negative enormity is great in this book, yet not without a kernel of hope. Not without a small satisfaction after a great loss. A silver lining this cloud has, if you can weather the storm.
Cheers.