The EMPIRE (Book) - 1/6/2011 12:44:34 AM
Elizabeth weaves a clever mixture of love, deceit, ambition and brutality in a story about a human Empire largely devoid of any kind of feeling for its many subjects. The main character's Kali and Stannis fall for each other despite the fact that Stannis is largely an unfeeling, almost robotic individual.
As the story slowly unfolds, Stannis meets his intellectual opposite number in Sester, a member of the Guild, who delights in playing with Stannis' troubled and tortured mind. But there is one far worse than he in Stannis' existence - High Admiral van Reutensberg, a woman who is evil personified.
It took a few chapters before the story finally got my attention, but when it did I was totally consumed, wanting to know what would happen next.
