Aug. 19th, 2014 05:15 pm
Book Rec: The Risen Empire
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clocketpatchFirst, a bit of background. I began reading this way back at the beginning of the summer after order the book on an inter-library loan. Then, in a moment of brain-deadedness, I accidentally returned it after reading only a few pages. Too embarrassed to re-order it (there was only one copy in the system and it had been shipped in from a library five hours away O_o) I started scouring bookshops, but alas, no luck.
Eventually, I broke down and ordered the damn thing off the internet to read at my leisure. I'm glad I did.
It is so good.
Granted, I haven't read the second book yet (it's a duology), so that might be awful. But I highly doubt it.
For those of you who enjoy SF and know of Scott Westerfeld's YA books (Pretties, Midnighters, Leviathan), the sentence: "Scott Westerfeld has written an adult space opera novel about science, politics, and the nature of humanity," should be rec enough.
For those of you who have never heard of Scott Westerfeld, go check him out! He's one of the most consistently good and creative authors I know of.
There's quantum entanglement, time distortion, nano tech, so much diversity of characters, cultures, worlds – it's brilliant. Summary from the back cover:
The Undead Empire has ruled his mighty interstellar empire of eighty human worlds for sixteen hundred years. Because he can grant a form of eternal life-after-death, creating an elite known as the Risen, his power is absolute. He and his sister, the Child Empress, who is eternally a little girl, are worshipped as living gods.
The Rix are machine-augmented humans who worship very different gods: AI compound minds of planetary size. Cool, relentless fanatics, their only goal is to propagate such AIs. They seek to end the Empiror's prolonged rule and supplant it with an eternal cybernetic dynasty. They begin by taking the Child Empress hostage. Captain Laurent Zai of the Imperial Frigate Lynx is tasked with her rescue.
Separated by light years, bound by an unlikely love, Zai and pacifist senator Nara Oxham must both face the challenge of the Rix, and both will hold the fate of the empire in their hands.
Which sounds a lot drier than it actually is. There are also far more than those two POV characters. My favourite walk-on so far is the obstinate architectural AI in Nara's house that insists on building fireplaces, despite their impracticality, because it got the idea from a novel that that are a romantic necessity.
As far as the characterization and world-building goes, the scale of it reminds me of Game of Thrones. If Game of Thrones were set in space, had all of misogyny removed, and allowed for wonder instead of nihilism.
And were significantly shorter. Because the books are only 350 each, but there is so much density in those pages.
*curls up into a happy book ball*
Eventually, I broke down and ordered the damn thing off the internet to read at my leisure. I'm glad I did.
It is so good.
Granted, I haven't read the second book yet (it's a duology), so that might be awful. But I highly doubt it.
For those of you who enjoy SF and know of Scott Westerfeld's YA books (Pretties, Midnighters, Leviathan), the sentence: "Scott Westerfeld has written an adult space opera novel about science, politics, and the nature of humanity," should be rec enough.
For those of you who have never heard of Scott Westerfeld, go check him out! He's one of the most consistently good and creative authors I know of.
There's quantum entanglement, time distortion, nano tech, so much diversity of characters, cultures, worlds – it's brilliant. Summary from the back cover:
The Undead Empire has ruled his mighty interstellar empire of eighty human worlds for sixteen hundred years. Because he can grant a form of eternal life-after-death, creating an elite known as the Risen, his power is absolute. He and his sister, the Child Empress, who is eternally a little girl, are worshipped as living gods.
The Rix are machine-augmented humans who worship very different gods: AI compound minds of planetary size. Cool, relentless fanatics, their only goal is to propagate such AIs. They seek to end the Empiror's prolonged rule and supplant it with an eternal cybernetic dynasty. They begin by taking the Child Empress hostage. Captain Laurent Zai of the Imperial Frigate Lynx is tasked with her rescue.
Separated by light years, bound by an unlikely love, Zai and pacifist senator Nara Oxham must both face the challenge of the Rix, and both will hold the fate of the empire in their hands.
Which sounds a lot drier than it actually is. There are also far more than those two POV characters. My favourite walk-on so far is the obstinate architectural AI in Nara's house that insists on building fireplaces, despite their impracticality, because it got the idea from a novel that that are a romantic necessity.
As far as the characterization and world-building goes, the scale of it reminds me of Game of Thrones. If Game of Thrones were set in space, had all of misogyny removed, and allowed for wonder instead of nihilism.
And were significantly shorter. Because the books are only 350 each, but there is so much density in those pages.
*curls up into a happy book ball*
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*HUGS*
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