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Succession #1
The Risen Empire
The undead Emperor has ruled the Eighty Worlds for sixteen hundred years. His is the power to grant immortality to those he deems worthy, creating an elite class known as the Risen. Along with his sister, the eternally young Child Empress, his power within the empire has been absolute. Until now.The empire's great enemies, the Rix, hold the Child Empress hostage. Charged with her rescue is Captain Laurent Zai. But when Imperial politics are involved the stakes are unimaginably high, and Zai may yet find the Rix the least of his problems. On the homeworld, Zai's lover, Senator Nara Oxham, newly appointed to the Emperor's War Council, must prosecute the war with the Rix while holding the inhuman impulses of the Risen councillors in check. If she fails at either task, millions will die.And at the centre of everything is the Emperor's great a revelation so shattering that he is willing to sanction the death of entire worlds to keep it secret ...
720 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 1, 2003
192 people are currently reading
5724 people want to read
About the author
Scott Westerfeld
88 books21.3k followersScott Westerfeld is a New York Times bestselling author of YA. He is best known for the Uglies and Leviathan series. His current series, IMPOSTORS, returns to the world of Uglies.
The next book in that series, MIRROR'S EDGE, comes out April 6, 2021.
The next book in that series, MIRROR'S EDGE, comes out April 6, 2021.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 315 reviews
January 27, 2019
Review revisited
It’s a shame that this author didn’t do more of this kind of thing. It’s pretty good, really. I’m frankly surprised that this isn’t better known.
The blurb on the cover hints that The Risen Empire aspires to the greatness achieved by Dune and Foundation. I'll probably contest that, but nonetheless this is a rather good Science Fiction novel. The first in a duology called Succession, the story is grand Space Opera, again with strong military leanings, and with a fascinating approach to futuristic combat and the tech involved.
Although I didn't care overly much for some of the symbolism and political humdrum (which adversely affects the pacing), the story was well served by some remarkable action sequences (a great deal of thought has obviously gone into the military aspects) and quality world building.
It’s worth noting that the “risen empire” of the title refers to a human empire ruled by an undead emperor (basically the Sci-fi version of a Lich king, if you will). That, in itself, is somewhat of a deviation from the usual, no? In a nutshell, the story concerns itself with a war between two cultures, one machine-augmented and the other one not. There is a high level of detail here, and a slow build-up, which you will either find commendable or frustrating depending on personal taste. Oh, and how about that cliffhanger? You’ll want the next book at hand.
If you enjoy galaxy spanning space sagas with some cool tech, check this out. Especially if you’re interested to see what Westerfeld was up to before he started writing YA books. I was pleasantly surprised.
It’s a shame that this author didn’t do more of this kind of thing. It’s pretty good, really. I’m frankly surprised that this isn’t better known.
The blurb on the cover hints that The Risen Empire aspires to the greatness achieved by Dune and Foundation. I'll probably contest that, but nonetheless this is a rather good Science Fiction novel. The first in a duology called Succession, the story is grand Space Opera, again with strong military leanings, and with a fascinating approach to futuristic combat and the tech involved.
Although I didn't care overly much for some of the symbolism and political humdrum (which adversely affects the pacing), the story was well served by some remarkable action sequences (a great deal of thought has obviously gone into the military aspects) and quality world building.
It’s worth noting that the “risen empire” of the title refers to a human empire ruled by an undead emperor (basically the Sci-fi version of a Lich king, if you will). That, in itself, is somewhat of a deviation from the usual, no? In a nutshell, the story concerns itself with a war between two cultures, one machine-augmented and the other one not. There is a high level of detail here, and a slow build-up, which you will either find commendable or frustrating depending on personal taste. Oh, and how about that cliffhanger? You’ll want the next book at hand.
If you enjoy galaxy spanning space sagas with some cool tech, check this out. Especially if you’re interested to see what Westerfeld was up to before he started writing YA books. I was pleasantly surprised.
July 18, 2011
There is something unbeatable about being pleasantly surprised. This was my first time reading anything by Scott Westerfeld and I was extremely pleasantly surprised by The Risen Empire.
It is bad form to quote oneself but here is what I said about The Risen Empire when I compared it very favourably to Foundation in my sacrilegious review of Asimov’s space opera:
“Immediately after I "finished" Foundation, I picked up Scott Westerfeld's The Risen Empire… Intelligent turns of phrase? Break-neck action? Verisimilitude in the progression of civilizations? Technology that drives the plot, is extremely inventive and is extrapolated from today's knowledge base? Well-thought out characters whose behaviour makes sense but is not cardboard predictable? Other wicked-cool oddities like undead royal families? … Yes, I'm in the safe and familiar bio-tech embrace of a trusted friend: New Space Opera. The authors of this reinvigorated genre like Banks, Hamilton and Westerfeld (with all due respect to Stephen Baxter and his physics lectures some call novels) focus on quality writing, character development and social commentary. Oh and scientific accuracy verging on "whooooa there". A few, like Dan Simmons' gorgeous Hyperion, are masterworks in any genre.”
Risen Empire hits on all the elements of successful New Space Opera. The crux of the first volume in this duology pits the 80-world empire ruled by an undead Emperor against an ultra-efficient transhuman cyborg civilization named the Rix. The action has purpose and grabs you from the first page with a hostage crisis of immense magnitude. The military scenes are technologically fascinating and are driven by multi-pronged political motivations and powers. They do not hinder the story, they enhance it. Westerfeld’s story is intelligent, very intelligent.
Like in the military classic The Forever War, time dilation is properly accounted for and has an impact on the scope and duration of almost everything from military strategy to senatorial terms to romances.
As other reviewers have pointed out, the most obvious comparison to Westerfeld’s galaxy of undead rulers, conflicts between technologically advanced civilizations and political intrigue is Iain M. Banks’ Culture. Banks is a marvel but the Culture’s motivations are often convolutedly subtle and their influence glacial. Some may find the end results unsatisfying (although I loved them). For those that do, you may appreciate Westerfeld’s shower of kinetic weaponry.
Despite its immense scope, the story is very character driven. The author’s all important selection of point of view is very interesting and well managed. This is the element that can make (think Lolita) or break (think The DaVinci Code) a novel. Westerfeld has chosen multiple third person points of view, including characters to whom we may not have expected to get so close. This can either be a complete disaster which exposes an author’s laziness and lack of internal consistency (did I mention The DaVinci Code?) or can be a wonderful plot device that exposes character motivations that are unexpected, intriguing and deviously consistent. The Risen Empire is clearly the latter, in the same vein as George R.R. Martin’s use of the technique. Both sides of a conspiracy are unveiled at different paces, stereotypes are swept aside and assumptions are ass-out-of-you-and-meed.
I find it extremely difficult to take stories seriously when evil empires do evil for the sake of doing evil. Westerfeld has none of this drivel. Diverse motivations and opposite sides of the same coin cause humans, undead humans, and transhumans to love, kill and conspire. This is all familiar to us. Except for the undead cat collection. The central argument in the book is whether immortality is a good thing. At first glance, anyone’s understandable sense of self-reservation would have an obvious answer for that one, but the events of the story and positions of some characters and political parties make you think. Think I said! In a space opera!
There’s even a surprisingly interesting love story that makes good use of time dilation. I’m not the expert on the evaluation of love stories but it didn’t get in the way and instead actually advanced the plot. Even the slower scenes such as these evolve the characters and every page introduces clever forward-looking science.
Westerfeld’s exposition is exceptional. Not only does Risen Empire adhere the “show, don’t tell” tenet, it does not “overshow”. The best example I can think of is Peter F. Hamilton’s Reality Dysfunction. I thought this was an excellent read, but one of my nits, which is a factor in its doorstopper length, is the overshown detail. Enjoyable? Yes. Awesome? Yes. Too much? Probably. Westerfeld manages to walk that monofilament line of exposing enough to intrigue the reader, give enough context to understand the immediate passage and then move on. He then fulfills this promise to the reader by returning to that half-understood fact or concept later and blending it into the story in a more appropriate scene. There’s no factual vomit. Hyperion is a wonderful example of this, and I hold Risen Empire in high regard by putting it in the same sentence.
A great example, which requires no spoiling because it’s on the very first page, is entitled “A Note on Imperial Measures”. The note describes standard measurements across the Risen Empire. Lesser authors would only use this as a Joy of Cooking conversion table in a lazy and off-putting initial fact-vomit. By ending with the generous: “The Emporer has decreed that the speed of light shall remain as nature has provided”, Westerfeld instead hints at both the Emperor’s power and arrogance.
The Risen Empire contains few wasted words. In fact, it is very…Rix and may have very well been drafted by a Rixwoman. You’ll have to read it to know why it could not be written by a Rixman. I have to admit that I actually found myself agreeing with the cyborg civilization’s disdain for humanity’s exaltation in waste, excess and “dead hair”.
Because this is volume is not complete without the sequel, The Killing of Worlds, I’ll reserve judgment on the series as a whole and any comments I’ll have on the conclusions to the various sub-plots. I’m going to go on a limb here and give The Risen Empire five stars. I reserve this for the books I remember with great fondness so I don’t do this lightly. Let’s hope the sequel does not make me look…unRix.
It is bad form to quote oneself but here is what I said about The Risen Empire when I compared it very favourably to Foundation in my sacrilegious review of Asimov’s space opera:
“Immediately after I "finished" Foundation, I picked up Scott Westerfeld's The Risen Empire… Intelligent turns of phrase? Break-neck action? Verisimilitude in the progression of civilizations? Technology that drives the plot, is extremely inventive and is extrapolated from today's knowledge base? Well-thought out characters whose behaviour makes sense but is not cardboard predictable? Other wicked-cool oddities like undead royal families? … Yes, I'm in the safe and familiar bio-tech embrace of a trusted friend: New Space Opera. The authors of this reinvigorated genre like Banks, Hamilton and Westerfeld (with all due respect to Stephen Baxter and his physics lectures some call novels) focus on quality writing, character development and social commentary. Oh and scientific accuracy verging on "whooooa there". A few, like Dan Simmons' gorgeous Hyperion, are masterworks in any genre.”
Risen Empire hits on all the elements of successful New Space Opera. The crux of the first volume in this duology pits the 80-world empire ruled by an undead Emperor against an ultra-efficient transhuman cyborg civilization named the Rix. The action has purpose and grabs you from the first page with a hostage crisis of immense magnitude. The military scenes are technologically fascinating and are driven by multi-pronged political motivations and powers. They do not hinder the story, they enhance it. Westerfeld’s story is intelligent, very intelligent.
Like in the military classic The Forever War, time dilation is properly accounted for and has an impact on the scope and duration of almost everything from military strategy to senatorial terms to romances.
As other reviewers have pointed out, the most obvious comparison to Westerfeld’s galaxy of undead rulers, conflicts between technologically advanced civilizations and political intrigue is Iain M. Banks’ Culture. Banks is a marvel but the Culture’s motivations are often convolutedly subtle and their influence glacial. Some may find the end results unsatisfying (although I loved them). For those that do, you may appreciate Westerfeld’s shower of kinetic weaponry.
Despite its immense scope, the story is very character driven. The author’s all important selection of point of view is very interesting and well managed. This is the element that can make (think Lolita) or break (think The DaVinci Code) a novel. Westerfeld has chosen multiple third person points of view, including characters to whom we may not have expected to get so close. This can either be a complete disaster which exposes an author’s laziness and lack of internal consistency (did I mention The DaVinci Code?) or can be a wonderful plot device that exposes character motivations that are unexpected, intriguing and deviously consistent. The Risen Empire is clearly the latter, in the same vein as George R.R. Martin’s use of the technique. Both sides of a conspiracy are unveiled at different paces, stereotypes are swept aside and assumptions are ass-out-of-you-and-meed.
I find it extremely difficult to take stories seriously when evil empires do evil for the sake of doing evil. Westerfeld has none of this drivel. Diverse motivations and opposite sides of the same coin cause humans, undead humans, and transhumans to love, kill and conspire. This is all familiar to us. Except for the undead cat collection. The central argument in the book is whether immortality is a good thing. At first glance, anyone’s understandable sense of self-reservation would have an obvious answer for that one, but the events of the story and positions of some characters and political parties make you think. Think I said! In a space opera!
There’s even a surprisingly interesting love story that makes good use of time dilation. I’m not the expert on the evaluation of love stories but it didn’t get in the way and instead actually advanced the plot. Even the slower scenes such as these evolve the characters and every page introduces clever forward-looking science.
Westerfeld’s exposition is exceptional. Not only does Risen Empire adhere the “show, don’t tell” tenet, it does not “overshow”. The best example I can think of is Peter F. Hamilton’s Reality Dysfunction. I thought this was an excellent read, but one of my nits, which is a factor in its doorstopper length, is the overshown detail. Enjoyable? Yes. Awesome? Yes. Too much? Probably. Westerfeld manages to walk that monofilament line of exposing enough to intrigue the reader, give enough context to understand the immediate passage and then move on. He then fulfills this promise to the reader by returning to that half-understood fact or concept later and blending it into the story in a more appropriate scene. There’s no factual vomit. Hyperion is a wonderful example of this, and I hold Risen Empire in high regard by putting it in the same sentence.
A great example, which requires no spoiling because it’s on the very first page, is entitled “A Note on Imperial Measures”. The note describes standard measurements across the Risen Empire. Lesser authors would only use this as a Joy of Cooking conversion table in a lazy and off-putting initial fact-vomit. By ending with the generous: “The Emporer has decreed that the speed of light shall remain as nature has provided”, Westerfeld instead hints at both the Emperor’s power and arrogance.
The Risen Empire contains few wasted words. In fact, it is very…Rix and may have very well been drafted by a Rixwoman. You’ll have to read it to know why it could not be written by a Rixman. I have to admit that I actually found myself agreeing with the cyborg civilization’s disdain for humanity’s exaltation in waste, excess and “dead hair”.
Because this is volume is not complete without the sequel, The Killing of Worlds, I’ll reserve judgment on the series as a whole and any comments I’ll have on the conclusions to the various sub-plots. I’m going to go on a limb here and give The Risen Empire five stars. I reserve this for the books I remember with great fondness so I don’t do this lightly. Let’s hope the sequel does not make me look…unRix.
July 28, 2021
4.0 Stars
This epic space opera is a real hidden gem. The world building is absolutely gorgeous. The narrative is quite dense, but well worth the attention and time investment. The characters were not the strongest aspect of the story, but the action and ideas well made up for any weaknesses in that area. I will be jumping straight into the second half of this duology. I highly recommend this series to seasoned science fiction readers.
This epic space opera is a real hidden gem. The world building is absolutely gorgeous. The narrative is quite dense, but well worth the attention and time investment. The characters were not the strongest aspect of the story, but the action and ideas well made up for any weaknesses in that area. I will be jumping straight into the second half of this duology. I highly recommend this series to seasoned science fiction readers.
April 12, 2010
This is the sort of space opera I can love. Forget Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space trilogy, with its sloppy (sometimes indulgent) writing and wooden characters; forget Iain M. Banks' Culture novels, with their climaxes that lead to nothing but futility; forget even Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga -- much though I love the characters and the wit, it doesn't have the breadth of imagination or the sheer scope that Westerfeld captures here.
The Risen Empire stars with a bang, throwing the reader into the action head-first in the perspective of a pilot on a desperate reconnoissance mission a couple hours after the Child Empress has been taken hostage. It shifts perspective every few pages, always clearly marked in the book and with enough clues in the first paragraph for the reader to settle into the new perspective seemlessly, and every time the perspective shifts it adds to the tension. As in any great space opera, there is a lot going on -- enemies without and within, unlikely characters thrown together and forced to forge a bond, people you can root for (but, rarer in space opera, no villains -- Westerfeld wisely shows the reader the Rix side of the action as well, and even the Emperor is crafted with an eye towards the sort of real motivations that might drive a person to do horrible things).
But of course, no book can maintain that sort of frenetic pace for 300+ pages, and it is actually the slower moments that hold this story's heart. After reaching a breaking point in the battle, it jumps back in time to show us the meeting between Zai and his lover Oxham, called the Mad Senator for reasons I won't spoil (but which I love). Their relationship grows quickly in book-time but is drawn out over the course of the novel in slow, luxuriant snippets for the reader. Oxham is a wonderful character, fully as complex as Zai (and their relationship is hardly as easy as most writers would make it -- they're separated by some pretty strong philosophical differences), and once she is introduced her present-time storyline is just as compelling as the space battle her lover is leading -- political wrangling, after all, is at least as dangerous an occupation as starship captaining, and the stakes are higher because mistakes are always taken out in innocent blood.
And just as obviously (well, at least to me, though given how many books I read that simply consist of grim men doing grim things maybe it isn't as obvious to everyone else) Westerfeld finds ways of sneaking in a fair amount of levity. The Emperor's undead cats, Oxham's House, and Alexander were all delightful elements that I won't spoil by explaining here. The entire novel was pitch-perfect, shifting between actions with dire consequences and moments of sheer absurdity with a wonderfully light touch.
It does have a couple flaws: though I prefer it to Banks' Culture novels, Banks is a far superior stylist -- Westerfeld's prose succeeds in getting out of the way of the story admirably, but it doesn't soar; there were a couple of (very minor) elements that took me out of the story because they struck me as anachronisms (a reference to a wax museum? really?); and it is very much a part one -- Westerfeld intended this volume and the second volume (The Killing of Worlds) to be one novel titled Succession, but it ended up being a little too long to publish in one volume economically, so it got split in half (meaning you had better have the second volume handy when you finish this one -- it definitely has a cliffhanger ending). But overall, this is a great book, exactly the sort of book I read science fiction for.
The Risen Empire stars with a bang, throwing the reader into the action head-first in the perspective of a pilot on a desperate reconnoissance mission a couple hours after the Child Empress has been taken hostage. It shifts perspective every few pages, always clearly marked in the book and with enough clues in the first paragraph for the reader to settle into the new perspective seemlessly, and every time the perspective shifts it adds to the tension. As in any great space opera, there is a lot going on -- enemies without and within, unlikely characters thrown together and forced to forge a bond, people you can root for (but, rarer in space opera, no villains -- Westerfeld wisely shows the reader the Rix side of the action as well, and even the Emperor is crafted with an eye towards the sort of real motivations that might drive a person to do horrible things).
But of course, no book can maintain that sort of frenetic pace for 300+ pages, and it is actually the slower moments that hold this story's heart. After reaching a breaking point in the battle, it jumps back in time to show us the meeting between Zai and his lover Oxham, called the Mad Senator for reasons I won't spoil (but which I love). Their relationship grows quickly in book-time but is drawn out over the course of the novel in slow, luxuriant snippets for the reader. Oxham is a wonderful character, fully as complex as Zai (and their relationship is hardly as easy as most writers would make it -- they're separated by some pretty strong philosophical differences), and once she is introduced her present-time storyline is just as compelling as the space battle her lover is leading -- political wrangling, after all, is at least as dangerous an occupation as starship captaining, and the stakes are higher because mistakes are always taken out in innocent blood.
And just as obviously (well, at least to me, though given how many books I read that simply consist of grim men doing grim things maybe it isn't as obvious to everyone else) Westerfeld finds ways of sneaking in a fair amount of levity. The Emperor's undead cats, Oxham's House, and Alexander were all delightful elements that I won't spoil by explaining here. The entire novel was pitch-perfect, shifting between actions with dire consequences and moments of sheer absurdity with a wonderfully light touch.
It does have a couple flaws: though I prefer it to Banks' Culture novels, Banks is a far superior stylist -- Westerfeld's prose succeeds in getting out of the way of the story admirably, but it doesn't soar; there were a couple of (very minor) elements that took me out of the story because they struck me as anachronisms (a reference to a wax museum? really?); and it is very much a part one -- Westerfeld intended this volume and the second volume (The Killing of Worlds) to be one novel titled Succession, but it ended up being a little too long to publish in one volume economically, so it got split in half (meaning you had better have the second volume handy when you finish this one -- it definitely has a cliffhanger ending). But overall, this is a great book, exactly the sort of book I read science fiction for.
November 17, 2015
I always hesitate when I check the series page for a duology or trilogy and see that it's been re-issued in an omnibus. In some cases (like N.K. Jemisin's Inheritance trilogy, which I own in omnibus) this means nothing; in others, it means that the publisher is correcting in a second edition a mistake made with the first, and that the story really isn't complete until you've read all the separately published parts.
This is one of those second cases. If you walk away from this review having learned nothing else about this book, know this: the story is not complete, and indeed only one minor and late-starting subplot is resolved at all. This book centers around a secret which is not yet revealed and a battle not yet fought, and all my questions were left unanswered when I closed the cover.
That said: it's a good read. It's Westerfeld, so of course it is - even though this isn't a genre or style I was used to reading from him, he still thoroughly met my expectations.
Speaking of genre/style, I find myself somewhat at a loss in determining whether this is hard or soft science fiction. I supposed I'd call it soft, despite the lovingly described technical elements (remotely piloted craft the size of sand grains, four different types of artificial gravity, computer-brain interfaces that use all the senses to represent data through technological synesthesia) because at its core, this book is about the conflict of ideologies. Technology is important as an element of the worldbuilding, and to ground those ideologies in differences of physical culture, but at the end of the day it's about how people live their lives, what they prioritize, and how they view existence.
There are quite a few factions (Westerfeld does a tidy job with describing a complex political system, as well), but the most important groups are these: the Emperor and orthodoxy of the Risen Empire, who view death as an enemy they have conquered and can live on after their natural end thanks to a symbiant; the Rix cultists, who have integrated their body with technology and view themselves as nothing more than agents working to create sentient AIs out of planetary computer networks; and those within the Empire who are 'pink', meaning they prioritize the living over the dead and believe in living out a natural lifespan. All three groups have vastly different attitudes towards the value of individual human lives (with some variation depending on the class of the humans involved) and that drives the goals they seek and how they pursue them. I love a good rumination on the nature of humanity, so this is right up my alley.
I've put a library hold on the second book, and I fully expect that if it is as stylistically and thematically solid as this one and actually resolves the plot, it'll rate higher than 3 stars.
This is one of those second cases. If you walk away from this review having learned nothing else about this book, know this: the story is not complete, and indeed only one minor and late-starting subplot is resolved at all. This book centers around a secret which is not yet revealed and a battle not yet fought, and all my questions were left unanswered when I closed the cover.
That said: it's a good read. It's Westerfeld, so of course it is - even though this isn't a genre or style I was used to reading from him, he still thoroughly met my expectations.
Speaking of genre/style, I find myself somewhat at a loss in determining whether this is hard or soft science fiction. I supposed I'd call it soft, despite the lovingly described technical elements (remotely piloted craft the size of sand grains, four different types of artificial gravity, computer-brain interfaces that use all the senses to represent data through technological synesthesia) because at its core, this book is about the conflict of ideologies. Technology is important as an element of the worldbuilding, and to ground those ideologies in differences of physical culture, but at the end of the day it's about how people live their lives, what they prioritize, and how they view existence.
There are quite a few factions (Westerfeld does a tidy job with describing a complex political system, as well), but the most important groups are these: the Emperor and orthodoxy of the Risen Empire, who view death as an enemy they have conquered and can live on after their natural end thanks to a symbiant; the Rix cultists, who have integrated their body with technology and view themselves as nothing more than agents working to create sentient AIs out of planetary computer networks; and those within the Empire who are 'pink', meaning they prioritize the living over the dead and believe in living out a natural lifespan. All three groups have vastly different attitudes towards the value of individual human lives (with some variation depending on the class of the humans involved) and that drives the goals they seek and how they pursue them. I love a good rumination on the nature of humanity, so this is right up my alley.
I've put a library hold on the second book, and I fully expect that if it is as stylistically and thematically solid as this one and actually resolves the plot, it'll rate higher than 3 stars.
May 26, 2017
The Risen Empire - Scott Westerfeld I've been meaning to read this forever, but hadn't quite gotten around to it. Then, on a quick library run to pick up a request that had come in, Veronica was talking about reading Uglies, and how much she was loving it, and how Peeps is currently her favorite book. So, he was fresh in mind and I ambled over to the shelf to see if it was in. And it was. So now maybe I'll get to it before my time is up.***Oh, my yes. I do enjoy a good swashbuckling naval battle in space with tricky tactics, and obscure political motives. Especially one that looks at the societal effect of immortality for some. The sort of thing I once loved Asimov for, but the newer writers actually treat women like humans and involve them in the story. And special bonus cats.Yeah, so I'm was reading this on one end of the sofa while Veronica was reading Pretties and Natasha was feeling bad that there wasn't a Westerfeld book for her level (that she hadn't yet read). We are a Westerfeld loving household.***I forgot to include to aspects of the book that I found fascinating: one is the theory that autism is connected to savantism. I don't agree, but it made for an interesting development of characters. The other was the inclusion of synesthesia, which is just cool.Library copy.
January 14, 2016
I was expecting some over-the-top action 'warhammer'-style, and fearing some over-the-top bullshit 'Sten'-style. The eternal immortal God-Emperor confused me, I guess.
What I got had almost nothing in common with any of the two. The marine fighting was of 'Starship Troopers' quality - but it didn't end there. The descriptions of the spaceships and related technology were the best I've ever read - waaaay smarter and more advanced than 'Starfire', more detailed than 'Hyperion', better defined than 'Revelation Space'. In the same time a lot of attention is given to politics, economics, phylosophy, even medicine - when a marine was checking whether her mate had pneumotorax from a lung wound I was in awe. Everything is presented realisticly and believably - a great plus for me.
The action begins from page one - no introduction and the backstory is given little by little. Two very different cultures are described, a grand mystery presented. I would say this is one of the best books I've ever read.
There are problems, of course. The book would be too hard Sci-fi for many people, especially the Star(Treck/Wars/Gate) crowd (if you consider Star Treck sci-fi, that is). By paying so much attention to detail the story moves at a snail's pace and many characters remain underdeveloped. Too many of the characters are savants in some area - I think this should be rare as the people themselves. The style is great for a grand book, but in about 300 pages very little happens - even without the introduction. I am afraid the story will be finished prematurely in the next book - and pray it does not. The setting deserves at least a 'Hyperion Cantos'-sized story to it. It's just too good.
What I got had almost nothing in common with any of the two. The marine fighting was of 'Starship Troopers' quality - but it didn't end there. The descriptions of the spaceships and related technology were the best I've ever read - waaaay smarter and more advanced than 'Starfire', more detailed than 'Hyperion', better defined than 'Revelation Space'. In the same time a lot of attention is given to politics, economics, phylosophy, even medicine - when a marine was checking whether her mate had pneumotorax from a lung wound I was in awe. Everything is presented realisticly and believably - a great plus for me.
The action begins from page one - no introduction and the backstory is given little by little. Two very different cultures are described, a grand mystery presented. I would say this is one of the best books I've ever read.
There are problems, of course. The book would be too hard Sci-fi for many people, especially the Star(Treck/Wars/Gate) crowd (if you consider Star Treck sci-fi, that is). By paying so much attention to detail the story moves at a snail's pace and many characters remain underdeveloped. Too many of the characters are savants in some area - I think this should be rare as the people themselves. The style is great for a grand book, but in about 300 pages very little happens - even without the introduction. I am afraid the story will be finished prematurely in the next book - and pray it does not. The setting deserves at least a 'Hyperion Cantos'-sized story to it. It's just too good.
July 25, 2014
This was a decent space opera sci-fi. The world building was very good and the technology in this futuristic world was fascinating. The story was based around the clash between two empires. The Risen Empire, a mix of normal humans and the immortal Risen, and The Rix, post humans who worship planet encompassing AI's as Gods.
I enjoyed the concepts and the moral questions the characters faced. The biggest flaw is that this book was too focused on the concepts and technologies. Dialogue between the characters was minimal and this lead to me feeling a bit distant from them.
The ending could have been better. The story just sort of cut off without even a mini conclusion. The second half of the story follows in the sequel.
Rating: 3.5 stars.
I enjoyed the concepts and the moral questions the characters faced. The biggest flaw is that this book was too focused on the concepts and technologies. Dialogue between the characters was minimal and this lead to me feeling a bit distant from them.
The ending could have been better. The story just sort of cut off without even a mini conclusion. The second half of the story follows in the sequel.
Rating: 3.5 stars.
November 7, 2020
Military-political SF of a high order. Part 1 of 2, and really just a single novel.
Bottom Line: I had mixed feelings after finishing #1, but these were washed away in the good, clean exploding-spaceship fun of #2. Grade for vols. 1+2 = "A-" (4+ stars) If you like #1, you will definitely want to read #2!
More episodes were planned, but never published. Author's notes: https://scottwesterfeld.com/books/suc... -- he explains why the books were split.
Nov 2020: I'm rereading and enjoying it. Not amazing, but pretty darn good. Between my 2004 notes and Dave Kennedy's review, you will get a good idea of what it's about. And I'd forgotten about the Immortal Emperor's immortal cats!
Note that when I went to buy a copy of part 1 at Thriftbooks, I could have bought the omnibus for (ims) $1 more. So I sure hope I can find my copy of Part 2!
Here’s the best review I saw online:
http://www.dkennedy.org/C2025243227/E...
" A polished modern space opera, with an appealing mix of smoothly transparent prose, vivid visuals, gothic death-cults, Roman-esque politics, and nanotech magic. Oh, and not one, but two love stories. And a murder mystery. And a government conspiracy. Sounds good? Is good. Downsides: it's the start of a series, Succession (check the title page, you won't see it on the cover), and as such feels incomplete. (I don't imagine this to be a long-running series, I suspect this will be a tightly linked duology or trilogy rather than an opened ended series.) In addition, although this is a fine novel, it's not startlingly good, giving the reader the cool, detached view-point of an all-knowing observer, rather than ratcheting up the emotion and putting the reader through the mill. The author has certainly written more original material before, and I look forward to seeing what the sequel(s) makes of this book. Rating? Solid B, this should appeal to those who like character driven space opera in the non-military tradition of, say, Bujold or maybe even Meaney or Reynolds."
In "print" via Kindle, and used copies are readily available.
There was an SFBC omnibus of both Succession books, but it's hard to find.
[Edited from my 2004 review]
Bottom Line: I had mixed feelings after finishing #1, but these were washed away in the good, clean exploding-spaceship fun of #2. Grade for vols. 1+2 = "A-" (4+ stars) If you like #1, you will definitely want to read #2!
More episodes were planned, but never published. Author's notes: https://scottwesterfeld.com/books/suc... -- he explains why the books were split.
Nov 2020: I'm rereading and enjoying it. Not amazing, but pretty darn good. Between my 2004 notes and Dave Kennedy's review, you will get a good idea of what it's about. And I'd forgotten about the Immortal Emperor's immortal cats!
Note that when I went to buy a copy of part 1 at Thriftbooks, I could have bought the omnibus for (ims) $1 more. So I sure hope I can find my copy of Part 2!
Here’s the best review I saw online:
http://www.dkennedy.org/C2025243227/E...
" A polished modern space opera, with an appealing mix of smoothly transparent prose, vivid visuals, gothic death-cults, Roman-esque politics, and nanotech magic. Oh, and not one, but two love stories. And a murder mystery. And a government conspiracy. Sounds good? Is good. Downsides: it's the start of a series, Succession (check the title page, you won't see it on the cover), and as such feels incomplete. (I don't imagine this to be a long-running series, I suspect this will be a tightly linked duology or trilogy rather than an opened ended series.) In addition, although this is a fine novel, it's not startlingly good, giving the reader the cool, detached view-point of an all-knowing observer, rather than ratcheting up the emotion and putting the reader through the mill. The author has certainly written more original material before, and I look forward to seeing what the sequel(s) makes of this book. Rating? Solid B, this should appeal to those who like character driven space opera in the non-military tradition of, say, Bujold or maybe even Meaney or Reynolds."
In "print" via Kindle, and used copies are readily available.
There was an SFBC omnibus of both Succession books, but it's hard to find.
[Edited from my 2004 review]
February 12, 2019
I didn't love this. I liked it at the beginning. Things started out pretty interesting--some intriguing concepts, a hostage rescue attempt in progress, cool technology. But then it just...floundered.
I feel like the whole thing suffered from too little in the way of character development (yes, details are given about the characters, but none of them really felt real or alive to me) and far too much in the way of differing view points (seriously, like 17!).
There's also a lot of jumping about in time, which I sometimes found confusing and sometimes just uninteresting, and I felt like some of the world-building was a little sloppy, which made it difficult for me to completely buy into it.
It all ended up feeling really tedious, and I just couldn't get attached to anybody; when I can't connect to any of the characters, I don't really care what happens to them either, and that kinda sucks the fun out of a story. So I ended up skimming. A lot. I finally got to the end, only it wasn't really the end because this is a two-part series. Obviously lots of folks really like this book, and though I can see why they might, I am just not with them on this one. I'll skip that second book, thanks.
I feel like the whole thing suffered from too little in the way of character development (yes, details are given about the characters, but none of them really felt real or alive to me) and far too much in the way of differing view points (seriously, like 17!).
There's also a lot of jumping about in time, which I sometimes found confusing and sometimes just uninteresting, and I felt like some of the world-building was a little sloppy, which made it difficult for me to completely buy into it.
It all ended up feeling really tedious, and I just couldn't get attached to anybody; when I can't connect to any of the characters, I don't really care what happens to them either, and that kinda sucks the fun out of a story. So I ended up skimming. A lot. I finally got to the end, only it wasn't really the end because this is a two-part series. Obviously lots of folks really like this book, and though I can see why they might, I am just not with them on this one. I'll skip that second book, thanks.
July 18, 2018
This started very slowly. And in fact it has taken me 5 months to really get into it, which is rare. It begins slowly, albeit engagingly. The world building is very sold, so it unfolds slowly. In fact it was probably only half way through the book that I really started taking note of what was unfolding, how large it was, and how well put together.
His tech is wonderful, esp the micro-flyers. Very well used to tactical advantage.
His AI, and the Rix Cult that worship them are fantastic. I thoroughly enjoy the Rix.
And the love story is tragic and beautiful.
It ends very abruptly, in fact my version of paperback is both books at once, and i didn't even notice the first book had ended until i tried to continue on the Kindle. So straight into the second we go!
His tech is wonderful, esp the micro-flyers. Very well used to tactical advantage.
His AI, and the Rix Cult that worship them are fantastic. I thoroughly enjoy the Rix.
And the love story is tragic and beautiful.
It ends very abruptly, in fact my version of paperback is both books at once, and i didn't even notice the first book had ended until i tried to continue on the Kindle. So straight into the second we go!
April 28, 2021
Leído en 2013.
Comenzamos diciendo que es el primero de una serie de dos libros, que yo sepa. Cuando me termine el segundo os cuento si acaba la historia o no. De momento el primero te deja absolutamente colgado, directamente no acaba sino que te deja con toda la intriga del mundo.
Es una Space Opera en el que el Imperio está dominado por un emperador -obvio, vale- que está muerto/resucitado. Lo están él y quien a él le da la gana y aparece, entrevelado, un misterio asociado a su modo de resurrección -mediante un "simbionte"- que es lo que intenta descubrir la única potencia enemiga a la que se enfrenta en esta novela, los Rix.
Relatado en el modo multienfoque (cada capítulo contado por un personaje distinto de la trama), algo muy en boga en en los últimos tiempos.
Le iba a dar un 7/10 porque hasta aquí no hay nada demasiado original, pero el Westerfeld este arropa la novela de una tecnología, sobre todo nanotecnología, que es atrayente, un poco tipo hard pero con grandes licencias.
Los personajes tiene su aquel, no son tan planos como solemos ver en la novelas de CF y la historia tiene su puntillo de original y novedoso.
Por todo esto le he subido al 8.
No conocía al autor y le quiero dar la oportunidad de leerme el segundo.
Comenzamos diciendo que es el primero de una serie de dos libros, que yo sepa. Cuando me termine el segundo os cuento si acaba la historia o no. De momento el primero te deja absolutamente colgado, directamente no acaba sino que te deja con toda la intriga del mundo.
Es una Space Opera en el que el Imperio está dominado por un emperador -obvio, vale- que está muerto/resucitado. Lo están él y quien a él le da la gana y aparece, entrevelado, un misterio asociado a su modo de resurrección -mediante un "simbionte"- que es lo que intenta descubrir la única potencia enemiga a la que se enfrenta en esta novela, los Rix.
Relatado en el modo multienfoque (cada capítulo contado por un personaje distinto de la trama), algo muy en boga en en los últimos tiempos.
Le iba a dar un 7/10 porque hasta aquí no hay nada demasiado original, pero el Westerfeld este arropa la novela de una tecnología, sobre todo nanotecnología, que es atrayente, un poco tipo hard pero con grandes licencias.
Los personajes tiene su aquel, no son tan planos como solemos ver en la novelas de CF y la historia tiene su puntillo de original y novedoso.
Por todo esto le he subido al 8.
No conocía al autor y le quiero dar la oportunidad de leerme el segundo.
August 28, 2011
Possibly I've just read too many space operas over the past few years. This wasn't bad in any specific way, just didn't fail to entrance me the way it's evidently done for other readers. I imagine that the desires and difficulties in coming up with new technology and effects in SF like this must be the same for fantasy writers attempting to deal with magic. Unless you get lucky and strike a previously unmined seam of ideas or metaphors, it all suffers from being much the same as the other ten authors published recently. That's got be both annoying and a challenge as a writer.
I also wonder if I'm the only one to notice the influence of the Warhammer 40K universe here. The not-quite-dead (or undead in this case) Emperor holding onto to order against perceived chaos, and utilising some pretty horrible methods to do it. The vast military and religious apparatuses. Marines welded into their combat suits, to the point where human and tech are more philosophical questions (borrowing directly from the text). And so on. The possible influences are not screaming, and not boringly derivative, but I did pick up on them myself.
For some reason this just didn't seem to have the charm that Leviathan did for me. Possibly it was deliberate, with a whole Empire based on half its population being undead, needing to feel less alive than pseudo-early-20th century Europe; or possibly it just turned out like that anyway. Either way, there feels like there's just something missing. I'll give the sequels in The Succession series a go I suspect, but I'm certainly not going to rush out after them.
I also wonder if I'm the only one to notice the influence of the Warhammer 40K universe here. The not-quite-dead (or undead in this case) Emperor holding onto to order against perceived chaos, and utilising some pretty horrible methods to do it. The vast military and religious apparatuses. Marines welded into their combat suits, to the point where human and tech are more philosophical questions (borrowing directly from the text). And so on. The possible influences are not screaming, and not boringly derivative, but I did pick up on them myself.
For some reason this just didn't seem to have the charm that Leviathan did for me. Possibly it was deliberate, with a whole Empire based on half its population being undead, needing to feel less alive than pseudo-early-20th century Europe; or possibly it just turned out like that anyway. Either way, there feels like there's just something missing. I'll give the sequels in The Succession series a go I suspect, but I'm certainly not going to rush out after them.
January 6, 2016
(Warning: Lots of spoilers)
“There are no moral victories. Only real defeats.”
Talk about coitus interruptus. The whole book develops the coming big battle, slowed by dozens of point of view shifts and flashbacks, and the last sentence of the text is “The Lynx moved toward battle.”
What? That’s it?
“Humanity is but the raw materials of greater minds.”
Yes, we know the battle will resolve nothing, in fact will probably make things worse. This is only Part One after all. But building the reader’s anticipation for three hundred pages, then slamming the door in our face is inexcusable.
“All systems of sufficient complexity tend toward self-organization, self-replication and finally self-consciousness … as inescapable as entropy.”
Well, if erratically, plotted. Well written. Headed toward a three or four star rating until the book ran out before the story. I say again, cheat! Authors have a contract with readers to deliver something at the end of each volume. Really disappointed.
“With the revelation of Amazon’s first stirring, it became obvious why humans existed … to build computer networks.”
Quibbles? Sure, lots of twentieth century practices and technologies for cultures supposing to have conquered death, light speed, gravity, etc. Clumsy, but forgivable. Several developments had no apparent reason other than advancing the plot. Example: Two people are pursued by a two-person scout aircraft (even though both sides usually use remote or autonomous drones, so when they capture it, it’ll transport both of them.
“Death is the real thief. Love was fragile and hapless compared to it.”
“There are no moral victories. Only real defeats.”
Talk about coitus interruptus. The whole book develops the coming big battle, slowed by dozens of point of view shifts and flashbacks, and the last sentence of the text is “The Lynx moved toward battle.”
What? That’s it?
“Humanity is but the raw materials of greater minds.”
Yes, we know the battle will resolve nothing, in fact will probably make things worse. This is only Part One after all. But building the reader’s anticipation for three hundred pages, then slamming the door in our face is inexcusable.
“All systems of sufficient complexity tend toward self-organization, self-replication and finally self-consciousness … as inescapable as entropy.”
Well, if erratically, plotted. Well written. Headed toward a three or four star rating until the book ran out before the story. I say again, cheat! Authors have a contract with readers to deliver something at the end of each volume. Really disappointed.
“With the revelation of Amazon’s first stirring, it became obvious why humans existed … to build computer networks.”
Quibbles? Sure, lots of twentieth century practices and technologies for cultures supposing to have conquered death, light speed, gravity, etc. Clumsy, but forgivable. Several developments had no apparent reason other than advancing the plot. Example: Two people are pursued by a two-person scout aircraft (even though both sides usually use remote or autonomous drones, so when they capture it, it’ll transport both of them.
“Death is the real thief. Love was fragile and hapless compared to it.”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 29, 2016
"Tastes great!"..."Less filling!". This book is definately both. Political intrigue, brutal warfare, high technology, and a love story...all done with a mature panache that stays light and avoids being cumbersome. A very enjoyable military space opera that goes down oh-so-smooth *buuuurp* Be sure to have part two on-hand because this one ends very abruptly.
February 25, 2014
No sé que decir. Hace dos día que lo terminé y me siento incapaz de formar un juicio sobre el libro. Humanos inmortales contra inteligencias artificiales conscientes. A priori suena interesante, pero me pasé el primer 25% del libro tratando de entender la sociedad en la que transcurre el libro. Y cuando al fin empiezo a entender de que va la cosa el libro me deja a medias. Vale, es una serie y lo sabes de antemano, pero no me parece honesto acabar en falso el libro.
Por lo demás nada que destacar: aventuras espaciales entre dos formas de entender la evolución de la especie humana.
Y pienso leer la segunda parte, aunque solo sea para salir de dudas.
Por lo demás nada que destacar: aventuras espaciales entre dos formas de entender la evolución de la especie humana.
Y pienso leer la segunda parte, aunque solo sea para salir de dudas.
July 12, 2022
Captain Laurent Zai is having a pretty good year so far, all things considered. He's survived some ugly torture, been anointed one of the chosen of the immortal Emperor who rules over the entire empire he inhabits, been promoted to the captaincy of his own ship with a crew that both respects and admires him, and to top it all off he's got a girlfriend highly placed in the government who is waiting for him to make the long trek back from whatever distant solar system he's currently stationed in. Been nothing but highlights for the ol' diary!
Then a really important hostage situation goes pear-shaped. Then war breaks out. And then things start to get really dicey. Now its suicide mission or treason or mutiny . . . all good choices!
These days Scott Westerfeld mostly writes young adult fiction but early in his career he published some novels for an older audience (which these days is sadly me, my young adult years but a tiny dot in the rearview mirror). Most didn't make too much of a splash, although "Evolution's Darling" nabbed a New York Times Notable mention and a special citation during Philip K Dick award season. This one was part of a two book series called "Succession" years before the TV show became a thing, although as we'll get into later the two book thing is mostly arbitrary (eventually it was published in one volume, which seems to imply that someone at the publisher finally read it and said "Why did we originally publish it like this? What were we thinking?").
The premise is classic space opera, with a little twist . . . both sides kind of suck. As mentioned, Zai works for an empire that's bumping up against Roman Empire levels of longevity. Its easy enough to do, as it appears to be ruled by the same dude for the last sixteen hundred or so years, which is just enough time to start to get comfortable. Of course, the Emperor is also apparently immortal (and not just a stream of clones or people who look alike, like when you swear to your kid he's always had the same goldfish that never gets bigger) thanks to a nifty method of granting eternal life, where you basically die and then are resurrected with a symbiant attached to you, meaning you are endlessly, eternally dead but also able to walk and talk and tell everyone the same boring stories over and over again. Like rich entitled people everyone the Emperor only grants this privilege to people he likes or ones who are useful to him, giving him a strong base of people who either want what he has or already have it and aren't about to give it up.
The other side are basically Cybermen with even less of a sense of humor but much more efficient at killing people. The Rix have all kinds of upgrades but what they really want to do is bring the spirit of upgrading to everyone . . . they don't seem super-interested in converting people into their Rix army, which is fine because no one would seem very eager to join it. What can they do when they're not sending super-soldiers out to slaughter opposing soldiers is infect a planetary network with a virus of sorts that links everything up into an enormous AI. Or the metaverse. Or something. Needless to say, you're not really rooting for them to win either.
Zai gets thrust into the thick of this with a hostage situation that both starts and then proceeds to dominate the book. Charmingly, the Emperor also has a sister. In fact she's the reason he's immortal as his experiments in the world of living forever were due to an illness she had. Obviously she got better and is now equally forever undead, but is also under threat from the Rix and if there's one hostage situation you don't want to have to explain to your bosses why it went south, its this one.
So, of course, it goes south.
Westerfeld keeps things moving early on, laying out the situation and then cutting rapidly back and forth between Zai and his top officers as they maneuver to keep this increasingly dangerous hostage situation from turning into an even more dangerous warzone. He gets the feel of being on a warship and has a knack for making space battles kinetic even when they're mostly involving drones moving at absurd speeds. I won't say the characters are deep but they've got at least one interesting quirk and some snappy lines to help us tell them apart. Its got a good pace . . . the only problem is it feels like its takes a long time to get nearly anywhere.
Part of that is he's trying to lay out the backstory to all this, especially the love affair between Zai and Senator Nara Oxham, which is supposed to be the beating emotional heart of all this. Oxham is a senator in a pacifist party, not so opposed to the Emperor that they go all absenteeism but also not quite willing to let him do whatever he wants. They also refuse to let him grant them immortality, which means in a world begging for that sweet taste of forever, they're like "nah". Oxham has a near extreme empathy, where she has to dull her senses or risk going insane . . . despite that she's an effective senator and popular enough. But sensible as she is of course she falls for the hot damaged warrior and they have a torrid love affair in the brief time he's hanging around the capital. And much like your teenage summer camp crush, its going to be forever. Or at least until she dies.
So we've got a mix of Senate debates, explanatory flashbacks and once in a while rapidfire action all jumbled together into a SF blend-o-matic and while the ingredients separately are fun there is a point where you're watching everything stir about in the mixing bowl and can't help but wonder if they're actually going to combine to form something new.
And the answer is . . . maybe? But not quickly. Despite how rapidly everything seems to be progressing hostage situation moves along like a hundred pound person trapped inside a three hundred pound costume and you will reach a point where you realize you're over a hundred pages into the book and you're still wondering if they're going to rescue the Child Empress. Problem is, the book is only three hundred and fifty pages long and this is supposed to be the opening scene. Yikes.
The hostage situation feels like it's being handled on a granular level, moving back and forth between Zai's ship, the troops on the ground, a Rix or two that are having a grand time slaughtering everyone, Oxham and the Senate monitoring things from afar . . . and that's even before another group of Empire folks show up determined to keep the dread secret behind the immortality a secret {dramatic pause} no matter what the cost.
So, yes, the whole Empire is apparently built on a dodgy house of cards and once the reader is clued in that there is a big secret that could undermine everything, the question becomes trying to figure out what kind of secret would be enough to take down the Emperor and grant full speed ahead to a "ends justify the means" approach. Unfortunately there is a second book that isn't allowed to be all epilogue so none of us are going to get to figure it out, which means the book has to go to great lengths to hint that its really bad without having to outright state what the secret is and ruin the surprise.
Thus, cue the wheel spinning. Granted, its at times entertaining wheel spinning but I'm not going to pretend this is definitely marking time waiting to get to the point and throwing obstacles in our path to keep us from finding out. Sometimes the obstacles are just more flashbacks (we spend a lot of time on Zai and Oxham's secret hot date at her House) and sometimes the obstacles are turns of plot that seem a bit of a stretch. The latter is most exemplified by a subplot that consumes the back half of the book . . . when one of Zai's subordinates finds out he's in love (aw) but not with her (which he has never even remotely hinted at previously) her respect for him apparently curdles to where everyone starts planning a mutiny. But . . . maybe not? Similarly Zai has all kinds of convictions in terms of his duty to the Empire until he realizes he's in love and then it seems love is the only duty worth obeying. Or something.
All this puts the book in a sort of mushy middle state . . . its not expansive enough to feel like a true epic, but its not lean and taut and snappy like you'd expect from classic military SF. Instead its trying to be everywhere at once and ultimately meanders a bit because of that. The political deal making doesn't feel hot and sharp, like navigating a series of tiny explosions you have to let go off and somehow not die in the process. The scenes on the ship don't have the claustrophobic clockwork precision that this kind of thing requires, so that when matters start to slip off the rhythm you see how much effort it takes to keep the whole affair aligned to give everyone the slim hope of surviving.
Weirdly the bits that work the best involve a lone Rix furthering a mission on the planet's surface with the assistance of the omnipresence of the growing AI . . . if nothing else it feels more directed, like each chapter is actively going somewhere toward a goal, all filtered through a perspective that is unlike any other in the book. It also gives us the most interesting relationship in the book, one first enacted out of necessity and gradually shifting into something a bit less one sided than it seems (with a side commentary on the state of Empire healthcare, for good measure).
Aside from that we're just killing time until the bottom drops out and we hit the cliffhanger, reaching the big battle the book has been promising for dozens of pages just in time to be all "Oops, out of room, catch you on the flipside!". As usual, this is kind of thing I find myself actively being turned off by, especially when there's barely even an attempt to tell a complete story . . . "to be continued" is fine in a Saturday morning serial or a periodical, not in a book that just wants to dangle a climax in front of us that won't get resolved until you buy another book.
The arbitrary split probably isn't (entirely) Westerfeld's fault (and regardless, its certainly not unique to him) . . . what is more his fault is the fact that he's written a book that's entertaining but doesn't quite stick in the brain as much as it wants to. And when you have a book that manages to stuff in madcap space opera action, commando suicide mission raids and the literal secret of life and death yet manages to produce not a single "whoa" scene to carry you past the book's finish you have to wonder if the book isn't achieving its own goals, or conversely the endgame is "competently pleasant" and its doing exactly what it set out to do.
Then a really important hostage situation goes pear-shaped. Then war breaks out. And then things start to get really dicey. Now its suicide mission or treason or mutiny . . . all good choices!
These days Scott Westerfeld mostly writes young adult fiction but early in his career he published some novels for an older audience (which these days is sadly me, my young adult years but a tiny dot in the rearview mirror). Most didn't make too much of a splash, although "Evolution's Darling" nabbed a New York Times Notable mention and a special citation during Philip K Dick award season. This one was part of a two book series called "Succession" years before the TV show became a thing, although as we'll get into later the two book thing is mostly arbitrary (eventually it was published in one volume, which seems to imply that someone at the publisher finally read it and said "Why did we originally publish it like this? What were we thinking?").
The premise is classic space opera, with a little twist . . . both sides kind of suck. As mentioned, Zai works for an empire that's bumping up against Roman Empire levels of longevity. Its easy enough to do, as it appears to be ruled by the same dude for the last sixteen hundred or so years, which is just enough time to start to get comfortable. Of course, the Emperor is also apparently immortal (and not just a stream of clones or people who look alike, like when you swear to your kid he's always had the same goldfish that never gets bigger) thanks to a nifty method of granting eternal life, where you basically die and then are resurrected with a symbiant attached to you, meaning you are endlessly, eternally dead but also able to walk and talk and tell everyone the same boring stories over and over again. Like rich entitled people everyone the Emperor only grants this privilege to people he likes or ones who are useful to him, giving him a strong base of people who either want what he has or already have it and aren't about to give it up.
The other side are basically Cybermen with even less of a sense of humor but much more efficient at killing people. The Rix have all kinds of upgrades but what they really want to do is bring the spirit of upgrading to everyone . . . they don't seem super-interested in converting people into their Rix army, which is fine because no one would seem very eager to join it. What can they do when they're not sending super-soldiers out to slaughter opposing soldiers is infect a planetary network with a virus of sorts that links everything up into an enormous AI. Or the metaverse. Or something. Needless to say, you're not really rooting for them to win either.
Zai gets thrust into the thick of this with a hostage situation that both starts and then proceeds to dominate the book. Charmingly, the Emperor also has a sister. In fact she's the reason he's immortal as his experiments in the world of living forever were due to an illness she had. Obviously she got better and is now equally forever undead, but is also under threat from the Rix and if there's one hostage situation you don't want to have to explain to your bosses why it went south, its this one.
So, of course, it goes south.
Westerfeld keeps things moving early on, laying out the situation and then cutting rapidly back and forth between Zai and his top officers as they maneuver to keep this increasingly dangerous hostage situation from turning into an even more dangerous warzone. He gets the feel of being on a warship and has a knack for making space battles kinetic even when they're mostly involving drones moving at absurd speeds. I won't say the characters are deep but they've got at least one interesting quirk and some snappy lines to help us tell them apart. Its got a good pace . . . the only problem is it feels like its takes a long time to get nearly anywhere.
Part of that is he's trying to lay out the backstory to all this, especially the love affair between Zai and Senator Nara Oxham, which is supposed to be the beating emotional heart of all this. Oxham is a senator in a pacifist party, not so opposed to the Emperor that they go all absenteeism but also not quite willing to let him do whatever he wants. They also refuse to let him grant them immortality, which means in a world begging for that sweet taste of forever, they're like "nah". Oxham has a near extreme empathy, where she has to dull her senses or risk going insane . . . despite that she's an effective senator and popular enough. But sensible as she is of course she falls for the hot damaged warrior and they have a torrid love affair in the brief time he's hanging around the capital. And much like your teenage summer camp crush, its going to be forever. Or at least until she dies.
So we've got a mix of Senate debates, explanatory flashbacks and once in a while rapidfire action all jumbled together into a SF blend-o-matic and while the ingredients separately are fun there is a point where you're watching everything stir about in the mixing bowl and can't help but wonder if they're actually going to combine to form something new.
And the answer is . . . maybe? But not quickly. Despite how rapidly everything seems to be progressing hostage situation moves along like a hundred pound person trapped inside a three hundred pound costume and you will reach a point where you realize you're over a hundred pages into the book and you're still wondering if they're going to rescue the Child Empress. Problem is, the book is only three hundred and fifty pages long and this is supposed to be the opening scene. Yikes.
The hostage situation feels like it's being handled on a granular level, moving back and forth between Zai's ship, the troops on the ground, a Rix or two that are having a grand time slaughtering everyone, Oxham and the Senate monitoring things from afar . . . and that's even before another group of Empire folks show up determined to keep the dread secret behind the immortality a secret {dramatic pause} no matter what the cost.
So, yes, the whole Empire is apparently built on a dodgy house of cards and once the reader is clued in that there is a big secret that could undermine everything, the question becomes trying to figure out what kind of secret would be enough to take down the Emperor and grant full speed ahead to a "ends justify the means" approach. Unfortunately there is a second book that isn't allowed to be all epilogue so none of us are going to get to figure it out, which means the book has to go to great lengths to hint that its really bad without having to outright state what the secret is and ruin the surprise.
Thus, cue the wheel spinning. Granted, its at times entertaining wheel spinning but I'm not going to pretend this is definitely marking time waiting to get to the point and throwing obstacles in our path to keep us from finding out. Sometimes the obstacles are just more flashbacks (we spend a lot of time on Zai and Oxham's secret hot date at her House) and sometimes the obstacles are turns of plot that seem a bit of a stretch. The latter is most exemplified by a subplot that consumes the back half of the book . . . when one of Zai's subordinates finds out he's in love (aw) but not with her (which he has never even remotely hinted at previously) her respect for him apparently curdles to where everyone starts planning a mutiny. But . . . maybe not? Similarly Zai has all kinds of convictions in terms of his duty to the Empire until he realizes he's in love and then it seems love is the only duty worth obeying. Or something.
All this puts the book in a sort of mushy middle state . . . its not expansive enough to feel like a true epic, but its not lean and taut and snappy like you'd expect from classic military SF. Instead its trying to be everywhere at once and ultimately meanders a bit because of that. The political deal making doesn't feel hot and sharp, like navigating a series of tiny explosions you have to let go off and somehow not die in the process. The scenes on the ship don't have the claustrophobic clockwork precision that this kind of thing requires, so that when matters start to slip off the rhythm you see how much effort it takes to keep the whole affair aligned to give everyone the slim hope of surviving.
Weirdly the bits that work the best involve a lone Rix furthering a mission on the planet's surface with the assistance of the omnipresence of the growing AI . . . if nothing else it feels more directed, like each chapter is actively going somewhere toward a goal, all filtered through a perspective that is unlike any other in the book. It also gives us the most interesting relationship in the book, one first enacted out of necessity and gradually shifting into something a bit less one sided than it seems (with a side commentary on the state of Empire healthcare, for good measure).
Aside from that we're just killing time until the bottom drops out and we hit the cliffhanger, reaching the big battle the book has been promising for dozens of pages just in time to be all "Oops, out of room, catch you on the flipside!". As usual, this is kind of thing I find myself actively being turned off by, especially when there's barely even an attempt to tell a complete story . . . "to be continued" is fine in a Saturday morning serial or a periodical, not in a book that just wants to dangle a climax in front of us that won't get resolved until you buy another book.
The arbitrary split probably isn't (entirely) Westerfeld's fault (and regardless, its certainly not unique to him) . . . what is more his fault is the fact that he's written a book that's entertaining but doesn't quite stick in the brain as much as it wants to. And when you have a book that manages to stuff in madcap space opera action, commando suicide mission raids and the literal secret of life and death yet manages to produce not a single "whoa" scene to carry you past the book's finish you have to wonder if the book isn't achieving its own goals, or conversely the endgame is "competently pleasant" and its doing exactly what it set out to do.
December 26, 2019
I first read this book almost a decade ago and certain moments stuck with me: the microscopic aircraft dogfights, the multi-level synesthesia screens, the convoluted politics of an empire where the elite class are the resurrected and immortal dead. These elements remain just as interesting and fun as they were to me as a young teenager. The second reading has also brought new elements I had forgotten or failed to grasp: the emergent intelligence of planet-wide information systems, the ritual significance of a certain turn of phrase, the tender and awkward courtship between a cyborg infiltrator and her human doppelgänger. These were all a delight to rediscover and Westerfeld’s writing holds up well; vivid and fast moving without becoming confused, although beholden to the occasional jarringly contemporary metaphor.
Some parts did give me pause however on the second reading, particularly the treatment of disability. Several of the main PoV characters are disabled, albeit mostly by esoteric quirks of future technology, and the pointed use of contemporary language and abuse (especially slurs) feels out of place alongside immortal cats floating on anti-gravity pillows. Likewise the Plague Axis (a subset of humanity who were kept apart from the gene-editing and disease eradication efforts of the Empire as a control group and reserve of genetic diversity) is interesting conceptually but the language around them seems practically medieval. While we are generally asked to sympathise with the people having ableist slurs flung at them rather than the inverse, it is still a topic that should be approached less casually and some of the scenes where it is featured make me worry for the characters’ treatment in the sequel. It does not seem to be meant badly and I did find some of the descriptions of mental illness in particular quite compelling but it still often feels clumsy and incompletely thought out.
Speaking of, it is abundantly clear that Westerfeld wrote a single novel that was cut into two to keep the page count down. This book has excellent inciting action but really no conclusion and a cliff hanger that would be genuinely obnoxious if one had to wait for a sequel to come out. Certainly the first book is enjoyable to read on its own but do not expect a complete story from it alone.
Some parts did give me pause however on the second reading, particularly the treatment of disability. Several of the main PoV characters are disabled, albeit mostly by esoteric quirks of future technology, and the pointed use of contemporary language and abuse (especially slurs) feels out of place alongside immortal cats floating on anti-gravity pillows. Likewise the Plague Axis (a subset of humanity who were kept apart from the gene-editing and disease eradication efforts of the Empire as a control group and reserve of genetic diversity) is interesting conceptually but the language around them seems practically medieval. While we are generally asked to sympathise with the people having ableist slurs flung at them rather than the inverse, it is still a topic that should be approached less casually and some of the scenes where it is featured make me worry for the characters’ treatment in the sequel. It does not seem to be meant badly and I did find some of the descriptions of mental illness in particular quite compelling but it still often feels clumsy and incompletely thought out.
Speaking of, it is abundantly clear that Westerfeld wrote a single novel that was cut into two to keep the page count down. This book has excellent inciting action but really no conclusion and a cliff hanger that would be genuinely obnoxious if one had to wait for a sequel to come out. Certainly the first book is enjoyable to read on its own but do not expect a complete story from it alone.
May 5, 2023
A warning before anything else: this is half a novel, not a "book one of a duology". Its action-packed opening is absolutely brilliant, but much of the second half is spent building up to action that will happen in book two. Seeing as it’s been a while since publication, best grab both books before reading, or you will end up with a massive cliffhanger on your hands.
That being said – wow, what a ride. A tight and rapid-paced mix of military SF, politico-cultural intrigue, and even a dash of romance, all in a society so far in the future, both in time and in regards to technology, that this may as well have been a fantasy novel. Therein lies my only nitpick, that one character is a Deanna Troi-type empath, and this (seemingly unnecessary) fantasy element is meshed into an otherwise very SF milieu without even a hand-wavy technobabble explanation, it just… sits there. But otherwise, I could not put this one down, and dove straight into book two after finishing. A more coherent review will follow after I actually get through the whole story.
That being said – wow, what a ride. A tight and rapid-paced mix of military SF, politico-cultural intrigue, and even a dash of romance, all in a society so far in the future, both in time and in regards to technology, that this may as well have been a fantasy novel. Therein lies my only nitpick, that one character is a Deanna Troi-type empath, and this (seemingly unnecessary) fantasy element is meshed into an otherwise very SF milieu without even a hand-wavy technobabble explanation, it just… sits there. But otherwise, I could not put this one down, and dove straight into book two after finishing. A more coherent review will follow after I actually get through the whole story.
September 2, 2025
Pretty good read that got me engaged and compelled me enough to finish in a day. Excited to see what happens in book 2 and to see if it is Dune and Foundation level.
April 18, 2022
Superb Space Opera.
The Risen Empire (Succession 1) by Scott Westerfield
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They don't write them like this anymore. The surprising thing is that the author is Scott Westerfield, who I've seen only (but never read) as the author of "Hunger Game" knock-offs. This book is entirely different from that genre and is probably one of the best space operas I've read in a while. (Well, since at least the Praxis series by Walter Jon Williams.)
What impressed me was the world-building. The story is set in a war between "the Risen Empire" and the "Rix Cult." The culture of both combatants is weird from our perspective, although the Risen Empire is the home of our focal characters, and, therefore, the "good guys," while the Rix Cult has lost its humanity.
Both societies are organized around different ideas of immortality. For the Risen Empire, immortality is given to a chosen few, who are given some kind of symbiont at death. The symbiont uses nanotechnology to repair the dead organs and return the dead to some kind of life, but for most it is a vague kind of existence disconnected from the living. (Others - such as the 1,600 year old Risen Emperor- remain fully engaged, as do some Risen Generals to a lesser degree.) Over time the Risen have become very numerous and wealthy, while the living live and die as they always have. For many of the living, the prospect of immortality defines their existence; they are willing to do anything - even commit suicide when they fail - in order to be a part of a system that rewards some with immortality.
For their part, the Rix Cult make it their mission to infect the information system of hyper-advanced planets, creating AI (artificially intelligent) Gods who control everything on the planet. The Rix has evolved the human form to stock its military with the most efficient fighters in the galaxy. Individually, they are more than a match for any mere human soldier.
The story starts with a Rix attack that takes the Emperor's niece - who is a 1,600-year-old immortal - as a hostage while the information system of Legis XV. Captain Laurent Zai of the Cruiser Lynx is on the spot to attempt a hostage rescue. Any failure will mean that he has made an "Error of Blod" which will require suicide and a loss of his chance at immortality.
From there, Westerfeld hops from perspective to perspective to tell his story. We see a recon expedition by flying crafts less than a millimeter across. We skip back to the home planet of the empire and see the political machinations through the perspective of an empathic senator (who is also the lover of Captain Zai.) The stakes escalate as the Lynx is commanded to attack a Rix battleship in a suicidal mission.
This is all fast-moving, exciting stuff. We get to know several of the characters to empathize with their impossible situation. Westerfeld has really thought out a lot of the implications of his technology and the strategies that it would entail. I found the book fully immersive, particularly with respect to the alien societies that we don't see that often anymore.
The book does something that usually mortally offends me, namely, it is not a complete book. It simply stops at the point where the Lynx is preparing to take on the Rix battleship. However, I enjoyed the book so much that I was willing to overlook this mortal offense.
The Risen Empire (Succession 1) by Scott Westerfield
Please give my Amazon review a helpful vote - https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-re...
They don't write them like this anymore. The surprising thing is that the author is Scott Westerfield, who I've seen only (but never read) as the author of "Hunger Game" knock-offs. This book is entirely different from that genre and is probably one of the best space operas I've read in a while. (Well, since at least the Praxis series by Walter Jon Williams.)
What impressed me was the world-building. The story is set in a war between "the Risen Empire" and the "Rix Cult." The culture of both combatants is weird from our perspective, although the Risen Empire is the home of our focal characters, and, therefore, the "good guys," while the Rix Cult has lost its humanity.
Both societies are organized around different ideas of immortality. For the Risen Empire, immortality is given to a chosen few, who are given some kind of symbiont at death. The symbiont uses nanotechnology to repair the dead organs and return the dead to some kind of life, but for most it is a vague kind of existence disconnected from the living. (Others - such as the 1,600 year old Risen Emperor- remain fully engaged, as do some Risen Generals to a lesser degree.) Over time the Risen have become very numerous and wealthy, while the living live and die as they always have. For many of the living, the prospect of immortality defines their existence; they are willing to do anything - even commit suicide when they fail - in order to be a part of a system that rewards some with immortality.
For their part, the Rix Cult make it their mission to infect the information system of hyper-advanced planets, creating AI (artificially intelligent) Gods who control everything on the planet. The Rix has evolved the human form to stock its military with the most efficient fighters in the galaxy. Individually, they are more than a match for any mere human soldier.
The story starts with a Rix attack that takes the Emperor's niece - who is a 1,600-year-old immortal - as a hostage while the information system of Legis XV. Captain Laurent Zai of the Cruiser Lynx is on the spot to attempt a hostage rescue. Any failure will mean that he has made an "Error of Blod" which will require suicide and a loss of his chance at immortality.
From there, Westerfeld hops from perspective to perspective to tell his story. We see a recon expedition by flying crafts less than a millimeter across. We skip back to the home planet of the empire and see the political machinations through the perspective of an empathic senator (who is also the lover of Captain Zai.) The stakes escalate as the Lynx is commanded to attack a Rix battleship in a suicidal mission.
This is all fast-moving, exciting stuff. We get to know several of the characters to empathize with their impossible situation. Westerfeld has really thought out a lot of the implications of his technology and the strategies that it would entail. I found the book fully immersive, particularly with respect to the alien societies that we don't see that often anymore.
The book does something that usually mortally offends me, namely, it is not a complete book. It simply stops at the point where the Lynx is preparing to take on the Rix battleship. However, I enjoyed the book so much that I was willing to overlook this mortal offense.
March 5, 2010
Honestly one of the best sci-fi books I've read in a while. The Succession books are a space-opera genre of sci-fi books cut from a similar cloth as Dune. The setting focuses on the conflict two major galactic empires; the story takes place within the Risen Empire, which is ruled by an Emperor who has made himself immortal through the use of a strange symbiotic organism and has used it to create a ruling class of undead immortals. I say undead, because you have to die for the symbiote to work. The Empire has been in conflict with the Rix, a strange cybernetic cult/organization that worships AI's that are on a planetary scale.
This is all laid out within the first chapter/back of the book, so I'm not spoilering this. Westerfeld uses individuals and their perspectives from these two interesting cultures to amazing effect, creating an exciting story that combine to make events of major importance for this universe he's created. In a co-primary storyline he also uses romantic love as a transformational influence that causes drastic changes in two major characters, something I don't see often in many books; often romance is romance, and that's about it; the characters tend not to be changed except that now they're in a relationship. Westerfeld totally changes the way I've ever seen nanotechnology used in a book.
If you like sci-fi, you should read this series. It = awesome!
This is all laid out within the first chapter/back of the book, so I'm not spoilering this. Westerfeld uses individuals and their perspectives from these two interesting cultures to amazing effect, creating an exciting story that combine to make events of major importance for this universe he's created. In a co-primary storyline he also uses romantic love as a transformational influence that causes drastic changes in two major characters, something I don't see often in many books; often romance is romance, and that's about it; the characters tend not to be changed except that now they're in a relationship. Westerfeld totally changes the way I've ever seen nanotechnology used in a book.
If you like sci-fi, you should read this series. It = awesome!
January 5, 2016
Despite a few glaring editing mistakes, this was quite good and would easily have received four stars, except it choked at the end and cut off without completing any significant part of the story. I understand about books in a series not standing alone well, but this is really only half a book. This is a pet peeve of mine, and here it's done so egregiously I considered taking it all the way down to two stars.
But there's a ton of neat things in here: nanotechnology such as smart clothing, people who have evolved empathy/telepathy and super pattern matching brains, pilots who remotely fly miniature aircraft for sensitive missions, planet-spanning sentient AIs, politics, real cybernetic technology, and characters who are believable and interesting. These elements are dealt with plausibly and form a very interesting situation. There's a solid plot here too, even if it's cut off before the story forms a whole book. No wonder there's also a single book composed of both in the series (Succession)! Now I just hope I get to The Killing of Worlds before I forget what was in this half of the story.
But there's a ton of neat things in here: nanotechnology such as smart clothing, people who have evolved empathy/telepathy and super pattern matching brains, pilots who remotely fly miniature aircraft for sensitive missions, planet-spanning sentient AIs, politics, real cybernetic technology, and characters who are believable and interesting. These elements are dealt with plausibly and form a very interesting situation. There's a solid plot here too, even if it's cut off before the story forms a whole book. No wonder there's also a single book composed of both in the series (Succession)! Now I just hope I get to The Killing of Worlds before I forget what was in this half of the story.
November 15, 2011
I think I have a crush on Scott Westerfeld. His bio says he's also a software designer and music composer, and his writing is delightfully diverse. His Uglies series is YA dystopic fiction. His Leviathan series is steampunk for a slightly younger audience. This series is straight up science fiction, a so-called space opera along the lines of Asimov's Foundation series. The plot is more active and complex than Foundation, and contains extremely satisfying characters and devices. In this world, the dead rule the universe, and a religious cult comprised of cyborg women (the "unnecessary gender" done away with) attempt to spread planet-wide AI god-minds. Nano-machines the size of dust motes are piloted into battle and a house grown from a seed is anxious to please its owner. Deception, manipulation, assassination... all part of the ongoing struggle for maintaining power. Will the dead emperor reign for another 1000 years or will the compound mind and its female army discover his secret?
July 2, 2009
Woah. The first book of this series begins with a dizzyingly exciting space battle that sucks you right into the action. It's only a few pages in that the reader realizes the ships are the size of a hangnail, piloted by remote. The Child Empress is being held hostage, and the ships are on a recon mission for the Imperial space ship in orbit round the planet, waiting to rescue her. The first book is very exciting, and while the technology Westerfeld introduces is wholly original, it still makes a great deal of sense. Westerfeld reads a bit like Nancy Kress; he's really good at combining innovative yet realistic science with multi-faceted, interesting characters and believable societies. I was particularly impressed with the multitude of perspectives he brought to the story without ever losing his focus.
September 22, 2015
The Risen Empire is a small but excellent story. Its rapid backdrop-building introduced many new and interesting ideas that largely contributed to the unfolding drama immediately. The quality was such that I had that rare feeling of excited anticipation each night as I opened the book; I even stole extra time to read for my pleasure in addition to the use of reading time to become sleepy.
My only complaint is the absurd running out of pages mid-story; it feels like a cheat, and a mild case of extortion. But the strategy worked; I bought the follow-on volume. It is in the mail as I write this brief recommendation to give this story a try.
My only complaint is the absurd running out of pages mid-story; it feels like a cheat, and a mild case of extortion. But the strategy worked; I bought the follow-on volume. It is in the mail as I write this brief recommendation to give this story a try.
April 30, 2017
3 1/2 stars. A flawed, but overall better than average space opera. Thousands of years in the future, humans have spread throughout the galaxy and have splintered into different cultures. One of these cultures, ruled for over 1,600 years by their immortal Emperor, is the Risen Empire. As the book opens, a small strike force of cybernetic enhanced humans, the Rix, have taken the Emperor's sister hostage and a rescue mission is launched.
The first part of the book suffers somewhat from pacing problems. The chapters dealing with the Rix are fast paced, but the author alternates these chapters with other chapters that offer flashbacks into the pasts of the main characters. Flashbacks that develop a ho-hum romance between the two main characters at the expense of the action and suspense.
Still, the novel packs in good military action with intrigue and some interesting futuristic tech. The pace of the novel definitely picks up in the second half once all the exposition and flashbacks are gotten out of the way.
The first part of the book suffers somewhat from pacing problems. The chapters dealing with the Rix are fast paced, but the author alternates these chapters with other chapters that offer flashbacks into the pasts of the main characters. Flashbacks that develop a ho-hum romance between the two main characters at the expense of the action and suspense.
Still, the novel packs in good military action with intrigue and some interesting futuristic tech. The pace of the novel definitely picks up in the second half once all the exposition and flashbacks are gotten out of the way.
August 18, 2022
I was in the right mood for this book. It is nothing special, a typical sci-fi space adventure with plenty of focus on the technology. Maybe too much. Maybe there could be less hypercarbon and nanogadgets and so on. A few interesting extra-extrapolations on where technology could go but without a lot of hard science. There is some character development so I'll give it some credit there. Also, I always enjoy the balanced presentation of different perspectives within a conflict, which this story has. Book ends on a cliffhanger but went by fast and at least it isn't a trilogy.
April 2, 2020
This is the first book I have read by Scott Westerfeld and it was pretty good. It almost had too much detail sometimes almost laborious detail. However, I am looking forward to the next book in the series, we have been left hanging.
January 31, 2019
This book was so good! Space Opera forever :D Westerfeld is so creative and brilliant here, with this fantastically paced plot woven from rich and varied characters.
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