Creation Machine   by Andrew Bannister

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.