With a pace that is faster than light, Walter Jon Williams’s fifth book in the Dread Empire’s Fall series, Fleet Elements is a space opera book that doesn’t disappoint.
The book is set ten years after book four, where we return to see Gareth Martinez and his former love interest and Caroline Sula at the centre stage, with much of the story centering around them. This was definitely a good thing, as the dialogue was fun, witty, and engaging between them! I also love how the dynamic between the two is still rather on edge at the start, kind of like one of them forced the other to suck on a lemon.
This is definitely a space opera novel that is really well done, and has many intricate little plot points, even though it feels like a lot is going on with each page read. I enjoyed how the main problem was some species determining humans are not worth it and started to disarm the entire human fleet and boot them from the government, essentially making the humans rebels. The way Martinez and Sula lead the rebels back through, fighting for what is right against those who were up for a complete power grab. I love a greedy or power grabby alien species, so this was definitely not a disappointing read.
The plot is so fast that this was a rather quick read, and I loved how snappy it was. The writing was crisp, but left enough detail to show me what was going on so I was not that lost, which is something I appreciated from this book. There was also a lot of dialogue from the characters, which I didn’t mind as it made me understand the relationship between characters a lot more. I also loved how tense the situations the characters were in was because it never let up, making for some very good edge of seat reading!
I felt like at times that there were a lot of technical military manoeuvres described within the book that lost me a little, but it did not detract from the story that much, given the great cast of characters made the bulk of the story through dialogue. Even though there are a lot of characters within this book, I really enjoyed Caroline Sula as a character the most, but I wish there was a bit more page time for the other characters too, but that’s just a matter of my preference, honestly.
Overall, this is a great soap opera science fiction, full of gung ho rebels trying to save themselves, with a side of power hungry aliens, and some witty banter. I recommend this book for those who love a good soap opera, or those who are looking for something more traditionally science fiction style book with a fast pace and power hungry alien species!
Fleet Elements is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
The Praxis, the empire of now extinct Shaa, has again fallen into civil war, with desperate and outnumbered humans battling several alien species for survival. Leading the human forces are star-crossed lovers Gareth Martinez and Caroline Sula, who must find a way to overcome their own thorny personal history to defeat the aliens and assure humanity’s survival.
But even if the human fleet is victorious, the divisions fracturing the empire may be too wide to repair, as battles between politicians, the military, and fanatics who want to kill every alien threaten to further tear the empire apart. While Martinez and Sula believe they have the talent and tactics to defeat an overwhelming enemy, what will prevent their fellow humans from destroying themselves?
