“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.”