The Killing of Worlds: Book Two of Succession [Hardcover]

Scott Westerfeld (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2005 | Series: Succession

Scott Westerfeld, the acclaimed author of Fine Prey, Polymorph, and Evolution's Darling, reached new heights of excitement in last spring's The Risen Empire, and left readers begging for more. Now he comes through with the dazzling payoff in book two of Succession, The Killing of Worlds.

Captain Laurent Zai of the Imperial frigate Lynx is a walking dead man. Unjustly held responsible for the death of the Child Empress, sister of the immortal Emperor, Zai has been sent to fight an unwinnable battle. The Lynx must stop a vastly superior Rix ship from reaching the planet Legis, a suicide mission that will almost certainly end in oblivion for Captain Zai and his crew.

On the planet Legis below, a Rix compound mind--a massive emergent AI formed from every computer on the planet--as been isolated by their Imperial blockade. But the mind has guided a lone Rix commando, Herd, to the planet's frozen north, and will soon order a desperate attempt to seize a polar communications array and break the blockade. Herd is a single warrior against an Imperial army, but moving silently behind her is the intelligence of an entire planet.

Ten light-years away, Captain Zai's true love, the psychic (some say mad) Senator Nara Oxham is engaged in a deadly game of political intrigue. From her position on the Emperor's War Council, Senator Oxham must find a way to forestall the Emperor's final solution if the blockade is broken: a nuclear strike to destroy the compound mind, which will also kill millions of Imperial citizens. She suspects that the Emperor has a hidden weakness discovered, by the mind, a secret so dangerous to his immortal dynasty that to prevent its discovery the Emperor is willing to countenance the ultimate crime. . . .

The killing of worlds.

With this powerful conclusion to the first story arc of Succession, Scott Westerfeld confirms his stature as one of the leading writers of high space opera.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

After Westerfeld's excellent first installment, The Risen Empire (2003), in which a far-future empire of 80 worlds depends on its ruler's ability to give his most loyal subjects immortality, this concluding sequel comes as something of a letdown. That said, the author does a superb job of depicting an escalating space battle between human and rival Rix (cyborg) forces, with its constantly amazing but logical weapons and tactics, as well as political maneuvering back at the imperial capital. Vivid characterization and a witty, laconic style lift this far above the space-opera average. Readers, though, will need to go back to the first book to understand what makes the struggle between the empire and the Rix significant to meet Laurent Zai, brilliant space captain, whose allegiance to the emperor is weakening, and his lover, Senator Nara Oxham, who believes that the promise of immortality is choking human evolution. Without this personal perspective, the displays of military hardware come across as merely clever. At the end, huge promising and threatening changes have just begun. Despite the billing as the second half of the story, some may suspect that there's at least a third half lurking offstage.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Captain Laurent Zai demonstrates his strategic cleverness as well as an unusual amount of luck, when he unexpectedly defeats the Rix ship he was sent to destroy--an assignment intended to be a suicide mission. Meanwhile, in the imperial senate, Nara Oxham walks a fine line between treason and her party's agenda as she fights the emperor himself. The extent of imperial corruption is becoming clear, thanks to the emperor's willingness to destroy an entire world with dirty bombs to keep the secret of the immortality he grants the elite. That secret comes out, however, because of the machine mind created on Legis XV by the Rix invasion. Thus begins the fall of the Risen Empire. The successor to The Risen Empire [BKL F 15 03] is just as fine a rip-roaring space opera, with its strength residing in the characters, all of them involved in believable dilemmas, even Herd, the supposedly emotionless cyborg Rix soldier who finds love and mourns its loss. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (February 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765308509
• ISBN-13: 978-0765308504
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,012,141 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Scott Westerfeld's teen novels include the Uglies series, the Midnighters trilogy, The Last Days, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and the sequel to Peeps. Scott was born in Texas, and alternates summers between Sydney, Australia, and New York City.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The tale is now complete., February 3, 2005

By 

lb136 "lb136" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Killing of Worlds (Successions, Book 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

Those readers who enjoyed Mr. Westerfeld's "The Risen Empire," but were majorly (or even minorly) disappointed by its abrupt ending that left the tale half untold will be delighted to know that they can read this "sequel" without fear of being once again left hanging. Things are wrapped up nicely this time.

"Killing of Worlds" serves up more of the author's character-based space opera (I called "Risen Empire" a space-soap opera), with no heroes and no villains--just people doing what they do. Once again, the tale is told from multiple points of view (whose pov you're now entering is clear from the chapter titles), with most of the characters from part I back (including the dead cats) and with some new ones as well. This time the centerpiece is a terrific space duel betwen Laurent Zai of the space frigate Lynx and a ship from the enemy empire of the tech-enhanced Rix.

While the chase is going on Zai's lover, Senator Nara Oxham, is involved in a political duel of her own--against the immortal "Risen Emperor" of the Eighty Worlds, who has a secret that needs to be revealed. And in addition a Rix commander and her lover are aiding a Rix-designed AI "compound mind" that calls itself Alexander.

The author moves things along swiftly to a breathtaking (and worldshaking) conclusion. Maybe you'll be surprised when the mystery at the heart of the tale (i.e., the Emperor's secret) is uncovered, but if so, you'll probably slap your forehead and think you should have seen it coming--the clues have been there from the start.

Exciting. Well written. Fascinating tech. What more could you ask for? Well, a real sequel, perhaps?

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blame a "certain large bookstore chain" for the chop-job, October 4, 2004

By 

Emperor Norton (Interstellar Suburbia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Killing of Worlds: Book Two of Succession (Hardcover)

Westerfeld's website mentions that both books were intended as one, but a book chain balked at the 700-page length and demanded that it be cut in half (same thing that happened to Behemoth), to answer those criticizing the shortness of the two books.

Anyway, this is truly smart and savvy space-opera, and without any aliens peeking their tendrils around any airlocks, and recently this has been one of my favourite types of SF book - the kind that skips over aliens entirely, which is good because most writers do an awful job of making them into more than stereotypes of some aspect of human behaviour (i.e can't make them alien enough). Westerfled would probably do a good job if he tried, but the Rix are sufficiently removed from modern humanity to qualify, and the other tribe of humanity we get a glimpse of (the Plague Axis) are also very original and a concept that does make a certain amount of sense.

Having read Evolution's Darling first, I was surprised by the difference in these two books - a bit lighter but also much more fun and enjoyable, yet still with very dark elements. Definitely more mainstream than Evolution's Darling, and a better pair of books overall.

Westerfeld also knows how to write-up a good rip-roaring space battle between only two ships, and give some of the terminology used in the book (Spinward Reaches? Sandcasters?) I think he may have been a Traveler player in a previous life...

Overall, nothing bad to say about these books, other than the need to read them consecutively to really enjoy them. Here's hoping for a third.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars brilliance continues, October 10, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Killing of Worlds: Book Two of Succession (Hardcover)

I loved The Risen Empire and have been waiting for the sequel impatiently. It's every bit as good as I hoped. In short, I read the book in one sitting completely unable to put it down.

The Killing of Worlds begins with the space battle promised at the end of Empire. For a solid 170 pages, the Lynx and its Rix opponent struggle, employing opposing swarms of drone craft , vast clouds of kinetic weapons (manufactured diamonds), beam weapons, nano-infection attacks and stealth maneuvers. Quite simply, one of the most fascinating and intricate space battles every put on paper, and with realistic Newtonian physics to boot.

Of course, the rest of Westerfeld's political and interpersonal conflicts are also playing out. The Rix commando and her hostage/lover effect incredible dirt-side assaults, and the Senate politics culminate in a dramatic trial and a revelation of cosmic significance. Even the flash-back arc bares unexpectedly wonderful fruit. A novel of wildly ambitious structure.

I wouldn't read this book without having already read Risen Empire, but this extraordinary conclusion should win back those put off by Empire's cliff-hanger ending. I mean, come on, this is science fiction, a literature built on pulp dramatics, fix-up novels, and Saturday serials. With a pay-off this good, the wait was worth it.