Empress of Forever

by Max Gladstone

A wildly successful innovator to rival Steve Jobs or Elon Musk, Vivian Liao is prone to radical thinking, quick decision-making, and reckless action. On the eve of her greatest achievement, she's trying to outrun those who are trying to steal her success.

In the chilly darkness of a Boston server farm, Viv sets her ultimate plan into motion. A terrifying instant later, Vivian Liao is catapulted through space and time to a far future where she confronts a destiny stranger and more deadly than she could ever imagine.

The end of time is ruled by an ancient, powerful Empress who blesses or blasts entire planets with a single thought. Rebellion is literally impossible to consider - until Vivian arrives. Trapped between the Pride, a ravening horde of sentient machines, and a fanatical sect of warrior monks who call themselves the Mirrorfaith, Viv must rally a strange group of allies to confront the Empress and find a way back to the world and life she left behind.

A magnificent work of vivid imagination and universe-spanning action, Empress of Forever is a feminist Guardians of the Galaxy crossed with Star Wars and spiced with the sensibility and spirit of Iain M. Banks and William Gibson.

• ISBN10: 0765395819
• ISBN13: 9780765395818
• Publish Date: 1 July 2019 (first published 18 June 2019)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 5 April 2024
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Tor Books
• Format: Paperback (UK Trade)
• Pages: 480
• Language: English

Reviews

[Quirky Cat]

Book Summary:

Vivian Liao is what some may call a contemporary of Steve Jobs. She’s brilliant, tactical, and occasionally ruthless in her decisions. Now, she’s about to make another move - her great achievement. Pulling the trigger will send her through space and time to a future beyond what any of us can imagine,

What will she find there? Well, as it turns out, the end of time is ruled by a being that, until now, nobody was capable of resisting. Viv’s arrival is about to change all that, setting her perfectly in the middle of a new type of battle.

My Review:

If you’re looking for an action-packed space opera novel, Empress of Forever certainly delivers. It’s a thrilling and admittedly quite unique romp through space and time. I’m not sure I would have made the comparisons for this book’s pitch (feminist Guardians of the Galaxy meets Star Wars), but maybe that’s just me.

If you check out the reviews for Empress of Forever, you’ll see that they’re largely split. My theory is that this book took big swings, and not all of them landed. I’m more ambivalent on the swings, but that’s probably because I’ve enjoyed Max Gladstone’s writing in the past. I also love it when authors take risks.

Overall, I’d say I decently enjoyed Empress of Forever. It was fun and different. However, I’m not sure that I would choose to continue reading if it became a series. I hope that makes sense.

Highlights:
Science Fiction
Space Opera
LGBTQ+

Thanks to Tor Books and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

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[empressbrooke]

I am not sure how a book that sounds 100% like it should be My Thing ended up being so boring. But it was boring! I can usually pinpoint what makes me dislike a book, but I can't figure out what made it not work. It was really, really long and I kept hitting points where I thought, "Oh, this is interesting, maybe it will pick up now" and then...nope. It seems like a lot of 1- and 2- star ratings on here are from people who didn't finish the book - and I can't blame them, because like I said, it is really, really long - so I wanted to try to see if finishing it made it all worth the while. It didn't.