Max Gladstone made a name for himself (not to mention the Hugo ballot) with the Craft Sequence, a six-books-and-counting urban fantasy saga set in a world where the mundanities of zoning restrictions and contract law are infused with the magic of the gods: lawyers become craftswomen, and contract negotiations become literal deals with deities.

The books marry this imaginative magic system with granular worldbuilding (showing us every strata of a diverse society) and characters as rich, and flawed, and different, as any you’ll encounter in fantasy.

Ever since I saw what Gladstone could do with urban fantasy—a genre I only have mild affinity for—I’ve been itching for him to bring his skills to bear on the genre of my heart: the space opera. And now he has, and I’ve read it, and I must say, it’s everything I wanted it to be: a marriage of Star Wars, Iain M. Banks, Hannu Rajaniemi, and K.J. Bishop, but with more pop culture references. Empress of Forever is coming next summer from Tor Books, and today, we’re showing off the cover, and doing our part to get you to add the book to the top of your 2019 TBR, where it belongs.

First, check out the official summary, then keep scrolling for a look at the cover, with art by Tommy Arnold, and to hear what Gladstone thinks of it. (Spoiler alert: He thinks it’s pretty badass.)

From Hugo Award finalist Max Gladstone comes a smart, swashbuckling, wildly imaginative adventure; the saga of a rag-tag team of brilliant misfits, dangerous renegades, and enhanced outlaws in a wartorn future. 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 tries to outrun people 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 Liao 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.

“I love this cover,” Gladstone said. “It’s a phenomenal angle on the book: a big, planet-smashing space opera, set in a majestic and mysterious universe, with a cast of fierce and driven characters at its heart. I can’t wait for everyone to meet the Empress!”

You can do just that when the book arrives on June 18, 2019.

Preorder Empress of Forever now.