Name: The Killing of Worlds
Rating: 3.5 (3 reviews)
ISBN: 9780765347497

Scott Westerfeld

Captain Laurent Zai embarks on a suicide mission to stop the next invasion of the Rix, machine-augmented humans dedicated to the destruction of the immortal Emperor, while his lover, Senator Nara Oxham, faces off against the Emperor himself.

Book Two of Succession

The Killing of Worlds

Scott Westerfeld, the acclaimed author of Fine Prey, Polymorph, and Evolution's Darling, reached new heights of excitement in last spring's The Risen Empire, and left readers begging for more. Now he comes through with the dazzling payoff in book two of Succession, The Killing of Worlds. Captain Laurent Zai of the Imperial frigate Lynx is a walking dead man. Unjustly held responsible for the death of the Child Empress, sister of the immortal Emperor, Zai has been sent to fight an unwinnable battle. The Lynx must stop a vastly superior Rix ship from reaching the planet Legis, a suicide mission that will almost certainly end in oblivion for Captain Zai and his crew. On the planet Legis below, a Rix compound mind--a massive emergent AI formed from every computer on the planet--as been isolated by their Imperial blockade. But the mind has guided a lone Rix commando, Herd, to the planet's frozen north, and will soon order a desperate attempt to seize a polar communications array and break the blockade. Herd is a single warrior against an Imperial army, but moving silently behind her is the intelligence of an entire planet. Ten light-years away, Captain Zai's true love, the psychic (some say mad) Senator Nara Oxham is engaged in a deadly game of political intrigue. From her position on the Emperor's War Council, Senator Oxham must find a way to forestall the Emperor's final solution if the blockade is broken: a nuclear strike to destroy the compound mind, which will also kill millions of Imperial citizens. She suspects that the Emperor has a hidden weakness discovered, by the mind, a secret so dangerous to his immortal dynasty that to prevent its discovery the Emperor is willing to countenance the ultimate crime. . . . The killing of worlds. With this powerful conclusion to the first story arc of Succession, Scott Westerfeld confirms his stature as one of the leading writers of high space opera. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The Killing of Worlds Book Two of Succession

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