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CONVENTIONS OF WARMarch 21, 2006
CONVENTIONS OF WAR, by Walter Jon Williams (Eos, 2005) is the third volume in Walter Jon Williams’ epic series DREAD EMPIRE’S FALL, and if there was any justice it ought to be a Hugo finalist this year. I had the privilege of reading parts of this book and its two predecessors, THE PRAXIS and THE SUNDERING, in our local writer’s workshop, but no matter how big a chunk Walter Jon gave us, I always went away wanting more. This is space opera the way it ought to be: fast-paced, colorful, inventive, epic in scale, chock full of intrigue, derring-do, balls and battles, secrets and revelations, heroism and heartbreak, deft plot twists and poignant human moments. Martinez and Sula make for a fascinating pair of protagonists — no Hornblower-in-a-spacesuit clones here, but very real and very human, brilliant, vain, ambitious, tormented. Eos needs to buy more of these books (and do a better job of publishing and promoting them). This series is too damned good to end here. |
