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Conventions Of War (Book Three Of Dread Empire's Fall) by Walter Jon Williams
01/01/2006 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: Simon and Schuster. 677 page enlarged paperback. Price: £10.99 (UK). ISBN: 0-7432-5677-8. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.simonsays.co.uk
Simon and Schuster's SF output has been somewhat short of late but if they can release such epic page-turners as this, then they need every encouragement to do more.
I have to admit I felt a little daunted when I saw the size of this volume but Walter Jon Williams is such a good writer, it was more a question of me keeping up than vice versa. Likewise, I'm amazed that this is the final volume because there are openings there to lead into future stories.
After the death of the last of the ancient Shaa, one of the alien races under their control, the Naxid, are eager to do their own empire building and the Praxis, the other races that includes the humans, are routed in a military takeover. This volume follows the war from two viewpoints established in the earlier two books. We have Lord Gareth Martinez who is seconded to a flagship, his captain is then killed and he takes command. His early task is to discover who killed the previous captain and read the spaceship for war. This isn't helped as Supreme Commander Tork of the fleet is very set in his ways and doesn't want to fight battles in less than a standard way which tends to kill as many of their side as the enemy. Considering that Martinez won a coveted golden globe for winning wars with unorthodox techniques, he suddenly finds his arms being tied.
The fleet was forced to flee Zanshaa, the capital world in last book, destroying the station ring surrounding the planet and leaving a few people behind to act as ground terrorists. Unfortunately, they were discovered and killed leaving only three people left headed by Caroline, Lady Sula. She isn't quite what she appears to be either, having taken the identity when the real Caroline committed suicide some years ago. Her background makes it easier to enlist the criminal element of the city to stage an uprising. I'm not really giving much away to say that this is successful but she is also another person in Supreme Commander Tork's bad books as well later for disobeying orders while in charge of a spaceship in the fleet.
To give away all the intricacies of this book is a mistake because there is so much I just scooted across above. If you've read the first two books then you'll be after this one. This is a classic space opera with plenty of detail and emotional content. Although the aliens themselves are not as developed as much as I would like, especially as we only get glimpses of them from the humans perspective, this is about the only failing. The humans have a peer structure and everything is done at a rather ruthless manner. The reality stands up rather well and there is definitely a desire to see more stories and see situations develop from this first trilogy. Don't miss it.
GF Willmetts
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