The second book in Walter Jon Williams' Dread Empire's Fall series, The Sundering, resumes exactly where The Praxis left off. It continues the story of Gareth Martinez and Caroline Sula as they battle to retake the Shaa empire from the Naxid rebels. The writing and characterization continue to be top notch so if you enjoyed the first book you will definitely like the second. Although the second book was good, I felt that it put a lot of pressure on the third book to determine whether the series will be great or not. In other words, after reading about these people and their war for two volumes, I need the third book to be truly spectacular in order to make the first two books pay off. Therefore, I will withhold judgement on the entire series until I finish the third book, but if the first two books are any indication, I don't think I'll be disappointed.

... so says the Praxis...

So often Science Fiction, and the sub-genre of Space Opera in particular, is set amidst a completely unbelievable background, either an unlikely extrapolation of current society and science or worse still, our current society set in a thinly veiled future that lacks any cohesion.

The Dread Empire series defies this trend by setting the books in very believable, cohesive, and reasonable setting. What a wonderful change from the likes of David Weber's Honorverse.

"The Sundering" is a marvelous continuation of the "Dread Empires Fall" series, providing more of the rich prose and exciting storylines experienced in "The Praxis".

While reading, I often paused to wonder at the depth Mr. Williams has developed for the story's universe, its beauty, and more importantly, for its cohesiveness. I give it 5 stars.

The Sundering is the second of Walter Jon Williams's space opera series collectively called Dread Empire's Fall. (First was The Praxis.) In the first novel the last of the Shaa, the long-lived aliens who controlled the multi-species Empire, died, setting off a battle for control. One species, the Naxids, rebelled, arguing that their status as first species to be conquered by the Shaa made them natural successors. The other species were taken by surprise by the rebellion, as they had apparently assumed that things would continue much as before, with power divided fairly evenly between the several species. A war quickly followed.

The central characters are two humans, Lord Gareth Martinez and Lady Caroline Sula. Both are relatively young and quite brilliant, and both become heroes in early action of the war, effectively preventing an immediate Naxid victory, though it is clear that the Naxids have the advantage of numbers. Martinez and Sula meet and are obviously attracted to each other. However both have flaws that will obviously cause future problems. Sula has a very dark secret in her background, further complicating her already compromised status as the last surviving member of a disgraced family. Martinez's family, while very rich, is provincial and thus his social status is tenuous, and his ambitions (and those of the rest of his family) tempt him towards dicey social and political manipulations, and occasional rather careerist, and conceited, actions.

In The Sundering, the story of the war as well as the personal stories of Martinez and Sula are advanced but not resolved, as one might expect from a middle book. Both are responsible in part for some further military successes, due to their brilliant tactical minds (and to fruitful collaboration). Their personal relationship takes some steps forward as well, only to be impeded by mutual misunderstandings, and by the problems mentioned above: Sula's past, and the ambitions of Martinez and his family. By the end of the novel a plan the two concocted for saving the Empire has been put into motion, albeit credited to more respectable people, and each are involved in desperate battles (of very different sorts) with the Naxids.

The book is very exciting, with some first rate space action, and some ground-based action as well. Williams appears to take great care in making his battle scenes plausible, taking into account travel times, acceleration requirements, and the general physics of space travel in planetary systems. Various aspects seem modelled on Napoleonic era naval adventure books, such as the hierarchical nature of shipboard society, and indeed the aristocratic focus of the overall society. The overall design is quite familiar, including such important things as the hero and heroine being brilliant mavericks, and such small details as Martinez's crusty and wily veteran servant. But if much is familiar, even cliché, Williams works very well within the form. The intrigues and twists and those disasters the reader sees coming give great pleasure. The flawed characters still attract this reader, and I root for them despite grimacing at their folly. This series is great fun to read, one of the most entertaining space operas in many years.

I truly wonderful novel! It has been awhile since I read science fiction that is so good.

I commented on this books predecessor that the remarkable thing about Dread Empires Fall is that very little actually happens. I enjoyed the book but I was looking forward to the next installment. I am pleased to say that the second book certainly moved the story and it is rather more action packed then the first text.

As I usually make a point of I do not wish to give too much of the plot away so the review lacks some specifics. The book is far more action packed then the opening book of the series. The story moves at a good pace and the plot does not seem either rushed or artificially elongated. The weakness in middle books is that they often feel like a bridge between the foundation and the capstone and otherwise seem to have very little reason to exist. This is absolutely not true in this novel. The story was engaging and very satisfying. It is still true that the book would be hard to fully engage with if the first text had not been read first.

An excellent book. I hesitate to give this novel 5 stars and have settled on 4 instead. This book, in my mind, does not quite join the very top-level books in the field but it is very, very close.