The Risen Empire (Succession) (Paperback)

by Scott Westerfeld (Author)
Key Phrases: entanglement facility, apathy bracelet, ultrasound wrap, Rana Harter, Laurent Zai, Nara Oxham (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Westerfeld's (Evolution's Darling) exceptionally smart and empathetic novel, the first of two in a series, confirms the buzz that space opera is one of the most exciting branches of current SF. In an interstellar empire of 80 human worlds, ruled by an emperor who lets selected humans cheat death, tensions between most humans and the resurrected elite, aka the Risen, are increasing. The Rix, a cult of cyborgs who worship compound AI minds, hunger to liberate the empire's worlds from mere human control. When a Rix raiding party captures the emperor's sister, Capt. Laurent Zai of the Imperial Navy must save her. Viewpoint rapidly shifts from character to character and from a vast perspective to an extremely small one-that of the intelligence scouts Zai sends ahead of the rescue mission, nano-machines smaller than insects. Keeping the reader constantly off-balance, Westerfeld skillfully integrates extreme technologies with human characters.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist
The emperor, surrounded by his elite of those chosen to become undead, has ruled for 1,600 years, and the empire has become decadent, with the gap between the living and the Risen growing apace. Then the Rix--computer-augmented humans who revere planetary AI--kidnap the child empress on her own planet, Legis XV. Not only does this threaten the emperor's great secret, it is the furthest incursion into imperial space that the Rix have yet made. Captain Laurent Zai is charged to effect the empress' rescue--a dangerous, almost impossible task. Meanwhile, the woman he loves, a senator of the Secularist Party of the living and against the Risen, is enmeshed in the political consequences of the Rix invasion and the preparation for war. It doesn't take long for the Legis XV computers to become a compound mind a la the Rix and fight for survival, too. Westerfeld manages the action impeccably, and he leaves threads of plot hanging for a grand space-opera finale in a promised sequel. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; Reprint edition (July 22, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765319985
• ISBN-13: 978-0765319982
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #248,500 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars good science, even better fiction, August 28, 2003

By	B. Capossere (Rochester, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Risen Empire: Book One of Succession (Hardcover)

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.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and Exciting, July 23, 2003

By	Patrick Devenny (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Risen Empire: Book One of Succession (Hardcover)

Scott Westerfekd has created a very engaging science fiction novel that manages to dazzle and impress the reader with wondrous technology, but does not bore him or her with dry technical description. Also helping the Risen Empire is its characters, who often play second fiddle in other science fiction novels. Not in the Risen Empire though, in this work, the characters are real, with understandable emotions and motivations. There is no more interesting character in the book than the main protagonist, Imperial Navy commander Laurent Zai, who must fight for the cause he has sworn to protect, even if he begins to have serious doubts concerning the system he is protecting.

Laurent Zai is a cog in a monstrous machine. Set in a world three millennia ahead of our own, humanity has spread throughout the stars. Various splinter groups have gone off on their own, but the main power in the area known as the 80 worlds is the Risen Empire, a massive imperial power ruled over by the eternal Emperor. The Emperor has ruled for 1600 years, and, through a mysterious scientific process, has been rendered immortal. Along with him, a select few are chosen to join him in this limitless existence, creating a group fiercely loyal to him and the empire. However, one group of humans has become hostile to the empire, those known as the Rix, who worship the entity of the compound mind, a computer being that can spread like wildfire through the empire's computers. In their most daring move, Rix raiders storm the palace itself, and manage to kidnap the Emperor's sister, the immortal child empress. This is a disastrous blow to the empire, and everything is sent out to bring her home. Zai is given command of the rescue mission. He is faced with a choice, save the heir to the throne, or die himself.

The Risen Empire has a very good story. Westerfeld avoids the maddening trap that many scifi writers fall into, of all technology and no characters. The characters and the plot of this book are both understandable and enjoyable to the lay reader. That said, one of the most interesting aspects of this book is the amazing and imaginative technology that is described. The nanotechnology presented in this work is both realistic and fanciful, so magical that you could never believe such things could come to be. The futuristic weapons and computer technology are all nicely rendered in a classic science fiction way. Most intriguing of the futuristic technology presented is the compound mind that the Rix can create. The description of an information gathering program becoming slowly self aware was good reading. Besides some slow parts and some rough patches of philosophical hyperbole, the Risen Empire is a great read.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant political sf novel, March 31, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Risen Empire: Book One of Succession (Hardcover)

It's so refreshing to read a space opera that zooms along full of adventure, battles, excitement, romance and disaster which is also witty and smart. At times it was hard to remember that it was a space opera. Yes there's an emperor (with a collection of dead cats and wacky theories about the influence of cats on human history) but he presides over a constitutional monarchy with a sophisticated and savvy senate. In fact, _Risen Empire_ is as much a political novel as it is a space opera. Economics, public opinion and party machinations send the plot careening along every bit as much as the emperor's shenanigans, military hardware and the love interest. I could not put this book down and am waiting with bated breath for volume two.