Product Description

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 lie: a revelation so shattering that he is willing to sanction the death of entire worlds to keep it secret ...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #57494 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-19
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 720 pages

Review
'Superior space adventure' LOCUS 'Ingenious enough to call to mind Iain M. Banks' SFX 'To master [space opera] and still bring to life characters with recognizable emotions and aspirations is a challenge few writers care to take on. Westerfeld succeeds admirably. NEW YORK TIMES "...this is SF as it should be: savvy, space-smart and fascinating, filled with dazzling concepts and a genuine sense of wonder." THE AUSTRALIAN "Scott Westerfeld sets a stage half the size of the universe, yet tells a very intimate and personal tale.

About the Author
Scott Westerfeld is a software designer and composer. He lives in New York and Sydney.

Customer Reviews

couldn't put it down
A fantastic novel - especially when you read it all in one go and not the split version!

Couldn't put it down. Wish he'd get on and write the next instalment...

Nearly an Epic...
I dug around a bit and discovered that 'The Risen Empire' and the 'Killing of Worlds' was one manuscript but was chopped in half because the publisher didn't think a Sci-Fi book that long from a relative unknown would sell for the higher price a larger book costs.
Or so is claimed.
A bit of a shame really because like other reviewers I think this book deserved at least a mention in the big awards.
I will review both books here.
A very original story line winds through a well thought out and well fleshed out universe that the author has taken time to make quite believable. Different political parties, a Senate, an Emperor all help the story to rise above the standard Space Opera, and make the reader believe there is a functioning Universe within the pages of this book.
Characters are well detailed with even bit players not feeling superficial or shallow. There are even different classes of people all with their own agendas or in the case of the risen, dark secrets.
The high tech military hardware and operations blend nicely with the Senatorial episodes and the love interests between Captain and politician, Captain and Exec and a data analyst and a cyborg/gestalt being are important subplots rather than just an 'interest'
The highlight of the whole book has to be the space battle between the outclassed latest Imperial prototype and an advanced sentient gestalt type race. It is a fantastic bit of story telling with heavy yet understandable science and engineering underpinning the combat. Its probably one of the best examples of what space warfare might be like I have read.
Well worth a read, just remember if you just get the first book it will cut off in the midst of the action and you will kick yourself.

Relatively good sci-fi
The saga of Laurent Zai and the Risen Empire has really impressed me as a well thought out and enjoyable space opera. It captures so many themes of classic sci-fi and deals with them in new ways, it tackles the issue of isolation (nods to the time thief a sly homage to "the forever war") that is a preoccupation of sci-fi as charcaters feel distant both in distance and emotionally. It also uses science to great effect inventing a space age "class war" not based so much on wealth as the technological advancement that allows the dead (or "risen") to dominate an empire of living people. However what really makes the work stand out is its adroit use of technology (especially nano technology), what dates the majority of early sci-fi is it's lack of understanding of computers, something Mr Westerfield compensates for with Gusto. The compound mind of the rix and the principals of the rix cult serve as a fantastic foil to the humans of the Risen Empire, where as humano-centric sci-fi is lonely, one that looks at life from a computers perspective is full of interaction and networking - the book challenges in a fundametal way the human cultural imperialism that is a thread thropugh all other Sci Fi. The only exception to this is the conciousness of "the house" - I won't say too much but felt like a weak emulation of Iain M. Banks.

That said, in terms of literary style, the book gets better the further you read into it. The opening section is a tidal wave of detail on a canvass you haven't seen and is a little overwhelming, indeed Westerfield's love of scientific detail can phase a lay reader of sci-fi and it is only later in the text that he tempers this with better story telling.

All in all a great read, highly recommended.