Bones of Empire
William C. Dietz

Ace
October 2010 / ISBN 978-0-441-01922-9
Science Fiction
Amazon

Reviewed by Heather Buchanan

In Bones of Empire, the Uman Empire has colonized numerous worlds. As a result of its over-confidence, it faces a frightening truth—its reign is now in jeopardy with alien subjects and other enemies out to destroy it. The most dangerous enemy is the shape shifting Sagathies. Vicious predators imprisoned on the planet Corin. Police officers, known as Xeno Corps, keep watch over them, having been physically reengineered to keep the Sagathies from shape shifting and committing chaos.

Xeno cop Jak Cato, a former guard on the prison planet, has a score to settle after having previously been ambushed while there. While taking a break between assignments in the Empire’s capital city, Imperialus, Cato believes he recognizes, with his re-engineered eyes, the Emperor himself—not as a human—but as a shape shifter he thought he’d killed. Thus begins a race to save the empire and restore his honor.

As a space opera, Bones of Empire does not disappoint with its intricate politics and social issues such as master-slave dynamics. Dietz’s second installment in the Empire duology (the first is At Empire’s Edge) is a highly descriptive and fast-paced military science fiction thriller full of action and pageantry.

Reviewers Note: