Tuesday, July 9, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone




Max Gladstone is one of my favorite authors since I got back into reading a few years back, with his Craft Sequence containing two of my perfect score novels as well as two other really great novels that are close, and two other novels that are merely....good.  In short, his work has an incredible track record for me, and thus when it became clear that he was working on a novel that was not part of the Craft Sequence, I was pretty damn intrigued.  Empress of Forever is that novel, which takes Gladstone's skills into space opera/space-fantasy (this is far from hard sci-fi mind you).

And unsurprisingly, it's really damn good.  The book features a number of fascinating characters, a story that winds a long and windy path through various adventures, and a resolution that is truly satisfying at the end.  In a way, the way things play out reminded me a lot of Gladstone's last novel, Ruin of Angels - which is not a complaint - in how things aren't resolved via direct means: this is not a book about direct conflict, but rather one where the feelings and motives behind such conflicts and actions changes everything.  As with much of the best science fiction, it has a theme that pertains to our real world. and is easily worth your time.


------------------------------------------------Plot Summary------------------------------------------------------
Vivian "Viv" Liao is a brilliant entrepreneur of the sort that Steve Jobs and Elon Musk could only dream of, having used her brilliance to build up massive wealth and a powerful company several times.  Moreover, unlike those two, she has not been content in simply becoming rich and powerful: she has used those resources to try and help people and to make the world a better place.  Of course, the rest of the world's rich and powerful doesn't like that, and so Viv is forced on the run to prevent them from making her disappear...or worse.

But when Viv attempts to put into action her plan to fight back against her many enemies, she finds her confronted by a mysterious woman in green, who tears her from the Earth into a strange universe.  There, everything is different: Earth is an unknown place, people have strange forms and powerful technologies, and everyone is connected to a universal cloud and not necessarily connected to a meat and flesh body.  And then there's the all powerful Empress, the woman in green, who seemingly controls all...and destroys all that gets too powerful.

Desperate to find a way home, Viv is forced to make friends and allies with an odd assortment of outsiders: including a monk from an order that worships the Empress, a woman from a people who used to inhabit spaceships and a being that eats and spits out matter.  And then there's Zanj, the legendary space pirate who once challenged the Empress 3000 years ago, and whose wishes for destruction make the whole universe quell with fear, and who might be only Viv's only chance for taking on the Empress.....if Zanj doesn't kill Viv first....
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Empress of Forever is told from Viv's point of view (though it switches to the points of views of Viv's allies on occasion), and Viv is a character who is not too far out of the norm for our world: the incredibly smart rich billionaire with a million projects and ideas - think Elon Musk or Jobs.  Honestly, the biggest aberration about her from the billionaires we actually have in this world is that she genuinely is trying to take actions to help the world, rather than just to puff up her own ego.*  This makes her an excellent viewpoint character in what is kind of a portal SF fantasy, in that she has the perspective of our world while at the same time being quick thinking and capable enough to be more than an observer of events, but instead an actual instigator of them.

*Spoiler in ROT13: Naq tvira gur eriryngvba zvqjnl guebhtu gur obbx, gurer znl or n ernfba jul ure npgvbaf gbjneq gur terngre tbbq frrz fb hayvxr gur ovyyvbanver ragercerarhef va bhe erny jbeyq - nygubhtu V qba'g dhvgr guvax gur obbx vf znxvat gung pnfr jvgu vgf gjvfg (fvapr gur bevtvany Ivi frrzf gb unir qbar gur fnzr npgvbaf hc hagvy gur qviretrapr cbvag va puncgre 2).

And well, Viv is fantastic.  Incredibly capable and quick-witted, always willing and able to take risks others wouldn't (or in this universe - couldn't) comprehend, Viv takes being thrown into a universe far from her wildest dreams and rarely stops trying to move forward.  Giving up is not something in her vocabulary, and that's evident right from the start.  And yet....Viv has issues - her relentless need to move forward prevents her from looking back at what she already has or to take a moment to understand the costs her actions could inflict upon others.  And it's her overcoming these issues, or at the very least trying in the end, that makes her a great heroine: anyone could try and use their smarts to accumulate power on their own for what they think of as the greater good, but it takes a real person of worth to try and help others and do the greater good alongside trusted companions and friends.

And what a cast of companions and friends.  There's Hong, the warrior monk of an order that worships and tries to emulate - and possibly surpass - the works of the Empress, who acts as the straight man at first to this zany group of characters, but eventually finds an inner sense of self and togetherness.  Then there's Xiara, the young woman (and love interest for Viv) from a people who used to be known for their symbiosis with spaceships, and who struggles to resolve her need to be one with the ships she encounters throughout and her need for Viv and the others around her.  And there's Gray, the monster cast out of the Empress who I'm not going to spoil much about, but whose childish innocence and natural capabilities are a great complement to the rest.

And of course, there's Zanj.  Zanj is the space pirate who 3000 years in the past obtained an incredibly powerful weapon and worked with incredibly powerful allies to do supposedly horrible things, like stealing entire stars, in order to fight the Empress....only to lose.  At first I expected this book to go down the plotline where Zanj becomes a trusted ally of Viv's until Viv learns the true horrors and evils she once committed in the past....but the book never goes down that road, instead making Zanj an incredibly powerful but emotional character whose wants for herself and others aren't so simply defined.  This book is nearly as much about Zanj's emotional journey, she finds herself bound to Viv's journey, as Viv's, and Zanj's development as the all powerful woman makes her not only fun to read, but incredibly interesting.

So yeah the characters are fantastic, as is for the most part the plot and setting.  I've seen this book described as "Space Opera", but I'm not quite sure that fits as well here: the space battles that take place in this book have much more in common with wild fantasy magical battles than battles of spaceships one would see elsewhere.   And while to some extent, the plotline revolves around our heroes understanding how the world works, with certain rules being in effect throughout this universe, those rules are very flexible in terms of allowing people, objects, and powers to take forms often as much as the plot allows (this is very much NOT the Craft Sequence, where the rules are a lot more strict in how things work).  So the book, despite the setting, feels almost more fantastical than SciFi, to the extent those genre classifications matter.  Which they really shouldn't - there's a reason I title every post on this blog SciFi/Fantasy instead of trying to determine which book is which.

If I have any complaint about this book it's that there's one little adventure in the final 20% of the book which feels out of place, kind of repeating an earlier plot point with another character, and robbing the story of a little of its momentum.  Gladstone makes this plot segment work, and the way it's resolved is a perfect encapsulation of his theme of this book - of how people are stronger when caring about each other than trying to do everything alone - so I'm not sure it could be removed, but it felt a little annoying in terms of where it was placed and what the plot elements consisted of.*

*MAJOR Spoiler in ROT13:  Guvf nep pbzrf nsgre Ivi'f vavgvny nggrzcg gb tb ubzr jnf gujnegrq ol gur eriryngvba gung Ivi vf urefrys gur Rzcerff, naq gung Ivi'f jbeyq vf fvzcyl n fvzhyngvba perngrq ol gur Rzcerff....naq jvgu Ivi univat ernyvmrq gung fur jnf jebat va gelvat gb tb vg nybar jvgubhg ure sevraqf naq nyyvrf.  Fb Ivi unf erhavgrq ure nyyvrf, crefhnqrq bccbfvat sbeprf guebhtubhg gur havirefr gb wbva jvgu gurz ntnvafg gur Rzcerff sbe bar svany chfu, yrnqvat gb gur pyvznpgvp frpbaq pbasebagngvba jvgu gur Rzcerff....

naq gura nf cneg bs gur chfu vagb gur Rzcerff' pvgnqry, gur tnat unf gb ragre gur erznvaf bs Mnaw'f ubzrjbeyq.  Rkprcg gur ubzrjbeyq vf frrzvatyl ehyrq ol na nygreangr irefvba bs Mnaw, jub gnxrf bire Mnaw'f obql naq gevrf gb vzcevfba gur tebhc va gurve bja zvaqf.  Ntnva, guvf yrnqf gb n snfpvangvat fbyhgvba va juvpu Ubat havgrf Kvnen naq Tenl ol fubjvat gurz rnpu gung gurve bja vqragvgvrf ner vagregjvarq jvgu rnpu bgure ng guvf cbvag, fb gur pebjaf pbagebyyvat rnpu bs gurve fryirf va gurve obqvrf pna'g ubyq gurz.  Ohg gur cybg ryrzrag bs gnxvat ba na nygreangr sbez bs Mnaw whfg srryf fgnyr nsgre gur Rzcerff erirny sebz rneyvre, naq guvf jubyr nqiragher gnxrf hc n puhax bs fcnpr nsgre vg frrzrq jr jrer nobhg gb ernpu gur svany pbasebagngvba (juvpu gnxrf pbzcnengviryl n ybg fubegre gvzr), fb vg whfg naablrq zr jura ernqvat orpnhfr vg fbeg bs sryg vag ur jnl.

Other than that plot arc, Empress of Forever is terrific.  The story's ending reminded me a bit of Ruin of Angels (the last Craft Sequence book), but it works tremendously, and the combination of great characters, and far-out and utterly fascinating universe, and excellent plot make this again a complete winner.  Gladstone remains a must-read and auto-recommend, and I don't see that changing any time soon.
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