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Title: Conventions of War (Dread Empire's Fall) |
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Review of Conventions of War (Dread Empire's Fall)
The universe has fallen into bloody chaos now that the dread empire of the tyrannical Shaa is no more -- at the mercy of the merciless insectoid Naxid, who now hunger for domination. But the far-flung human descendants of Terra have finally tasted liberty, and their warrior heroes will not submit. Separated by light-years, Lord Gareth Martinez and the mysterious guerrilla fighter Caroline Sula each pursue a different road to victory in tomorrow's ultimate battle -- for the new order will be far more terrible than the old ... unless one last, desperate stratagem can hold a shattered galaxy together.
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Comments for Conventions of War (Dread Empire's Fall)
- Posted on 2008-04-11
Space opera Las Vegas style
I love SF and just read the whole series over the course of a week. To sum up:
Harmless, unimaginative, going-through-the-motions pulp fiction, which happens to be located in a space future.
A recap of the semi-fascistic voice in the stories of Heinlein wrapped around a B-rated classic western story, only with the gender roles swapped and with the Naxids in the role of unusually lame indians.
This is exactly the kind of SF that Paul Verhooven ridiculed in the movie "Starship Troopers".
To me Walter Jon Williams has established himself as the Barbara Cartland of Science Fiction.
Contemporary british SF writer Peter F. Hamilton does this infinitely much better, and there simply is no comparison to the grandaddy of all space opera, Asimovs Foundation-series (written around 1950).
Score: 2
- Posted on 2008-03-27
Great conclusion to the series
Great space opera, and a fitting conclusion to the series. Walter Jon Williams writes some of the best pulp science fiction around.
It ends on a bit of an open note... I hope it sells well enough that he writes more in this universe.
Score: 4
- Posted on 2007-07-16
Good Series Closer
Convetions of Dread isn't anything new to the series but it provides a good final chapter and wraps up all the loose ends from the previous 2 books. Assuming you read the begining of the series, I recommend the final novel.
Score: 4 - Posted on 2007-03-17
One of the worst endings to a series I've ever read
Read this review prior to reading this book (or series, hopefully). This series ends probably as badly as any series possibly could. If it wasn't for the fact that parts of the book were OK, I'd give it 1 star, because the ending was so stupid that, if I could, I'd give it a negative five stars.
While I don't recommend you read this, I won't give away the specifics of the ending, as that would be wrong of me. However, everything that was frustrating about the first two books (i.e. silly caste structure, total reliance on patronage, accent descrimination) wins in the end, irregardless of the world changing honors that the two heroes achieve.
I truly don't understand the point of the author even writing this series, if he's simply going to allow the status quo to remain intact. One of the reasons people read books like this, is to see a civilization that has turned geologic, and then gets into a war of survival, have the ability to change. But no, the author strives to make sure that all of the stupidity that we wished to see overturned is put right back in place after the war is over.
Now, don't get me wrong, I don't mind the love triangle ending. But the political ending really makes me regret ever picking up the first book, as I now realize that reading this series has been an absolute waste of my time.
Score: 2 - Posted on 2007-01-08
A nice ending
Conventions of War, the final chapter in the "Dread Empire's Fall" trilogy, wraps the story up very nicely. Though I felt the series was a conventional space opera, it was probably the best classical military science fiction story I've read. The last sci-fi trilogy I read was John C. Wright's "Golden Age" series, which was a meaty, hard science fiction epic, not really falling into the space opera category (although I could be wrong about that). The Golden Age happened to be one of the best science fiction stories I've ever read, wonderfully pushing my intellectual ability to imagine a radically new technological future and its philosophical underpinnings (needless to say I highly recommend it). Dread Empire's Fall was not that kind of tale. Though not ground breaking, I enjoyed the series very much. This series tells the story of a fractured empire and the military campaigns that ensue to make it whole again. More specifically, it follows the exploits of the two heroes of the war and how their ideas and actions changed the course of the war in their favor. The writing was excellent and I really grew to like and care about the two main characters, especially the low born noble, Lord Gareth Martinez. Like the two volumes that came before it, Conventions of War was a real page turner, and I recommend the series to anyone who loves a well written military space opera with great characters.
Score: 4