Robbie MacNiven https://robbiemacniven.wordpress.com is the author of more than a dozen novels. Empire Falling: A Twilight Wars Novel was published early this month and is the first book in his Twilight Imperium series. It is the 112th book I completed reading in 2023.

Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own! Due to scenes of violence, I categorize this novel as R.

It has been a millennium since the great Empire of the Lazax brought the galaxy under its control under their doctrine of strength and peace. The Empire has begun to crumble. Some factions are ready to hasten the end, regardless of the cost.

Zara Hail is the Chief of Staff to the Governor of Quann. The planet is a colony of the human Federation of Sol. The unexpected arrival and blockade by the Letnev fleet leaves the Quann at their mercy. When the other Quann leaders are ordered home, she stays behind with her family and becomes the acting Governor.

Ibna Vel Syd has been a long-time diplomat and a serving member of the Imperial Council. He is dispatched to the Letnev homeworld, Arc Prime, along with fellow diplomat Sorian Sai Zey. The hope is that they will find a way to peacefully resolve the blockade. Syd finds himself in the awkward position of having to both openly deal with the Letnev and be wary of his companion, Zey. They have never agreed on the floor of the Imperial Council. There is concern that Zey is pursuing his own agenda rather than the Empire’s.

The confrontation between the Letnev and humans marches steadily towards armed conflict. At the same time, the hatred between the human-like Jol-Nar and insect-like Sardakk N’orr escalates. The Empire continues on, oblivious to the decay.

I enjoyed the 9 hours I spent reading this 317-page science fiction novel. The book covers a span of almost 80 years. There is some action, but most of the plot is political intrigue and is slow at times. I do like the chosen cover art. I give this novel a rating of 4 out of 5.

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I love a good futuristic science fiction read (or game) and while I do not and have not played Twilight Imperium as much as I might like I adore that I can access the world of the game via the brilliant line up of tie-in novels Aconyte Books and their talented authors produce. Falling Empire is no exception. Now I don’t like to give spoilers on the book in my review, but seeing that is happened in the first chapter I think I can get away with it! So when MacNiven started Empire Falling with a blockade I knew we would be in for a novel that not only has action and space opera themes but hopefully a lot of political intrigue and waring. I was not disappointed at all.


Now I will say that because this is a tie-in novel if you are going in completely blind to the world of Twilight Imperium it make take a little adjusting. There are lot of different races and factions to get used to but MacNiven does a brilliant job at keeping it clear and concise (in my opinion at least) to who is who. I will say that there is not a lot of background to these races though and factions. Now to me, even with rudimentary knowledge of the game world I still enjoyed and understood what was going on and honestly I find in tie-in fiction I often loose interest if the books just repeat chunks of the canon/lore to you. But like I said if you are new and looking for a space opera novel to sink your teeth into it may be wise to go read the other titles in the tie-in series first or perhaps at leas Stars Beyond the Twilight Imperium Anthology to give you a little grounding in the universe. But if you are not put off by catching up, and MacNiven makes it rather easy (again in my opinion) to do so then do jump right in.

In my novels I love a good plot, of course because what is a book without a plot?, but I really love characters. I like to learn about them, see them grow or struggle or perhaps they don’t change at all. MacNiven’s characters are all brilliant. I loved them all, even the ‘bad guys’ in their own way but Zara was my favourite by far. Now while I love the characters I have to say I loved the plot as well. I found the pacing perfect. Touching on above while it helped to have some knowledge of the universe MacNiven really brings it to life and I do think, so long as you don’t mind maybe not knowing ALL the history of the factions etc then you will enjoy this one if you enjoy a good space opera. A definite five stars from me.

A galaxy spanning space opera where two civilizations, the Sol Federal (that’s us if that was not obvious) and the Letnev (a militant species that is perpetually trying to throw off the oppressive hegemony of the imperial Lazax) go head to head in a stunning invasion and blockade of a new Sol Federation colony. Out gunned and on their own, the colony leaders attempt to prevent their complete annihilation by the Letnev invaders as the slow wheels of imperial politics struggles to even take notice of the conflict between their client civilizations. So after an exciting start, the story settles into back room deals, betrayal and political intrigue until everything inevitably explodes two thirds in … with the final Part III picking up after nearly a century of conflict.

Unfortunately there is a second story imbedded within the main arc that didn’t really contribute much to the main plot (outside of a secondary conflict between Arr and Tol … and a second interspecies war). While this part was still interesting, switching back and forth made the whole feel choppy and easy to put down. And while Part III brings the stories together, it also gives us an entirely different conflict resolution than what was introduced in the beginning. Ultimately this would have been three (stories), but there is simply not enough there to make three novels. Ultimately this gives us an decent story, but not interesting enough to make any sequels a must read. In other words … it was fun, but forgettable.

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#TwilightWarsEmpireFalling #NetGalley #KindleUnlimited

The Lazard have ruled the Empire but now the Barony of Letnev want to break free and are blockading a crucial wormhole.

Is war inevitable? Diplomats are sent to try to avoid this but who can be trusted and who wants to start a war that will last decades?

Fast moving novel with lots of action. Many wonderful characters both good and bad. Enjoy.

Empire Falling sucked me in directly!
It feels futuristic, moves fast, provides good descriptions and introduces characters in a good way.
We start of in with a blockade, which brought my thoughts to The Phantom Menace.

There is the Galactic Council, the Imperial Council, the Fedration Fleet, the Phoenix Fleet, ambasadors, councilors, diplomats, admirals, commanders, etc. The Letner resurgentists were like the accelerationists, and there were also the anti-interventionists, etc. Some politicians were described as "moderate", which made me assume that all the rest of them were less so.

I quicky understood that I was not as pre-informed about this universe as I felt I should have been to experience a smooth read. Especially when it came to the different races, and how to picture them in my head...
The Jordians were easy to imagine, but we also have Letnev, Lazax, Xxcha, N'oor, Winnu, Hylar, Gasglai and Mahact (at least). I got that Tekklar was N'oor and that Naucu may not be a race, but what was Shikrai and Marchu?! And why were the Xxcha up in the trees?!
There were also planets, regions, cities, which I (if they were not listed in the chapter headings) may, or may not, have mixed up in my head.
Adding to this over 50 characters names, their titles and allegiances…
I was confused!

Then... after 2/3 of the book, we skip forward 72 years, and the conflict has now spread to almost 1/3 of the galaxy - so, apx 100 billion star systems.
What could now stop such vast conflict?

The whole book is saved by Robbie MacNivens wonderful writing! This is the 20th story by him that I read and I think he is a very talented author!
You do get a good sense for many of the main characters, like Tol, Zara, Arr, Smyth and Syd.
Arr’s subplot is interesting and I found Tol very likable.
The story does come alive, but the confusion could have been avoided.

I would have wished for:
1) a list of the 20 most relevant characters in the beginning of the book.
2) a few pages long intro, to clarify the political situation and the relations between the different fractions and races.
1) a small dictionary in the back of the book, to list planets/regions and better describe the races.

All my rant aside, I give this book 4, twilighted, stars.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Aconyte books for letting me pre-read a digital version of this book!

An exhilarating page turner. The book starts off strong and keeps getting better and better, it is a compulsive, read all in one sitting, kind of book. Highly enjoyed the characters and plots and eagerly anticipating the next one.
My thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of the book for my unbiased review.

A perfectly fine game tie-in space opera, in the Twilight Imperium setting. Robbie MacNiven is an experienced author of this type of novel and spins an entertaining story of a galaxy rebelling against a ruling race and descending into factionalized war.. it is a bit too high level and would have benefitted from more detail and some more characterization. Still, fun and quick.