Empress of Earth

Roads of Heaven #3

by Melissa Scott

Mage-in-training Silence Leigh faces her greatest challenge--to reopen the well-guarded road to lost Earth

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Queer, Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

352 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1987

About the author

Scott studied history at Harvard College and Brandeis University, and earned her PhD. in comparative history. She published her first novel in 1984, and has since written some two dozen science fiction and fantasy works, including three co-authored with her partner, Lisa A. Barnett.

Scott's work is known for the elaborate and well-constructed settings. While many of her protagonists are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered, this is perfectly integrated into the rest of the story and is rarely a major focus of the story. Shadow Man, alone among Scott's works, focuses explicitly on issues of sexuality and gender.

She won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in Science Fiction in 1986, and has won several Lambda Literary Awards.

In addition to writing, Scott also teaches writing, offering classes via her website and publishing a writing guide.

Scott lived with her partner, author Lisa A. Barnett, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for 27 years, until the latter's death of breast cancer on May 2, 2006.

Reviews

[X · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was….. not good!

It’s unfortunate, when the first two were good, but I think this one just kind of fell apart. The entire thing really screeched to a halt when they got to Earth. The beauty of space flight? Irrelevant. The action-packed space civilization plots? Replaced by slow, dour Earth civilization plots.

I get the whole “it’s Earth so they’re in nature” thing, but nature never felt so boring. And this idea that “oh the Earth civilization should have its own dystopian vibe”? Why! Just not fun at all, and the whole “Earth should be organic/mechanical and therefore everything should happen way more slowly” - not unique to this book, and I hate it every time. I don’t want to go back to nature actually!

I did finally think of how to describe this series - Dune meets Tron, with a splash of Battlestar Galactica. Unfortunately it is, ultimately, not as good as any of them.

I don’t want to be too harsh! The first two books were good! But this one just really wasn’t. I contemplated DNFing several times, and sped-read through most of the second half of the book.

In fact, my main incentive to keep reading was that I saw in the table of contents that after Chapter 10 there was a chapter called “Prologue - May, 1929”, followed by another Chapter 1. “Is this going to be *really* Battlestar Galactica??” I asked myself excitedly. Unfortunately when I got there it turned out that they were just part of a free preview of another book by Melissa Scott that was included at the end of this one. ………. 🫠

I did laugh about a couple things:
- One of the key Earth cities is called Sayl’m - which I read as “Say I’m” for about half a chapter, thinking, “ooh what an innovative naming convention, how fun,” before I realized that of COURSE it is just an SFF spelling of “Salem.” ☠️
- The Earth cities are not called cities, they are called “mainurbs”, possibly the funniest dumbest option out there.
- Husband #1’s name was spelled “Balthasar” the entire book, unlike in the previous two books where he was mainly called “Baithasar”…. Balthasar seems much more plausible given the amount of typos in the prior books that seem to have been fixed in this one, but I’m kind of disappointed! I liked him as Baithasar!
- And of course, incredible that Scott herself clearly got bored with this book bc she had Silence literally faint and miss the entire major climactic battle where Earth overthrows their oppressors. And then she did it again! For the SECOND major battle! 😂 What a choice!

[Bogi Takács]

My review is now online on Tor.com:
https://www.tor.com/2018/10/10/quiltb...

This was in my previous Goodreads update -

At this point I read this three times in a row:
* The original version in the hardcover omnibus edition
* The ebook version which I thought was the revised version, but it wasn't!
* The revised ebook version

Review coming soon on Tor.com IY"H :) Thank you to Melissa Scott for helping me figure out whether I had the right version of the ebook (I didn't....)

Definitely get the revised ebook version, but I think it was cool read the original too. I will treasure my beautiful omnibus hardcover!

Source of the book: Bought with my own money (both versions)

[Kaa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This may be the only trilogy I've ever read where the second book was my favorite, but I still really enjoyed this last installment, and thought the series as a whole was wonderful. The Empress of the Earth builds on some of the feminist threads that emerged in the second book, while also giving the reader much more time with Julie and Denis. This was the first book that Silence's two husbands felt like characters in their own right, not just seen through her perspective. The plot worked to a satisfying conclusion for both the smaller story of this book and the overarching story of the trilogy.

[Asia · Rating 4 out of 5]

After rescueing Aili and gaining a Portolan, Silence and her crew are finally ready to make the journey to Earth. However, it is not all smooth sailing. Unexpected hitchhiker's and problems Earth side will test everyone's resolve as they venture into the unknown.

Due to the Rose Wolders control and the Siege Engines, Earth has been cut off from all off-world contact, leaving it, well, very much like our Earth. Everything is controlled by machines and nobody knows about Magi and their Arts, at least, nobody will admit to knowing about it. The crew discover quickly that there are several groups of resistence out there, practicing the Art in secret. And these groups want their help. As obvious off-worlders and Silence and Isambard being full Magi, the resistence ropes them into overthrowing the Unionists (Rose Worlders) and taking back Earth, opening up the star road as it is supposed to be.
For, after all, the Empress of Earth has come.

[Eden · Rating 5 out of 5]

2021 bk 102. what a way to end a series - It's time for Silence, Isambard, Denis, and Chase to make another attempt on earth, using the Portalan and the blessings of the new Emperor. But he throws a political plot twist their way by telling them that whichever of the True Thousand charters or personally reaches earth will become his heir - throwing the adventurers in the middle of political plotting. Many surprises await Silence in the coming days but they all result in Silence doing what no other magus has been able to do! Loved this book and loved the series and I wish there had been at least one more book.

[Shaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a little annoyed that I only just now found out there is a revised edition to this book. I have a feeling I would like that version better. This one was fine, I enjoyed it, but I found it uneven and all my issues with the previous volumes continue where I'd hoped they'd be resolved in this one. It sounds like they would be, too, in the updated version. I suppose I'll have to read that one...

[Darin K · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this book was the best of the Roads of Heaven trilogy.

I went through the three books over the last 10 days. I enjoyed how Scott pulled music and religion into the bedrock of her Fantasy angle. Looking at how society would be if mechanical and electrical technology wasn't the premiere way of getting things done. Novel idea, huge paradigm shift.

I also enjoyed the starting point. Humans living in a universe where Earth is a mystery hidden from them through time and situations long forgotten.

For this series to have been an epic fantasy there would have needed to have been more characters. We get a tiny perspective on the world from someone that appears to have gifts beyond anyone else in their society - and her two husbands that for all intents and purposes are used interchangeably for anything other than their functions operating the ship. Why not have a few more plot lines or even a protagonist?

I also had a hard time wrapping my head around a big chunk of their travels through space, which is a huge part of this series. She spends a lot of time talking about imagery and symbolism when navigating. Their ship floats through what seems to be tapestries of artwork and the pilot has to literally fly through them to get to the next stop. Why would scenes from mundane human life be hanging in the stars and need to be flown through? If this bit was removed the series would be Five-Twelfths shorter and much better.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, that was the end to a fun trilogy. Here's some immediate thoughts in case I don't come back for a better review.

First, a brief lol at Pluto being a planet. It isn't a bad thing, just funny.

Second, building in the inherent differences in thinking between scientific and alchemic thinking. This has been present in the whole series, but I liked how everybody wanted to keep their trades secret, which is very occultic thinking. It was a nice touch.

I also continue to enjoy Silence's learned misogyny presenting itself and her having to confront it. It was a great bit of humanity. Scott isn't at Bujold's level, but I also very much enjoyed the women being in positions of great power and not always having to sacrifice their femininity or all of their cultural mores to gain it.

Balthazar was a bit more of a human character, but Chase Mago wasn't. Alas. And I have no idea if it was standard for 80s sci-fi to be so sexless. It really wasn't a bad thing and I hope it made the trilogy more readable to people 30 years ago. The same part - where the triad just happens and isn't really discussed - makes it mesh much better in universe anyway. It's simply a thing that exists; there's nothing to get offended by. In the end I think it's a strength of the series.

An extended traveling through Purgatory scene, then nothing. Sadface.

I wouldn't say this was all groundbreaking, but it was a fun romp.

[Joe Stamber · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to the audio books for the three parts to the Roads of Heaven trilogy one after the other, and overall I enjoyed the series. However, there's a lot of mumbo-jumbo about everything being controlled by music (sort of) and how space travel involves following odd symbols that appear on celestial "roads". The Holy Grail is to travel to Earth, where it all started, and cracking this supposed secret is what this last instalment is all about. Not being a massive Sci-Fi fan, I didn't really get a lot of what was going on. Quite a bit of time is spent in introspection, and I often found myself drifting off whilst on my daily commute. Even so, I enjoyed spending time with the characters, and maintained enough interest to see it through. A seasoned Sci-Fi reader would probably get more out of it.

[Ash Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as books 1 and 2, the story in the Empress of Earth didn't feel as well fleshed out as the other volumes. I rather enjoyed the trip to Earth, but once they landed, the story fell flat. I'm not sure what the characters expected to DO once they got to Earth, and they seemed as disappointed as I was up on arrival. I never got a good feeling about who the Rose Worlders were, and to the end of the whole "conflict", we never even actually interact with them. I found myself 15 pages from the end of the book, wondering- how the heck are they going to wrap this all up? And to what end? Altogether, it wraps up too easily, too neatly and too quickly to be in any way satisfying. Too many unanswered questions, too many convenient plot points, too many loose ends.

[Eowyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Melissa Scott was one of the newish science fiction authors I discovered after graduating from college and having time to read for pleasure again in the early 90s. This is the last book in a trilogy from the mid-80s that is new to me and is pure space opera with a strong female lead, faster than light travel that is like magic with harmonics and sound and tarot-like symbols, some fun supporting characters and a fight against a patriarchal Hegeomy. Nice escapist sci-fi.

[Medusa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve loved Melissa Scott since i read Shadow Man years ago. There’s a lot to like in the universe of this trilogy, including some very original concepts blending music and space travel, but somehow overall it’s less than the sum of its parts and the end feels rushed. I enjoyed it all the same, but it’s not quite there for me.

[Gail · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great ending to a series unlike any other. You owe it to yourselfers to read this!!

Great ending!! A great series, mingling astrology with music. It's different than any other series I have read. Highly recommended.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great conclusion to the Roads of Heaven trilogy. Its great to see the growth in the main character, from where she started in the first book, and explore more of the worlds of that universe. I only wish there was a follow up book to this so we may know what happened next

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great series. Lovely SF. Lovely characters.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably the weakest of the three, but still a fun world and great characters.

Last quarter of it really kicked into gear!

Three and a half Doctors out of five

[Kris Sellgren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fitting finish to this entertaining trilogy of space travel and magic

[Terence · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Reread April 2016]

I discovered Melissa Scott during her writing heyday in the late '80s and early '90s. And, like C.J. Cherryh, I found her SF far more interesting and compelling than her fantasy.

The Roads of Heaven trilogy is set in a future where humans travel between the stars by manipulating Forms. Metaphor is real, and technology is anathema to the proper harmonies necessary to do so. Centuries ago, the Millennial Wars destroyed a number of worlds and cut off the roads to Earth. There are three axes of power that have emerged from the disaster: The Hegemony, a patriarchal empire that has recently conquered the Rusadir, from which our heroine comes; the Fringe Worlds, a catch all for the remaining independent systems; and the Rose Worlds, the earliest colonies of lost Earth who are blocking the roads which could lead others to humanity's home.

Five-Twelfths of Heaven introduces us to Silence Leigh, one of the few female star pilots in the oppressive patriarchy of the Hegemony. Threatened with losing her inheritance and the chance to pilot, she enters a marriage of convenience with Denis Balthasar and Julian Chase Mago, two men who have their own reasons for needing her, which will get her out from under the guardianship of her uncle and guarantee her a chance to remain a pilot. Denis and Julie are couriers for the galaxy-wide crime syndicate Wrath-of-God. A daring and desperate Wrath raid of a Hegemonic planet results in the crew's capture and the imposition of a geas that forces them to work for the Hegemony. Silence discovers that she can break the geas, and does so. However, this puts her on the run from Hegemonic forces while she tries to figure out what her new found talents mean, since it's common knowledge that women can't be magi (the practitioners of the Art). She's also come into possession of a pre-War astrogation manual that describes the road to Earth, if only she can get past the siege engines the Rose Worlders have set up along it.

Silence in Solitude follows Silence as she studies under Isambard, a mage willing to entertain the idea of a woman magus, on Solitudo Hermae, the wizards' artificial homeworld. Having failed to get by the Rose World blockade of Earth by normal means, Silence is also searching for a way to reach Earth by other methods. She stumbles across information about an ancient, obsolete but still viable means of star travel used before the War. Unfortunately, the only instructions explaining the technique are in the hands of a rebellious Hegemonic satrap whose price is freeing his daughter, held hostage by the Hegemon.

Having retrieved the satrap's daughter, helped him become Hegemon and acquired the ancient knowledge, in The Empress of Earth, Silence sets out to discover the lost road to Earth and break the Rose World siege.

The series holds up pretty well. I still stand by my four stars for the first book, though I think I'd bring the last two down to three stars if this were a first read. If there's a serious complaint about the novels, it's that things fall out a little too conveniently for Silence and her friends, especially in the final volume. What I liked - like - about Scott is that while she handles hard SF well, her focus is on character, and the milieux she creates do not dominate the writing. (Roads is not the best example of her hard SF chops, perhaps, but you can see them in Dreamships or Trouble and Her Friends, among others.)

Definitely recommended.

[Rhode PVD · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reread review 2024: WTF? The trilogy started with the heroine being denied human rights by a sexist empire. She then risks her life to fight it. But now in book three she is playing a crucial role in aiding that empire to conquer old earth, a place where women have apparently full equality with other genders. She considers the political implications for maybe one paragraph but moves ahead.

I guess we are meant to think this is ok because she’s nominally helping the emperor’s daughter conquer earth. But that daughter is no feminist aside from wanting her own power. And after that daughter dies or loses power someday, there’s no plan to keep the planet in women’s hands. This is nominal girl power at best.

The ending is a betrayal of the first book. It’s extra weird as the author did rewrite this ending for the latest edition, but left all the creepy heroine-helps-sexist-empire-conquer-earth in.


Original GR review 2018-ish: The final section of this book is so powerful in my imagination that it dominated my memory of the book from whenever I read it last (at least a couple of times since its first publication date). I was surprised to find, on rereading this time, that that section wasn't 2/3 of the book, but really just maybe 15 pages.

The premise is confusing, I never really understand the politics behind the plot - why the Rose Worlds have been hiding Earth from everyone else. Earth itself, harmonic resonances and metaphors aside, does not come off terribly impressively. And despite the main character's backgrounds as rebels against the Hegemon, they seem improbably comfortable now with being its chiefest allies. This is especially unpleasant when you consider how much more sexist the Hegemon is compared to other political options.

Most of the book is close to dull...the Earth population are fairly stock characters - back-to-land folks, factory workers, inner city gang members. We progress through train rides, various confrontations with natives, bits of magi business, all leading up to the final scenes I remembered so well.

In this book, the heroine becomes so dominant that her two husbands/companions are reduced to the status of an occasionally handy entourage. I like a kick ass heroine, but I prefer a strong partnership of equals. I've become fond of both men through the series and didn't understand why Silence has to be the point person for everything. Sure, she's a magi, but why does that mean she has to be the one who figures out how to buy train tickets?

Lastly, it seems very improbable that with less than a year's worth of formal magi schooling, that she would be as knowledgable and skilled as she is. Talent is one thing, those chops seem like they would require more years of experience.

[Lissa Notreallywolf · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was the weakest of the trilogy which I found myself rereading for the umpteenth time. It's is rife with emblems and some aspects of alchemy, and I think what I find so alluring about it is the underpinnings which caused Scott to write it. I know she must have some fancy degrees from academically prestigious places, and probably a marvelous circle of people to discuss such things with. The greenish tinge of my envy comes ever sharper with regards to music, music theory and the history of music. I was struck by how musical the novels were, in addition to alchemical this time through. At least I musician friends to pester. Emblems and alchemy, well those are a little harder to find.
Scott's novels are political, but the cultures aren't as developed, in, say, Bujold's worlds. In this series Balthazar is sort of a piece of eye candy, and his character shows some fluxuation, but not the motives behind his changes. Chase Mago is a stock character, the earthy teddy-bear to Balthazar's inscrutable intellect. These two characters have engaged in a marriage of convenience with Silence Leigh, a female pilot in a time when women are not common in that field. The characters form the alchemical three principles, presumably with Silence as Spirit or Mercury because of her androgyny. Yet all three of the characters serve in roles more typical of their compliments, and I would have to reread (again) to untangle those relationships more competently. I enjoyed them on the superficial and subconscious level, especially because this isn't a marriage based on children, but on a work relationship, flight, fight and flight again, and then a quest with several diversions thrown in.
This is one of my favorite authors, and she has a tendency to sneak up on me. I read and reread her books (Dreaming Metal and Shadow Man are my favorites) and eventually the issues sink in, or my awareness of why I am fascinated surfaces. These books are not as good (yet!)as her later works. Her books are about relationships, always, and this is more of a space opera than the culturally developed work of Dreaming Metal, or the gender wars in Shadow Man. Music plays a cultural role in Dreaming Metal, as well as an awakening for sentience.

[C.J. Moseley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whilst this book doesn't have the impact of the first, it completed the story very nicely.
The magic works better in this book, coming closer to the void mark astrogation's symbolic manipulation.
Where this book really wins is the characterisations of the main characters, the narrator aside I feel this book is where the other characters feel at their most natural. There is no forcing of any dialogue which had been a problem occasionally with some of the peripheral characters.

[Emmalyn Renato · Rating 4 out of 5]

3-1/2 stars rounded up to 4. The final book in this science fantasy space opera trilogy, this time focused on Earth. I was a bit disappointed with this one. There were a couple of characters in the second book that were just too interesting not to include in the finale, yet Silence was surprised they were there. And the ending was a complete fizzle. We are told in detail what was going to happen and ... it did. No suspense. No changes in plans because of unforeseen circumstances. Pah!

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this trilogy when I was in my twenties. Thirty years later, it still holds up as a really great trilogy. It’s not too sci-fi to be unapproachable as hard-core, but the technology of the engines is really cool. The characters are good and the story is really intriguing. Highly recommended.

[kyknoord · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Empress of Earth reminded me of my divorce: the ending was pretty much a foregone conclusion; I was relieved when it was finally over; and I was a little bit sad that things didn't turn out differently.

[Walter Underwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than the second, not as good as the first, but I still love the space travel by metaphorical voidmarks. And I like that the characters aren't superhuman. When they get bruised, they hurt for a while.

[Danyel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed the series, if not so much this book. Ended a little abruptly for my tastes.

[Lesley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re-read - had faded quite a bit from memory and although I remember liking these at the time haven't held up all that well.

[M.H. Thaung]

This is the final book in Scott's Roads of Heaven Trilogy, covering Silence and her companions' journey to Earth and their reception there.

Scott's worldbuilding is as rich and detailed as ever, but I'm afraid I found the story a bit of a slog. The focus seemed to be more on Silence applying a puzzle-solving approach to the challenges throughout - while this was interesting enough intellectually, it made the characters' experiences seem rather distant. Perhaps I got this impression because I re-read the whole trilogy over a few days, and I wasn't patient enough to appreciate yet more "technical" worldbuilding in the final book. Despite Silence's active involvement, the presentation of events felt in some places like she was a passive observer. I was also thrown every so often by the tendency to refer to Silence as "the pilot" rather than by name, causing me to pause and wonder who else had entered the scene. I've a feeling this might be a common feature of writing from that time (the trilogy is over 30 years old).

The ending of the book (and trilogy, obviously) felt rushed - both in terms of what happens and how it's depicted. It felt very different from the sedate pacing of the rest of the books. It seems like the events of the ending fit well with what's gone before, but they felt almost like a summary or afterthought. It's a real shame we didn't get more in-depth coverage, and I reached the final page with a sense of "Is that it?"

I did like the trilogy (after all, I came back for a second read), but I was a bit disappointed in the later parts.