Well constructed story: An entire star system was manufactured in
distant past using a machine which is recently discovered. Daughter of
evil Emperor-wannabe escapes his clutches, works for a rebellion, exudes a
little back-story about how she met her accomplices, goes looking for a
persona inside a virtual reality who was around at the time of the
creation, and they get the Creation Machine to self-destruct. Meanwhile,
the Emperor-wannabe is engaged in loads of pointless politics leading him
to lead an assassination on the real Emperor, which back-fires and he is
assassinated himself.
There is an awful lot borrowed from elsewheres making this not very
novel, but there is some fresh imagination and very three-dimensional
characterizations, making it a compelling read augmented by Iain
M. Banks-like dioramas.
The ending is good: it is definitely unexpected while being perfectly
connected with the storyline. The ending is very short, completing the
work promptly, and rounds the book out perfectly. |
