The Empress: Volume 2 (Diabolic, #2)

by S.J. Kincaid

It's a new day in the Empire. Tyrus has ascended to the throne with Nemesis by his side and now they can find a new way forward - one where they don't have to hide or scheme or kill.

But having power isn't the same thing as keeping it, and change isn't always welcome. The ruling class has held control over planets and systems for centuries and they are not going to give up their power willingly, especially not to a teenage Emperor and Nemesis, who they consider nothing more than a creature and certainly not worthy of being Empress.

Nemesis knows she will protect Tyrus at any cost; he is the love of her life and they are partners in this new beginning. But she also knows she can't protect him by being the killing machine she once was. Instead she will have to prove the humanity that she's found inside herself to the whole Empire - or she and Tyrus may lose more than just the throne... they might lose their lives.

Perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas, Victoria Aveyard and George R.R. Martin, The Empress will take you on a thrilling ride, not letting go until the very last page.

• ISBN10: 1534409920
• ISBN13: 9781534409927
• Publish Date: 31 October 2017
• Publish Status: Active
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

“He is merely a boy in love with the wrong girl.”

I expected to love The Empress because it's a dark twisty sequel with betrayal, political intrigue and morally grey characters, but most of the book didn't work for me.

The pacing is full of ups and downs. The first part is boring and predictable in the beginning, but goes off in an unexpected and wacky direction afterwards when Tyrus and Nemesis take an unnecessary trip to meet the Interdict. The second part is depressing and uncomfortable to read about. I don't mind reading about uncomfortable topics and it takes a lot for a book to make me feel uncomfortable, but, Senator von Pasus forces Tyrus to become addicted to Venalox and the humiliation, degradation and lack of choice is stifling. The last part is the most engrossing because it's fast paced and full of twists, but the characters are destroyed for the sake of plot progression. 

I had a hard time with the characters. Nemesis and Tyrus make a lot of poor decisions, which I found unbelievable, because they're usually smart, cunning and ten steps ahead of everything. Their decisions don't match with their character arcs. I couldn't believe that Tyrus would overestimate himself and accept being forced to become an addict so easily and I also couldn't believe that Nemesis would escape without Tyrus and leave him in the hands of Senator von Pasus out of all people. Nemesis went through so much character growth in The Diabolic , but in The Empress she's a stagnant character. The characters either regress or change in a way that completely ruins their character arc to suit the plot. Neveni's betrayal doesn't make sense and while there is some foundation that makes Tyrus's actions slightly believable, his character is utterly ruined. 

The Empress takes an interesting and unexpected direction, resulting in a shocking cliffhanger which makes me interested to read about Tyrus as a villain in the last book. However, it felt like things happened for plot progression sake and not because it felt natural for the characters and plot to move along that way. 

I'm a character-driven reader and it's difficult to get behind The Empress.

“The universe was so cruel. What a fool I'd been to forget it.”

[jesstheaudiobookworm]

4.75★ Audiobook⎮ I always sort of hold my breath when beginning a sequel, especially if it’s been a while since hearing the previous installment. That was especially true when beginning The Empress because my expectations for it were so high.

I can’t imagine the type of pressure authors must feel when writing sequels. But luckily, in the case of The Empress, Kincaid was able to perfectly recapture the magic of The Diabolic. I actually breathed a sigh of relief when realizing that I was enjoying The Empress just as much as I had enjoyed The Diabolic. That rare, but spectacularly balanced, mixture of fantasy and science-fiction was again present in Kincaid’s work. There was a slightly more dominant Sci-Fi vibe in The Empress, giving it the feel of a Space Opera at times. But it still possessed the eery timeless atmosphere that I adored it in its predecessor.

I had been looking forward to The Empress all year and it exceeded my expectations. And, oh my, the twists and turns we took. Nothing is ever as you expect it to be with SJ Kincaid. There’s political intrigue, backstabbing, and betrayal. Nothing is straightforward and no one is ever really dead, just like in a soap opera. My daytime television loving heart ate it all up. Kincaid managed to weave together a gripping drama that surprised me with every turn.

And beneath all of that drama was a deeper theme of finding one’s humanity. How exactly do we define what it means to be human? That question is at the core of this series. Nemesis’ growth as a character has been thought-provoking, to say the least. Nemesis is a fantastic and memorable character. She is written in a beautiful, if not entirely relatable, manner. The course her character development has taken has been just as much of an unexpected twist as anything else in the series.

It’s to the point now that I want to go back and hear everything Kincaid has ever written. The Diabolic was not a singular strike of luck. SJ Kincaid may very well be on the way to becoming one of my favorite authors. As it stands now, this series has already claimed its place on my virtual “Favorites” shelf and in my heart.

Narration review: My previous enjoyment of Candace Thaxton’s performance was something else I needed to reaffirm while hearing The Empress, because it had been 12 months since my last experience with her narration of this series. I most recently heard her perform The Last Magician in August (which I enjoyed immensely), but The Diabolic series requires the use of a different set of skills, particularly when voicing the main character.

Right off the bat, I remembered how pleasing her vocal tone was to my ears. Some people just have voices you like listening to, you know? Further in, I noted that her interpretation of Nemesis’ voice was spot-on. Such an accurate interpretation deeply enhanced my understanding of the character. I also noted that Nemesis sounded more human in this installment, which was extremely appropriate. ♣︎

[tweetybugshouse]

Wow what a turn of events this one did not go the way I expected. In fact I was quite shocked by the ending I hoping as all believers of happily ever after that nemesis would get that. Will book three be an out bloodbath or is their more of a plot twist waiting in the wings?

[shannonmiz]

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight


4.5*

When the lovely Emma @ Miss Print recommended that I read The Diabolic, I took her seriously. For one, she knows what she's talking about. For another, I traded for the damn book over a year ago, so why even had I not read it yet? 🤔 So I read The Diabolic, very much enjoyed it, and raced to request the sequel!

I will say it was extra-nice to have the events of The Diabolic so fresh in my mind. And The Empress absolutely didn't disappoint. It was really mostly a win, so let us talk first about what I loved, while being vague enough to not spoil anything for either book!

• The plot was so wonderfully twisty! Ohhh I love a twist. And it is so hard these days for me to feel genuinely surprised by a plot twist. But The Empress shocked me over and over again. The author isn't afraid to go there.


• It is dark, incredibly so at times. I think this ties into my first point, and how the author isn't afraid to make some shocking choices. But it's more than that- it's dark in a way that makes sense to the world. Makes the reader feel what it would be like to live in Nemesis's situation.


• Moral gray areas FTW! The characters all have to make so many decisions. To betray or be loyal, to kill or be killed, and so much more. It isn't even just Nemesis that has to grapple with these tough calls, all the characters face really hard choices. And is there a right or wrong? It kind of reminded me of The 100, where all the choices might be crap and in the end, the characters just have to do what they think is best. And we all know that if I am comparing something to The 100, I clearly loved it.


• Space adventures! Who doesn't love space adventures? I feel like the worldbuilding in book two was even better than in book one. I understood the world so much better, understood a lot of how things got to the current point. Lots of questions that I had were answered, and the worldbuilding became so much more believable to me!


• The ending blew my damn mind. Like, jaw on the floor. And now I have to wait a year for book three. Sobs.

The only thing that prevents me from going full five-stars is that there were a few times that the political aspects of the book took over a little too much and I found myself skimming a bit. But otherwise, this was an incredible sequel and I cannot wait for more of the world and the characters!

Will I Read the Sequel: Um, clearly.

Bottom Line: Filled with impossible decisions, dark twists and turns, and characters who basically can't seem to catch a break, this sequel was a fabulous follow-up!