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The Praxis (Dread Empire's Fall)
 
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The Praxis (Dread Empire's Fall) (Paperback)
by Walter Jon Williams (Author)
2.5 out of 5 stars  (4 customer reviews)

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Product details
  • Paperback: 512 pages
  • Publisher: Earthlight (7 Oct 2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 074346110X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0743461108
  • Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 738,400 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #17 in  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > W > Williams, Walter Jon

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Product Description
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'A rarity and a treasure'

Book Description
The empire of the Shaa had lasted 10 millennia. 10,000 years of terror, infinite violence and oppressive, brutal order, legitimised by The Praxis, the harsh code of ethics that they imposed on the races they conquered.

But the Shaa began to commit ritual suicide when it became clear that their minds - profoundly intelligent but limited - would accept no further information. Near immortality was their one, great mistake. Now the Shaa are no more, but the terror and violence are only beginning. The death of the last of the Shaa leaves the galaxy-wide empire leaderless, and into this power vacuum flow the pretenders to the throne: the Naxids, oldest client race of the Shaa, who believed themselves inheritors of the empire; and a frail alliance of the remaining races, including humanity. And so, the story of a dread empire's fall begins...

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Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Action, humor, and serious content, all in one offering, 23 Oct 2002
Walter Jon Williams has been known to write widely different books. His career as a writer spanned everything from naval historical novels to cyberpunk, far future space operas and light comedy.
In this new multy-volume series (the blurb above promises an "infinite saga"...) Williams has mixed some of these elements into a single work.
The Story takes place at the end of the 10,000 year long rule of an alien race called the Shaa over humanity and a number of other species. The Shaa erected the perfect statist empire, with a harsh moral code called the Praxis. Humanity fared pretty well in this empire, especially those in the top - the "Peers" as the aristocracy in the empire is called.
But now that the last Shaa is dead a war for the fate of the empire ensues. We see this war through the eyes of two heros: Gareth Martinez, a young ship captain and a Peer, and Caroline Sula, a fighter pilot with a dark secret in her past. Both are interesting and imperfect characters, but while Martinez has some mild character flaws, it's Sula's past that was most interesting for me. The story alternates between the present and the past, and changes in tone - the "past" segments are grim, emotionally heavy and take place in an almost cyberpunk enviroment, similar to this in Williams' HardWired, while the "present" segments are lighter in tone. They combine Military SF, complete with all the expected hardware, and descriptions of the Peer society, which are often very funny, and similar to the Meijstral novels.

This book is a page-turner, and although it isn't highly original in its concepts as Aristoi or Metropolitan, it's an engaging read and a lot of fun.

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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Sadly missed opportunity, 14 Jul 2003
I wanted to be immersed in the enormity of a 10000 year old empire - a backstory of multiple cultures, races, politics,.. whatever. I read on way beyond where I should have done before giving up, in the hope of something more or better emerging. This is a dreary book with a huge missed potential. It failed to engage me. A complete waste of money. At least my money is safe from any potential sequel.
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