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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Abandoned @ 40+%
The world-building is very interesting (Space Opera Xiyouji!) but the characters aren't, except for Zanj but I didn't care enough about her to continue.
The writing isn't my style as well.
The world-building is very interesting (Space Opera Xiyouji!) but the characters aren't, except for Zanj but I didn't care enough about her to continue.
The writing isn't my style as well.
Just the other day I was thinking to myself: I wish there were some books/movies these days like The Last Starfighter or Flight of the Navigator. You know, normal modern Earth human suddenly is thrust into an intergalactic conflict and a galaxy full of aliens. Then I picked up Empress of Forever and got exactly that. The universe was looking out for me.
The publisher blurb calls this a "feminist Guardians of the Galaxy" which isn't wrong exactly but also doesn't feel quite write. Instead of feels more like The Wizard of Oz as a space-fantasy. Vivian Liao gets sucked to a weird world, needs to go on a journey to the head wizard person to get back home and gathers a coterie of weird but likable side-kicks along the way. Except in this case she needs to kill the wizard to get back home.
This is pure science fantasy where the Rule of Cool is absolute. This isn't some Asimovian plausible extrapolation kind of science fiction. This is a book where someone steals a sun and you don't stop to ask how the what?! You just go, "Heck ya! Give me more of that!"
Despite the high stakes (saving the galaxy, naturally) there is a surprising amount of humor in it. Vivian is the CEO of a tech company and, in the early parts, a fair amount of the humor trades in references to that world. Which is great if you have a background to get jokes about stand-ups.
Some other lines I liked:
Or
Or
As much as I loved Empress of Forever there were two things that didn't quite work as well as they should. First, the pacing for much of the book feels....off. I eventually figured out what it is: It feels very episodic. Like TV episodic. Like "episode of the week" from a Netflix series. Which felt awkward in a novel. They go to a new planet. They pick up a new crew member. Rinse and repeat. Eventually a learned to roll with it but it was a bit jarring at first.
Likewise, Gladstone tries to wrap up everything a little too neatly from a thematic perspective. Every crew member has their little arc. Some thematic mirroring is a little too on the nose. It makes the final stretch feel a bit over long as we need to get through everyone's little arc before they can make their final assault on the Empress of Forever.
Finally, not all of the character work really hit 100%. Zanj is pretty fabulous. But Hong (and Xiara to a lesser extent) felt a bit thin, which especially made Hong's final arc not as emotional as it could have been.
Overall, I super loved it, especially since it is a kind of book that feels pretty rare these days. Science fiction that doesn't take itself too seriously. Everything wrapped up in a single book. And lots of terribly imaginative world building that Gladstone also shows in his Craft Sequence.
The publisher blurb calls this a "feminist Guardians of the Galaxy" which isn't wrong exactly but also doesn't feel quite write. Instead of feels more like The Wizard of Oz as a space-fantasy. Vivian Liao gets sucked to a weird world, needs to go on a journey to the head wizard person to get back home and gathers a coterie of weird but likable side-kicks along the way. Except in this case she needs to kill the wizard to get back home.
This is pure science fantasy where the Rule of Cool is absolute. This isn't some Asimovian plausible extrapolation kind of science fiction. This is a book where someone steals a sun and you don't stop to ask how the what?! You just go, "Heck ya! Give me more of that!"
She’d almost said minimum viable escape plan instead of a way out of this, but somehow she doubted the Mirrorfaith, whatever that was, knew much about development methodology. Anyway, they were standing up already, so this was basically a stand-up meeting.
Despite the high stakes (saving the galaxy, naturally) there is a surprising amount of humor in it. Vivian is the CEO of a tech company and, in the early parts, a fair amount of the humor trades in references to that world. Which is great if you have a background to get jokes about stand-ups.
Some other lines I liked:
“Can you run with your eyes closed and your hands behind your back?”
“Yes,” he said automatically. Then: “Wait. What do you mean?”
Or
“I’d be dead now if not for Gray.”
“Not dead, probably. Just missing a lung or two. Those eyes probably wouldn’t have made it either. They’re squishy.”
Or
“You thought it was suspicious that they have very good plows, but not that some of them don’t age.”
“Does everyone age where you come from?”
“Yes!”
As much as I loved Empress of Forever there were two things that didn't quite work as well as they should. First, the pacing for much of the book feels....off. I eventually figured out what it is: It feels very episodic. Like TV episodic. Like "episode of the week" from a Netflix series. Which felt awkward in a novel. They go to a new planet. They pick up a new crew member. Rinse and repeat. Eventually a learned to roll with it but it was a bit jarring at first.
Likewise, Gladstone tries to wrap up everything a little too neatly from a thematic perspective. Every crew member has their little arc. Some thematic mirroring is a little too on the nose. It makes the final stretch feel a bit over long as we need to get through everyone's little arc before they can make their final assault on the Empress of Forever.
It felt new, and weird, and un-American, for the friend stuff to take priority over galactic conquest. But then, doing things the other way had led to galactic conquest in the first place, which was the whole problem. So.
Finally, not all of the character work really hit 100%. Zanj is pretty fabulous. But Hong (and Xiara to a lesser extent) felt a bit thin, which especially made Hong's final arc not as emotional as it could have been.
Overall, I super loved it, especially since it is a kind of book that feels pretty rare these days. Science fiction that doesn't take itself too seriously. Everything wrapped up in a single book. And lots of terribly imaginative world building that Gladstone also shows in his Craft Sequence.
He tried to speak, couldn’t, then shrugged and stood, dragging the rock spar out of his stomach, which sealed behind it. “Ow. Good thing I don’t have organs, or that would have really hurt.”
I loved it. Max Gladstone builds such unique worlds and his writing is so fun. His Craft series is one of my favorites and this has the same sense of fun and imagination.
There's a really good story here but sometimes I felt like the pacing was more like a season of a tv show rather than a novel... lots of side-plots that were mostly interesting, but not appearing to relate to the main plot at the time... and messing with the sense of urgency and what we're told is a race to beat the Empress to her Citadel.
Starts out quickly been then becomes bogged down in events that didn't interest me.
This was amazing, just gigantic in scope with great characters and writing. The main character is a billionaire CEO who has to get away from something and ends up in a cosmic space opera setting full of stars and warrior monks and nanotech.
Max Gladstone is really good at writing books, y'all.
adventurous
challenging
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated