Dread Empire's Fall

Dread Empire's Fall is a space opera novel series, written since 2002 by the American author Walter Jon Williams.

[1][2] The Dread Empire's Fall series is set in a future in which the powerful Shaa species thousands of years ago conquered several other intelligent species, including humanity; imposing on them their inflexible set of laws known as "the Praxis".

A civil war erupts when the other species resist them, including the protagonists, Terran (human) naval officers Caroline Sula and Gareth Martinez.

Since the Shaa empire stopped expanding long ago and its military was largely occupied by training and suppressing the occasional mutiny or revolt, its strategic and tactical doctrines have become matters of rigid, unchanging tradition.

To stop the Naxids, the other species must practice innovation and creativity, something the Shaa attempted to stamp out long ago.