Review: Fleet Elements by Walter Jon William

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, something I appreciated from this book. There was also a lot of dialogue from the characters, which I didn’t mind from this book 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 maneuvers 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- just something about her really clicked with me. I wish I had a bit more page time with some of 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 gungho 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 fast pacing and power hungry alien species!

I received a digital copy of this book for review from the publisher.

This review also features on The Nerd Daily

Rating: 3/5