Scan barcode
A review by timinbc
The Praxis by Walter Jon Williams
3.0
Let's be fair, this was written 15+ years ago.
Essentially, it's a pretty good story, with good lead characters surrounded by cardboard cutouts.
There's action, and hard-SF detail. Some of the detail is good, some cringeworthy.
First, let me address nearly ALL of the space opera books out there. Can someone please write one that doesn't end with two fleets fighting, with hundreds of gigantic spaceships exploding in huge fireballs? Or convince me that a system in which a force routinely loses a mega-quadrillion-dollar asset and thousands of crew to a single shot from an (adjective)(noun) can be thought to be sustainable. Why giant ships? Why crews of thousands?
Martinez is, ho-hum, capable but scorned because of his background. Yeah. no one's ever used that character before. But I will forgive that because of Sula's back story. Even though that back story is handled clumsily and the key event telegraphed hundreds of pages before it happens.
And then the loyal batman, this time called Alikhan instead of the usual McGregor, but he's the same guy. He's Digby from "Dan Dare," which I read in the fifties! He's Jeeves. He's The One Man I Can Trust, and luckily he has a vast array of skills.
Then we come to the space navy. OK, hidebound and not too realistic because of centuries of peace. But gee gosh, people who can use wormholes and antimatter are not going to use tactics that Sir Francis Drake could have defeated, let alone Nelson.
And the Foote family. Ah, that was tolerable, until Martinez needed rescuing. Everyone's zinging around, wormholing and slingshotting around planets, Martinez takes off in no particular direction, and is rescued by, well, gosh, look, it's his old buddy Foote. What a lucky coincidence! Wait, was that Sula that got rescued that way? Whatever.
I award points for the alcoholic crew members. I deduct them for the cartoonish soccer tournament part of the plot.
Good for Williams for getting the part about how much velocity matters when you're using wormholes. He goes on too long about it, but at least does it. BUT ... delta-vee is CHANGE in velocity, not just velocity (which is speed+direction). It measures what has to be done to change from one velocity to another. To go faster or slower or in a different direction, you need delta-vee, and you get it by converting energy in one way or another - burning fuel or using up kinetic or potential energy (which includes slingshotting around a planet). Navigators who do that well usually end up on the winning side.
I was also fascinated by another aspect of navigation: the way the fleets turn by rotating all the ships then blasting away directly at the target. Even while travelling 0.7c. I imagine they had to do a lot of corrective steering.
Speaking of 0.7c, g0sh, no time dilation? No discussion of how everything's travelling so fast that there is no way humans are operating anything? All humans can do - and to Williams' credit he uses this one - is leave things in the way for the fast-moving ships to hit. I accept having antimatter and wormholes but no AI; SF authors get to make that choice.
But still ... we want Sula and Martinez to cross paths, and this is the story of how they do, and for all its faults I will read the next one.
Essentially, it's a pretty good story, with good lead characters surrounded by cardboard cutouts.
There's action, and hard-SF detail. Some of the detail is good, some cringeworthy.
First, let me address nearly ALL of the space opera books out there. Can someone please write one that doesn't end with two fleets fighting, with hundreds of gigantic spaceships exploding in huge fireballs? Or convince me that a system in which a force routinely loses a mega-quadrillion-dollar asset and thousands of crew to a single shot from an (adjective)(noun) can be thought to be sustainable. Why giant ships? Why crews of thousands?
Martinez is, ho-hum, capable but scorned because of his background. Yeah. no one's ever used that character before. But I will forgive that because of Sula's back story. Even though that back story is handled clumsily and the key event telegraphed hundreds of pages before it happens.
And then the loyal batman, this time called Alikhan instead of the usual McGregor, but he's the same guy. He's Digby from "Dan Dare," which I read in the fifties! He's Jeeves. He's The One Man I Can Trust, and luckily he has a vast array of skills.
Then we come to the space navy. OK, hidebound and not too realistic because of centuries of peace. But gee gosh, people who can use wormholes and antimatter are not going to use tactics that Sir Francis Drake could have defeated, let alone Nelson.
And the Foote family. Ah, that was tolerable, until Martinez needed rescuing. Everyone's zinging around, wormholing and slingshotting around planets, Martinez takes off in no particular direction, and is rescued by, well, gosh, look, it's his old buddy Foote. What a lucky coincidence! Wait, was that Sula that got rescued that way? Whatever.
I award points for the alcoholic crew members. I deduct them for the cartoonish soccer tournament part of the plot.
Good for Williams for getting the part about how much velocity matters when you're using wormholes. He goes on too long about it, but at least does it. BUT ... delta-vee is CHANGE in velocity, not just velocity (which is speed+direction). It measures what has to be done to change from one velocity to another. To go faster or slower or in a different direction, you need delta-vee, and you get it by converting energy in one way or another - burning fuel or using up kinetic or potential energy (which includes slingshotting around a planet). Navigators who do that well usually end up on the winning side.
I was also fascinated by another aspect of navigation: the way the fleets turn by rotating all the ships then blasting away directly at the target. Even while travelling 0.7c. I imagine they had to do a lot of corrective steering.
Speaking of 0.7c, g0sh, no time dilation? No discussion of how everything's travelling so fast that there is no way humans are operating anything? All humans can do - and to Williams' credit he uses this one - is leave things in the way for the fast-moving ships to hit. I accept having antimatter and wormholes but no AI; SF authors get to make that choice.
But still ... we want Sula and Martinez to cross paths, and this is the story of how they do, and for all its faults I will read the next one.