In the far future, people wear nanotech uniforms that will each second reform themselves to the wearer's shape, pilots will "fly" vessels less than a millimeter in diameter, AI's will take over planet-wide information systems and devices and form a "compound mind", and cultures will war with each to death and destruction. All of this is semi-interesting in its own right and is handled extremely deftly in this work, but it still is standard science fiction. But also in the future? The dead will rule, empathy will be treated with drugs as a side-effect, and oh yes, one of the more interesting characters/narrators will be a house. This is poetry.
While there was once a time when I read mostly science fiction, I long ago moved into fantasy when looking for lighter reading and while I still dipped into the pool now and then, I never was impressed enough to wade back in fully, though I sometimes found things I liked quite a bit (Dan Simmons' Hyperion series for instance). If I thought there were more books out there like this one, I'd throw on my goggles, suit, and fins and jump in for an extended stay.
As mentioned, the science part of Risen Empire is smoothly handled--the jargon never gets in the way, the devices themselves and their application are fascinating, and it's all tied so tightly into what's happening that you never feel lost or confused in a sea of technological jibber-jabber. Even better than the science, though, is the human side of this novel. The political premise, that one empire, ruled by the dead--eternals tightly tied to the emperor who alone can grant that immortality--is slowly stagnating and is starting to face internal dissent by some of the living is wonderful. Politics and social analysis is given nearly as much space as the technology, and while some will find it mere digression slowing down the "operatic" parts of the space opera, I personally found it as or possibly more interesting. Even better are the human relationships, the main one between a senator fighting the emperor back "home" and the starship captain fighting for the emperor on a light-years away where the Emperor's sister has been taken captive.
Westerfeld cuts back and forth among the attempted rescue of the hostages, the political maneuvering back at the Empire, and flashback scenes that flesh out the main characters' individual histories as well as their relationship's history. Again, some will be off-put by this structuring, wanting more "action". I think it heightened the suspense of the rescue mission, helped make the characters three-dimensional (all too rare in both science fiction and fantasy), and made for a more interesting and stimulating reading due to the fractured structure. Subplots abound in the story beyond the main story--the hostage crisis that is the opening move in the new war between the Empire and its old enemy the Rix--who seek to "seed" artificial compound minds on industrialized worlds. Along with the war, the reader is introduced to a possible mutiny attempt, a spurned love-interest, a secret that may or may not bring down the Empire, a Helsinki-syndrome in yet another hostage situation, a sentient house, and more. All of them juggled nicely and neatly, even if all are not of the same story quality.
Very little is resolved at the end of this book, and if there's a complaint, it's that the book itself is pretty slim and so I wonder at the need to divide it into two as is seemingly going to be the case. But that's a minor if annoying flaw, and it will not prevent me from picking up the second book as soon as it comes out. After all, I want to see what happens to that house.
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