The Risen Empire

Superb Space Opera.

The Risen Empire (Succession 1) by Scott Westerfield

Please give my Amazon review a helpful vote - https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R1OXEMT9NPUM25?ref=pf_ov_at_pdctrvw_srp


They don't write them like this anymore. The surprising thing is that the author is Scott Westerfield, who I've seen only (but never read) as the author of “Hunger Game” knock-offs. This book is entirely different from that genre and is probably one of the best space operas I've read in a while. (Well, since at least the Praxis series by Walter Jon Williams.)

What impressed me was the world-building. The story is set in a war between “the Risen Empire” and the “Rix Cult.” The culture of both combatants is weird from our perspective, although the Risen Empire is the home of our focal characters, and, therefore, the “good guys,” while the Rix Cult has lost its humanity.

Both societies are organized around different ideas of immortality. For the Risen Empire, immortality is given to a chosen few, who are given some kind of symbiont at death. The symbiont uses nanotechnology to repair the dead organs and return the dead to some kind of life, but for most it is a vague kind of existence disconnected from the living. (Others - such as the 1,600 year old Risen Emperor- remain fully engaged, as do some Risen Generals to a lesser degree.) Over time the Risen have become very numerous and wealthy, while the living live and die as they always have. For many of the living, the prospect of immortality defines their existence; they are willing to do anything - even commit suicide when they fail - in order to be a part of a system that rewards some with immortality.

For their part, the Rix Cult make it their mission to infect the information system of hyper-advanced planets, creating AI (artificially intelligent) Gods who control everything on the planet. The Rix has evolved the human form to stock its military with the most efficient fighters in the galaxy. Individually, they are more than a match for any mere human soldier.

The story starts with a Rix attack that takes the Emperor's niece - who is a 1,600-year-old immortal - as a hostage while the information system of Legis XV. Captain Laurent Zai of the Cruiser Lynx is on the spot to attempt a hostage rescue. Any failure will mean that he has made an “Error of Blod” which will require suicide and a loss of his chance at immortality.

From there, Westerfeld hops from perspective to perspective to tell his story. We see a recon expedition by flying crafts less than a millimeter across. We skip back to the home planet of the empire and see the political machinations through the perspective of an empathic senator (who is also the lover of Captain Zai.) The stakes escalate as the Lynx is commanded to attack a Rix battleship in a suicidal mission.

This is all fast-moving, exciting stuff. We get to know several of the characters to empathize with their impossible situation. Westerfeld has really thought out a lot of the implications of his technology and the strategies that it would entail. I found the book fully immersive, particularly with respect to the alien societies that we don't see that often anymore.

The book does something that usually mortally offends me, namely, it is not a complete book. It simply stops at the point where the Lynx is preparing to take on the Rix battleship. However, I enjoyed the book so much that I was willing to overlook this mortal offense.