Reviews - Empress of Forever

387 reviews for:

This was super fun, the only reason it is not a five for me is I was a little confused by the ending. Titan of industry is kidnapped and locked up in another galaxy/time--and picks up a martial monk, lets a fierce female space pirate out of her locked-up-in-a-star prison, then they add a woman pilot and a shapeshifting monster and go out to save the world from an evil Empress. Great fun.

threlicus's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I wanted to like this more than I did. The opening of the book is quite strong — ambitious tech executive planting a virus in her own code before her company gets twisted to evil ends, but then she gets thrown into a portal fantasy where she’s fighting the Empress of Forever, who has taken over the galaxy. And I enjoyed a lot of the setup of the factions and why they are all subordinate to the Empress.

The second half of the book disappoints, though. The crazy tech that happens, its weird fusion of VR, AR, and nanotech, starts making the actual action scenes difficult to follow. And though the central “twist” of the book was easy to see coming, there were lots of things about the universe that deserved, IMHO, better explanations from the author. I was also hoping for a better, back to the beginning, Scouring of the Shire style denouement, but I was disappointed in that.

All in all, lots of great ideas, somewhat disappointing execution.

loginugget's review against another edition

4.0

** I won a free copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway. **

This book is a fun, action-packed thrill ride through the galaxy. The characters are well-developed and most of them are pained in shades of grey. The heroes all have their flaws and the villain does appear to think she's doing the right thing. Perfect space opera story for those who love Star Wars for Han Solo or fans of shows such as Firefly. The language is a bit overdone and flowery at times but this is still a quick, engaging read.

wctracy's review against another edition

5.0

I know a book's going to be good when I want to hear the rest of the intro story *before* the character is whisked off to a far-away future! If you like space opera, blazing battles, way overpowered beings, LGBT and feminist rep and just a really good adventure, try this out. This is a non-stop barrage of action, and this is not a short book! Yet Gladstone gets in some really great character development along the way and brings everything to a satisfying end. I listened to this on audio, and kept finding excuses to listen to it. The most exciting book I've read in quite a while!

agathe_athena's review against another edition

3.0

Vivian Liao, genius, innovator, billionaire, wants to save the world from itself. But as she’s putting her plan into action, a green woman confronts her, and that confrontation flings Viv to the far ends of the galaxy in the far future. There, the known universe is ruled by an all-powerful Empress who keeps all inhabited planets well under her thumb. Viv must confront the Empress to get home, and gains an interesting assortment of friends to help her in her quest.

This was interesting. It is definitely epic and large-scale - a mix of Space Opera and Epic Fantasy. It is full of giant space battles and fearsome hand-to-hand combats, and every new planet or species introduced is a spectacle. But there’s also the hero’s journey, and a very familiar assortment of side characters: pirate queen, fighting monk, greatest pilot in the universe, etc. And it even has some cyberpunk sprinkled throughout. It is interesting and the world-building is intriguing, but at the end of it, I just didn’t care. Every character was a bit too perfect, they always miraculously escaped, and it never felt like they wouldn’t win in the end.

I can see where others really enjoyed this because it’s a big, epic space opera full of adventures and spectacle and fantastical things and giant battles. But it just didn’t work for me.

purni's review against another edition

4.0

Enjoyed it because it is a book by Max Gladstone. The world building and fantasy elements were my favorites. I enjoyed the bonds Vivian makes with Zanj, Hong, Gray and Xiara. Exciting space/galaxy adventure.

brokenrecord's review against another edition

3.0

2.5 stars? Not sure how I feel about this. On the plus side, I managed to finish it, unlike the only other Max Gladstone book I've attempted to read (Three Parts Dead, which I got about 2/3 through, and I didn't hate it — or even intend to not finish it — but I lost interest and never managed to get back to it). And I didn't dislike this one either, but I never really got sucked in. I liked the start of the book, but I lost track of what was going on in the plot fairly early on and never really recovered. I don't think it helped that I wasn't in much of a reading mood, but I had placed a hold on the book last summer when it came out, and it finally came up, so I felt obligated to push through and finish it before the loan ended. It wasn't the kind of reading experience that was conducive to enjoyment, which really isn't the book's fault, but that's how things went.

I did really like Viv, and I found the dynamic between her and Zanj to be really interesting (and I kind of latched onto them early in the story, even though it wasn't really romantic, so I ended up not being able to fully appreciate the romance between Viv and Xiara). I do think there were some interesting things going on here, and I wouldn't warn anyone off this book who was interested in checking it out. It's also possible Max Gladstone books just aren't my thing for whatever reason, which is fine. This book felt very action-heavy, and I tend not to enjoy those kinds of stories — I prefer more character/relationship work than I feel like I got here. So yeah, this wasn't bad, but not my thing, I guess.