- Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages
- Publisher: Tor Books; New title edition (1 April 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0765347490
- ISBN-13: 978-0765347497
- Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 10.7 x 2.9 cm
- Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,216,681 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
"The Risen Empire is proof that space opera can be as complex and sophisticated as any other form of literature."(Mike Resnick)
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Scott Westerfeld, the acclaimed author of "Fine Prey, Polymorph, "and "Evolution's Darling," reached new heights of excitement in "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 tocountenance the ultimate crime. . . . The killing of worlds. With this powerful conclusion to the first story arc of Succession, Scott Westerfeld confirms 0his stature as one of the leading writers of high space opera.
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The contrail of a supersonic aircraft blossomed weakly in the thin, dry air, barely marking the sky. Read the first page
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The contrail of a supersonic aircraft blossomed weakly in the thin, dry air, barely marking the sky. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you own the 2006 720-page Orbit version of The Risen Empire, DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK AS YOU ALREADY OWN IT. It's just the second half.
If you own the 2008 352-page Tor version of The Risen Empire then *do* buy this book immediately as it's the second half you don't have!
If you don't have either, then this book is not the place to start!!
If you own the 2008 352-page Tor version of The Risen Empire then *do* buy this book immediately as it's the second half you don't have!
If you don't have either, then this book is not the place to start!!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
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.
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.
Format:Paperback
"The Killing of Worlds: Book Two of Succession" is one of the best examples of early 21st Century space opera science fiction I am aware of, light years ahead of popular works like David Weber's "Honor Harrington" series with regards to the quality of the writing and of its protagonists. Scott Westerfeld has written some of the best space battles I've come across, that are most admirable for their excellent plotting and tense action. His "Succession" novels are also excellent studies in character, replete in richly drawn characters like Risen Emprire Imperial Navy Captain Laurent Zai and his lover, the young, charismatic Senator Nara Oxham, and Zai's Executive Officer, Katherie Hobbes. For decades, the Risen Empire - whose elite, the Risen, are those who have attained immortality - has been engaged in a bitterly fought contest with the Rix, cybernetically-enhanced humans. Sent to the remote Imperial world of Legis in a failed attempt to rescue the Emperor's sister from her Rix captors, Captain Laurent Zai and the crew of the prototype Imperial frigate Lynx are hopeless outmatched against a larger, more powerful, Rix battlecruiser. Meanwhile, at the Imperial capital, Senator Nara Oxham engages in a deadly political game of wits with the Emperor and the Risen elite, The Apparatus, in possession of state secrets concerning the true nature of Captain Zai and the Lynx's mission. In Legis space Zai makes an unexpected discovery from the Rix that threatens to shake the very foundation of the Risen Empire and the throne of its immortal Emperor. Westerfeld weaves between Zai and Oxham's brief romantic encounter days before he assumes command of the Lynx, Oxham's political brinkmanship, and Zai and his crew's nearly suicidal efforts to escape the Rix battlecruiser. While Westerfeld's writing lacks the eloquence of Alastair Reynolds in the latter's "Revelation Space" novel, both it and Reynolds' work are superb examples demonstrating how a clichéd subgenre of science fiction, space opera, can be transformed into high literary art.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
waste of money
What is the bloody point of buying this book when it is also in the Risen Empire , I am not inpressed that i wasted money on this piece of rubbish do not buy it is also in the... Read more
Published 10 months ago by ken
HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT
Like other reviewers I bought this book after reading The Risen Empire. I believed that it was a continuation of that story. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Michael Liddell
A fantastic sci-fi read
Ignore the 3x misinformed negative reviews. It's not the same book as Succession book 1. There is an 8 page recap of book 1 at the beginning of this book before book 2 starts... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Darren M.
Simple theft - do not buy this book
The Risen Empire is brilliant, buy it read it twice. Brilliant. This book though is not #2, UNBELIEVABLY it is simply a copy of the last half of the Risen Empire. Read more
Published 22 months ago by S. Hodgson
Its the same book
I was really looking forward to this. I had read The Risen Empire and was wanting more. However I have been very disapointed its just the same book as the first one :(
Published on 14 Dec 2009 by Rocky
Killing of Worlds
I have enjoyed reading The Risen Empire. When I bought Killing of Worlds, I thought this book continued the story ending with The Risen Empire, but I was very disappointed to find... Read more
Published on 28 Oct 2009 by A. Haaland
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