Rhythm of the Imperium

Imperium #3

by Jody Lynn Nye

Book Three in the View from the Imperium series from humorous SF master Jody Lynn Nye. Lieutenant Lord Thomas Kinago and his trusty constant companion, the unflappable Parsons, are back. And this time they've got a planet to save.

The Zang, an elder race of the galaxy, may be a shrinking population, but they're also intelligent, curious, and powerful. What's more, they practice a most unusual art they bonsai star systems. Eager to witness this first hand, Lieutenant Lord Thomas Kinago, accompanied as always by his personal assistant Parsons, sets out on a several-week jaunt to see the Zang destroy a moon to enhance the beauty of a star system.

But the trip is sidelined when Kinago's uncle offers to take him to the seldom seen human homeworld, Earth. Unable to resist, Kinago goes along, only to find on his return that the planet he's just visited may be in danger of being eradicated. Earth lies within the protective sphere of the Zang, but enemies of the Imperium are lobbying to have Sol system turned over to them.

It is up to Kinago and Parsons to save Earth. Kinago has the key, but will he be able to persuade the Zang to spare the human homeworld before it's too late?

About Jody Lynn Nye's Rhythm of the Imperium
"[I]nfused with enough humor to keep you entertained and enough action to make you turn the pages."— Kirkus

"The third in Nye’s humorous space-opera series...fans of Robert Asprin and Toby Frost may enjoy Nye's offbeat latest."
— Booklist

About Jody Lynn Nye's View from the Imperium
"Interstellar crime syndicates, political conspiracies, smuggling and fortunetelling combine . . . to deliver lighthearted, entertaining farce.”— Galveston County Daily News

Praise for the work of Jody Lynn
“I thoroughly enjoyed it, the plot, the settlement, the whole nine yards, and especially the twitch of humor at odd moments...a book I can thoroughly recommend.” — Anne McCaffrey

“An unusual story well-told, with characters it's a real pleasure to spend time with.” — David Drake

"[An] innovative take on the well-loved theme of fairies and dangerous wishes." — Publishers Weekly on Wishing on a Star by Jody Lynn Nye and Angelina Adams

Genres: Science Fiction, Humor, Ebooks, Space Opera, Comedy

427 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2015

About the author

Jody Lynn Nye lists her main career activity as ‘spoiling cats.’ When not engaged upon this worthy occupation, she writes fantasy and science fiction books and short stories.

Before breaking away from gainful employment to write full time, Jody worked as a file clerk, book-keeper at a small publishing house, freelance journalist and photographer, accounting assistant and costume maker.

For four years, she was on the technical operations staff of a local Chicago television station, WFBN (WGBO), serving the last year as Technical Operations Manager. During her time at WFBN, she was part of the engineering team that built the station, acted as Technical Director during live sports broadcasts, and worked to produce in-house spots and public service announcements.

Over the last twenty-five or so years, Jody has taught in numerous writing workshops and participated on hundreds of panels covering the subjects of writing and being published at science-fiction conventions. She has also spoken in schools and libraries around the north and northwest suburbs. In 2007 she taught fantasy writing at Columbia College Chicago. She also runs the two-day writers workshop at DragonCon, and is a judge for the Writers of the Future contest, the largest speculative fiction contest in the world.

Jody lives in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, with her husband Bill Fawcett, a writer, game designer, military historian and book packager, and three feline overlords, Athena, Minx, and Marmalade.

Reviews

[Brad McKenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I needed something funny. There's a lot of crap happening right now, so when I listened to the Writing Excuses
The plot, though, I didn't quite mesh with. The pacing was off in my opinion. And then the real Earth being introduced with under 100 pages left? While the hints of it being the planet the Kail want to have the Zang destroy were there and how the plot resolved did make up for it somewhat, it just didn't work for me.

Though this book was middling, the writing was better than average. I'll definitely be reading more by here.

[hollace turnage · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good vibes

Jody Lynn Nye has outdone herself this time. As usual her characters are good and the plot both fun and intricate.

[Rebecca Baldwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish she addressed what happened with the translator LAI. Did it die bc it wasn't connected to the infogrid so its whole personality was in the motherboard?

[John McDonnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant series. From mystical divination to dance, Thomas Kinago is without doubt versatile and maybe a little ecentric (all right mad)! Will be on my reread and certainly listen to for some time.

[Daniel Shellenbarger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rhythm of the Imperium is the third in Ms. Nye's series following the adventures of Lord Thomas Kinago, a younger member of the Imperial Family that rules most of human space, whose foppish behavior and eccentric interests underlay a keen intellect and a strong sense of noblesse oblige; accompanied by his extremely capable aide Parsons, he is called upon to help the Imperium's Secret Services when things call for a less conventional solution. In short, it's a cross between Sayer's Lord Peter Wimsey and Bunter (or Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster) and a golden age space opera. In this book, Thomas is accompanying a number of his relations on a jaunt to observe the Yang removing a world they find aesthetically lacking (the Yang are the most ancient and powerful beings in the known universe and are really into feng shui-ing the galaxy), their trip is side-tracked a bit when they take a Yang aboard (along with its "pet", a human anthropologist it picked up when it happened upon her on a world they were both observing) and another group heading for the event, a Kail (basically rock people with the emotional maturity of kindergartners) entourage who seek an audience with the Yang, cause a disturbance aboard an allied commercial vessel and the Imperium offers assistance, unaware that the Kail seek the Yang's aid against humanity. The first two entries in the series were pretty solid, combining an amusing protagonist with an interesting story, and doing so in a way that feels right. However, the third book doesn't quite work. It's not that the story isn't interesting (well, at times, more on that later); it's not that Thomas isn't his usual amusing self; it's that for most of the story, Thomas is as much of an observer as the reader and most of the interesting stuff happens to other people or happens when the audience isn't looking, which means that for most of the book, the protagonist's only interest is pursuing his decadent entertainments and his efforts to woo the Yang's pet (I use the term loosely, she just travels with the Yang and interprets for it, but the other Yang refer to her that way since from their immortal perspective humans (and everybody else) are terribly transient) with whom he falls hopelessly in love at first sight, which isn't bad reading, but nor is it up to snuff of Ms. Nye's previous work. The problem is so glaring that to maintain interest, a significant portion of the book is from Parsons' perspective, since he's the one actually doing things of importance. Making things worse are the Kail, who are just the worst. They're intentionally awful characters and every chapter spent with them is a pain because they're ridiculously immature and abrasive, which is deliberate on the author's part but doesn't make them any more interesting. Worse, they're largely responsible for creating the situation that's making them mad in the first place due to their utter inability to empathize (and unwillingness to communicate) with anyone not-Kail. So while the story has some high stakes and some interesting elements, it is also ultimately paper-thin and when the book was over I had a definite sense of "Really? That's it?" If you enjoyed the previous two books, then I would say it's worth the read for Thomas's eccentricities, but at the same time, there's no question this is a disappointment, though I'll still be looking for future volumes and hoping for a return to form.

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm told that this Imperium series is like P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves series but I don't believe that I had ever read any of the Jeeves books!

Lt. Thomas Kinago clearly has his heart in the right place. It is not his fault that he is the Emperor's cousin. Yes, he comes across as a dilettante. He has serial "enthusiasms". Yet, somehow, even so he manages to save the day in the end.

Credit definitely must be given to Cmdr. Parsons, his valet, of course. Parsons is a covert James Bond who runs his intelligence operations behind the scenes. But Thomas, himself, is never to be counted out.

No, this book wasn't gripping nor a page-turner in the beginning. But it had a magnificent finish, if you can just hang on, because you won't see it coming!

And, yes, definitely sign me up for Lt. Kinago's next adventure!

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lord Thomas, the emperor's cousin, isn't really as useless as most of his family, despite his new-found passion for modern dance. The whole crew of cousins has gone into space to see an exhibition of the power of the Zangs, long-lived beings who treat solar systems like bonsai. A silicon-based life-form, the Kails, want to win the Zangs' favor in order to gain revenge on the Imperium, for reasons that even the diplomats do not understand.

[Li · Rating 2 out of 5]

There’s probably an element of “it’s me, not you” here, but I found it really hard to sink into the story. The alien POVs detracted from the flow of the story, and it was one of those books I found easy to put aside. Towards the end, the story finally got into its stride, and like previous books, it finished with a bang, but I have to say it was a bit touch-and-go as to whether I’d finish it for most of the way through.

[mirba · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this series.
The character should not be taken seriously, cause he doesn't. I just love him, he makes me laugh outloud.

This book is my favourite up to now. It's just hilariuos and really majestic at the same time. The dressing code makes me roll to the ground by how much I laughed.