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Review by Bones, UK, 2011
"Fatal Alliance has an epic feel to it, yet it is actually much simpler than one might expect from such a lengthy novel. It focuses on a quartet of characters, each seeking personal identity: a former Black-Ops soldier seeks to rebuild her life after losing everything she'd considered important; a Jedi Padawan wanting to understand his place in the universe; a Sith Apprentice confronted by a past she never knew she had; an Imperial spy struggling to reconcile his allegiances. The eponymous alliance merely serves as a background to their journeys, but is nevertheless an exciting ride in its own right.
"The book is packed to the brim with mysteries to be solved, interesting and intriguing characters and bucket-loads of action. The pacing of the story is impressive, given its size, and the plot moves swiftly, yet still allowing for significant character development and in-depth action sequences. Williams keeps several key motives nicely hidden, allowing a few cracks here and there to keep ones appetite whetted and indeed some are kept until the very end of the book. The characters are extremely well written, particularly the Sith, with the Apprentice constantly scheming and the Master, whose sole goal is retaining and increasing his own personal power. I also rather like the duplicitous envoy Ula Vii, whose character seems well out of his personal comfort zone throughout much of the proceedings - some of his reactions are quite amusing.
"The political and historical situation is mentioned on a few occasions to give it a temporal frame, but one thing I found slightly distracting was the similarity between the galaxy of Obi-Wan Kenobi's era and the galaxy here, more than 3000 years prior. It would have been nicer to see a few more of the differences in the eras present, but it didn't detract much from the enjoyment of the book. Also, (without giving too much away) there was a fight early on in which the cast struggled massively to overcome their foe and yet, when they later encountered the foe in significantly greater numbers, they seemed to have much less difficulty in vanquished the aforementioned enemy.
"Generally, Fatal Alliance is a great book, vast in scale and yet still intimate."
Rating: 4.5 / 5