The Praxis
Walter Jon Williams
417 pages
published in 2002

If I'm not mistaken, The Praxis is Walter Jon Williams' attempt at writing a commercial science fiction series. As such, he has more than succeeded. The Praxis is a well done mil-sf adventure novel that should appeal to the majority of science fiction readers, not just fans of military science fiction. The setting is interesting, the characters are both realistic and engaging, the plot is exciting enough that the end of the book comes as a real surprise and the writing rises head and shoulders above that of most mil-sf writers.

As such, it's something of a disappointment. Not because the novel itself is bad, but rather because Walter Jon Williams is capable of doing so much better. I've have read two other novels of his so far, Aristoi and House of Shards both of which, in their own way, had an inventiveness that The Praxis lacks. Well written as it is, it is nothing that has not been done before.

The background of The Praxis is a less harsh copy of William Barton's When Heaven Fell, with Earth having been conquered by the alien Shaa some 10,000 years ago. Humans are just one of the dozen or so races who now make up the Shaa empire, which is founded on the principles of the Praxis, the most important of which is that all that is important is known and change is not a something to be desired, but feared. this was the dream to which the Shaa dedicated their long, almost immortal lives, to create an unchanging, perfect empire. Unfortunately however, the Shaa have been slowly dying out and now only one is still alive, but not for much longer. It is this which creates a crisis in the empire. After the death of the last Shaa their first conquered race, the Naxid, rise up in a grab for power, or as they call it, to preserve the Praxis.

Most of which only takes up the last third or so of the novel. The greater part of it is spent following lieutenant Gareth Martinez and and cadet Caroline Sula through their respective careers in the Fleet. Martinez is the son of a powerful and rich but provincial family, which means he misses a lot of the connections needed for an officer to get ahead in the navy. Sula on the other hand is the daughter of a formely powerful, but impoverished and disgraced family, but which still has some pull in the capital. She herself has a big secret in her past, a secret slowly revealed through flashbacks. They meet during a rescue attempt of an out of control racing yacht and, as is de rigeur in these situations, sparks fly.

When the war breaks out, both are in positions to influence situations both in their favour and that of the Praxis, each becoming somewhat of a war hero in the process. However, the book ends with the Naxid firmly holding the upper hand and the war just starting in earnest...

This is classic space opera, military science fiction in the manner of David Weber or Lois MacMaster Bujold, to name two modern examples. The background, the social setup, everything is familiar from earlier stories or borrowed from historical sources. It is certainly well written and exciting, but original? Not exactly.

Furthermore, the setup is rigged. The Shaa were so obligingly to forbid the development of anything which would've made it difficult to write this story: artificial intelligence, life extensions, nanotech, etc, everything that would've made this Hornblower in space setup impossible.

Does it matter? Not really. The Praxis may not be very original, may not be good science fiction, as good science fiction should be more challenging than this, but it is fun. And sometimes fun is all you need out of a book. If you want an exciting space opera, written by somebody who is capable of writing characters of more than two dimensions, than The Praxis is the book for you.