Bones of Empire

Zak Cato #2

by William C. Dietz

On holiday in the capital city, cop Jack Cato gets a glimpse of the Emperor-and realizes what he's looking at is a supposedly dead shape- shifter. The imposter is his mortal enemy, still alive and again on the run. Now, the fate of the Empire-and Cato's own honor-are at stake.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Military Science Fiction

325 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 11, 2010

About the author

New York Times bestselling author William C. Dietz has published more than fifty novels, some of which have been translated into German, Russian, and Japanese. He grew up in the Seattle area, served as a medic with the Navy and Marine Corps, graduated from the University of Washington, and has been employed as a surgical technician, college instructor, and television news writer, director and producer. Before becoming a full-time writer Dietz was director of public relations and marketing for an international telephone company. He and his wife live near Gig Harbor, Washington.

Reviews

[Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bones of Empire is futuristic with the Uman Empire reigning and defeating worlds that come in their way. It was once upon a time the strongest force in the multiverse, but its reign is now falling apart as alien populations and enemies slowly begin to turn against it. Jack Cato is an officer on vacation in the capital city and sees the Emperor of the Uman's at a parade and realizes that what he is looking at is a supposedly dead shape-shifter from his past. In his past memories and in the previous book, he was working against this shape-shifter and ultimately is the main antagonist in the other book, constantly working against Jack. Anyways, to add on to the fact, another alien race has claimed one of the planets at the great Uman Empire’s edge to claim to war with the Empire. Then the book goes onto many different battles and fights that occur that require a lot of effort from Jack. The new alien race, in the end, made the old Uman Empire fall and crumble. After the fact, the new race took control and peace and harmony was created.

I would recommend this book for those who enjoy a lot of science fiction that deals with character driven stories, political intrigue, and military action!

[Gilles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tome 2 de la série Jak Cato

L'empire Uman se fragilise et les Vords en profitent pour tester sa résistance à l'agression en envahissant la planète Thérat, une de leurs planètes. Mais l'empereur de l'empire Uman laisse courir. Que se passe t'il ?
Notre héros Jak Cato est un policier qui fait partie d'un groupe assez spécial dont les pouvoirs permettent de détecter les émotions et donc de discerner le vrai du faux. Et c'est encore plus vrai lorsque l'on fait affaire avec l'espèce des Sagathi, des humanoïdes à l'allure de lézards, des machines à tuer, mais qui sont en plus métamorphes (ils peuvent prendre l'apparence de n'importe qui d'une masse équivalente) et carnivores, qui adorent manger leurs ennemis.
Or Jak Cato vient de s'apercevoir que Verafti, un Sagathi qu'il croyait avoir tué, a pris la place de l'empereur. Qui va le croire ?
Dans cette histoire, notre héros est accompagné de son esclave chérie et d'une policière ayant les mêmes pouvoirs.

Il s'agit d'une histoire pleine d'actions dans un style s'apparentant à celui de commandos, sans compter quelques épisodes de romance. Mais on en profite pour nous présenter les Sagathi qui sont gouvernés pas mal par leurs pulsions dont celles de l'amour-sexe-reproduction. Et il y a aussi les Vords qui ont la particularité de vivre en symbiose avec leur parasite. Sans compter le jeu de l'illusion, car les Sagathi peuvent prendre la forme de n'importe qui et seuls Jac et son acolyte Policière peuvent les détecter.

J'ai beaucoup aimé et je vais essayer de me procurer les tomes qui me manquent dans les séries de cet auteur, qui me plait assurément.

[Steven Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have enjoyed all of Dietz's books, but I find that they are a one time read for me so I do not add them to our home library.

The story of Jak Cato was good, and I am a sucker for a good cop story as well as some good ol' space opera. I was a little disappointed in how the love triangles between Keen, Shani, Cato and CeCe were solved.

Convenient deaths of Keen and Shani I felt could have been done better with CeCe standing up for herself and her love of Jak. Keen dies in a shoot-out. Shani dies protecting CeCe, but I did like how Shani did it for Jak because of her love for him, saving the woman he loves. If that is not an expression of how sacrificing love can be, I don't know what else is.

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

My primary issue with this book was the author's tendency to write big action set pieces and string them together with extremely limited character development. If every third scene had been removed and the remaining scenes lengthend and developed, this would have been a much more successfull novel. Despite the short lengh, I was releived when it finaly ended, because I had no investment in the characters.

He also suffers from a terminal case of telling, not showing. In picky technical issues, there were far to many exclamation points, in places where they were not waranted. This author is aparently relatively popular, but at this point I have no interest in reading further works by him.

[Andrew Ziegler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok is a good way to put it. This was certainly just that. I think maybe Dietz has lost his allure for me. His wrap up disease still persists, and his characters are becoming cut out archetypes. His ideas are occasionally interesting, but ultimately the pay off isnt there any longer. Gone are the glory days of his early work. Oh well.

[Mitchell Friedman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an Endeavour book read, and not one I would have read otherwise. Basically relatively simple squad level military space opera. Evil shapeshifter looking for his mate, hunted by a rouge-ish empath soldier. Not a horrible read, just not especially good. 3.5 of 5.

[Kip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great!