There is something unbeatable about being pleasantly surprised. This was my first time reading anything by Scott Westerfeld and I was extremely pleasantly surprised by The Risen Empire.



It is bad form to quote oneself but here is what I said about The Risen Empire when I compared it very favourably to Foundation in my sacrilegious review of Asimov’s space opera:



“Immediately after I "finished" Foundation, I picked up Scott Westerfeld's The Risen Empire… Intelligent turns of phrase? Break-neck act

There is something unbeatable about being pleasantly surprised. This was my first time reading anything by Scott Westerfeld and I was extremely pleasantly surprised by The Risen Empire.



It is bad form to quote oneself but here is what I said about The Risen Empire when I compared it very favourably to Foundation in my sacrilegious review of Asimov’s space opera:



“Immediately after I "finished" Foundation, I picked up Scott Westerfeld's The Risen Empire… Intelligent turns of phrase? Break-neck action? Verisimilitude in the progression of civilizations? Technology that drives the plot, is extremely inventive and is extrapolated from today's knowledge base? Well-thought out characters whose behaviour makes sense but is not cardboard predictable? Other wicked-cool oddities like undead royal families? … Yes, I'm in the safe and familiar bio-tech embrace of a trusted friend: New Space Opera. The authors of this reinvigorated genre like Banks, Hamilton and Westerfeld (with all due respect to Stephen Baxter and his physics lectures some call novels) focus on quality writing, character development and social commentary. Oh and scientific accuracy verging on "whooooa there". A few, like Dan Simmons' gorgeous Hyperion, are masterworks in any genre.”



Risen Empire hits on all the elements of successful New Space Opera. The crux of the first volume in this duology pits the 80-world empire ruled by an undead Emperor against an ultra-efficient transhuman cyborg civilization named the Rix. The action has purpose and grabs you from the first page with a hostage crisis of immense magnitude. The military scenes are technologically fascinating and are driven by multi-pronged political motivations and powers. They do not hinder the story, they enhance it. Westerfeld’s story is intelligent, very intelligent.



Like in the military classic The Forever War, time dilation is properly accounted for and has an impact on the scope and duration of almost everything from military strategy to senatorial terms to romances.



As other reviewers have pointed out, the most obvious comparison to Westerfeld’s galaxy of undead rulers, conflicts between technologically advanced civilizations and political intrigue is Iain M. Banks’ Culture. Banks is a marvel but the Culture’s motivations are often convolutedly subtle and their influence glacial. Some may find the end results unsatisfying (although I loved them). For those that do, you may appreciate Westerfeld’s shower of kinetic weaponry.



Despite its immense scope, the story is very character driven. The author’s all important selection of point of view is very interesting and well managed. This is the element that can make (think Lolita) or break (think The DaVinci Code) a novel. Westerfeld has chosen multiple third person points of view, including characters to whom we may not have expected to get so close. This can either be a complete disaster which exposes an author’s laziness and lack of internal consistency (did I mention The DaVinci Code?) or can be a wonderful plot device that exposes character motivations that are unexpected, intriguing and deviously consistent. The Risen Empire is clearly the latter, in the same vein as George R.R. Martin’s use of the technique. Both sides of a conspiracy are unveiled at different paces, stereotypes are swept aside and assumptions are ass-out-of-you-and-meed.



I find it extremely difficult to take stories seriously when evil empires do evil for the sake of doing evil. Westerfeld has none of this drivel. Diverse motivations and opposite sides of the same coin cause humans, undead humans, and transhumans to love, kill and conspire. This is all familiar to us. Except for the undead cat collection. The central argument in the book is whether immortality is a good thing. At first glance, anyone’s understandable sense of self-reservation would have an obvious answer for that one, but the events of the story and positions of some characters and political parties make you think. Think I said! In a space opera!



There’s even a surprisingly interesting love story that makes good use of time dilation. I’m not the expert on the evaluation of love stories but it didn’t get in the way and instead actually advanced the plot. Even the slower scenes such as these evolve the characters and every page introduces clever forward-looking science.



Westerfeld’s exposition is exceptional. Not only does Risen Empire adhere the “show, don’t tell” tenet, it does not “overshow”. The best example I can think of is Peter F. Hamilton’s Reality Dysfunction. I thought this was an excellent read, but one of my nits, which is a factor in its doorstopper length, is the overshown detail. Enjoyable? Yes. Awesome? Yes. Too much? Probably. Westerfeld manages to walk that monofilament line of exposing enough to intrigue the reader, give enough context to understand the immediate passage and then move on. He then fulfills this promise to the reader by returning to that half-understood fact or concept later and blending it into the story in a more appropriate scene. There’s no factual vomit. Hyperion is a wonderful example of this, and I hold Risen Empire in high regard by putting it in the same sentence.



A great example, which requires no spoiling because it’s on the very first page, is entitled “A Note on Imperial Measures”. The note describes standard measurements across the Risen Empire. Lesser authors would only use this as a Joy of Cooking conversion table in a lazy and off-putting initial fact-vomit. By ending with the generous: “The Emporer has decreed that the speed of light shall remain as nature has provided”, Westerfeld instead hints at both the Emperor’s power and arrogance.



The Risen Empire contains few wasted words. In fact, it is very…Rix and may have very well been drafted by a Rixwoman. You’ll have to read it to know why it could not be written by a Rixman. I have to admit that I actually found myself agreeing with the cyborg civilization’s disdain for humanity’s exaltation in waste, excess and “dead hair”.



Because this is volume is not complete without the sequel, The Killing of Worlds, I’ll reserve judgment on the series as a whole and any comments I’ll have on the conclusions to the various sub-plots. I’m going to go on a limb here and give The Risen Empire five stars. I reserve this for the books I remember with great fondness so I don’t do this lightly. Let’s hope the sequel does not make me look…unRix.