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The Eternal Emperor was dead, and the five members of the Privy Council ruled in his place. But they quickly discovered that their power would collapse around them if they didn't locate the Emperor's secret source of Anti-Matter Two, the economic keystone of the Empire. And so they sent a team of crack commandos to capture Sten, one of their late ruler's few surviving confidantes. But Sten, as usual, had his own agenda. For he knew something about the Eternal Emperor that would shake the show more Empire to its foundations. And to play his part, all Sten had to do was kill the five most powerful beings in the universe. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
With the Emperor gone, the Empire drops into turmoil. More than any other, this book seems to have a moral. The first part contains a purely military attempt to solve the problem plaguing the Empire, but when that fails, Sten turns to politics. Of course, Sten's idea of politics is bloody.
I love the Sten series, but this is not my favorite in the lot. The story is a little bit slower then the others and there is more telling then showing in some cases. Overall, still a really fun book to read and with great characters. The guys just did not have too much to do this book.
The series charts the rise of a relative nobody to captain of the Imperial Bodyguard, friend and ultimately betrayer of the Emperor. The author's own notes point out the falacy (as he sees it) of the older SF systems with galaxy spanning empires. The betrayal at the end of the series is thus essential so that the society can become a free democracy.
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Author Information
33+ Works 4,448 Members
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Goldmann (25005)
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Return of the Emperor
- Original publication date
- 1990
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 324
- Popularity
- 98,126
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.80)
- Languages
- Czech, English, German
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 10
- ASINs
- 2
