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Crisis of Empire #4
Crown of Empire
When the High Secretary of the Pact, the ruler of a powerful empire, dies, the head of the armed services, powerful corporations, the High Secretary's children, and a secret cabal vie for power.
244 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1994
About the author
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
218 books481 followersA professional writer for more than forty years, Yarbro has sold over eighty books, more than seventy works of short fiction, and more than three dozen essays, introductions, and reviews. She also composes serious music. Her first professional writing - in 1961-1962 - was as a playwright for a now long-defunct children's theater company. By the mid-60s she had switched to writing stories and hasn't stopped yet.
After leaving college in 1963 and until she became a full-time writer in 1970, she worked as a demographic cartographer, and still often drafts maps for her books, and occasionally for the books of other writers.
She has a large reference library with books on a wide range of subjects, everything from food and fashion to weapons and trade routes to religion and law. She is constantly adding to it as part of her on-going fascination with history and culture; she reads incessantly, searching for interesting people and places that might provide fodder for stories.
In 1997 the Transylvanian Society of Dracula bestowed a literary knighthood on Yarbro, and in 2003 the World Horror Association presented her with a Grand Master award. In 2006 the International Horror Guild enrolled her among their Living Legends, the first woman to be so honored; the Horror Writers Association gave her a Life Achievement Award in 2009. In 2014 she won a Life Achievement Award from the World Fantasy Convention.
A skeptical occultist for forty years, she has studied everything from alchemy to zoomancy, and in the late 1970s worked occasionally as a professional tarot card reader and palmist at the Magic Cellar in San Francisco.
She has two domestic accomplishments: she is a good cook and an experienced seamstress. The rest is catch-as-catch-can.
Divorced, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area - with two cats: the irrepressible Butterscotch and Crumpet, the Gang of Two. When not busy writing, she enjoys the symphony or opera.
Her Saint-Germain series is now the longest vampire series ever. The books range widely over time and place, and were not published in historical order. They are numbered in published order.
Known pseudonyms include Vanessa Pryor, Quinn Fawcett, T.C.F. Hopkins, Trystam Kith, Camille Gabor.
After leaving college in 1963 and until she became a full-time writer in 1970, she worked as a demographic cartographer, and still often drafts maps for her books, and occasionally for the books of other writers.
She has a large reference library with books on a wide range of subjects, everything from food and fashion to weapons and trade routes to religion and law. She is constantly adding to it as part of her on-going fascination with history and culture; she reads incessantly, searching for interesting people and places that might provide fodder for stories.
In 1997 the Transylvanian Society of Dracula bestowed a literary knighthood on Yarbro, and in 2003 the World Horror Association presented her with a Grand Master award. In 2006 the International Horror Guild enrolled her among their Living Legends, the first woman to be so honored; the Horror Writers Association gave her a Life Achievement Award in 2009. In 2014 she won a Life Achievement Award from the World Fantasy Convention.
A skeptical occultist for forty years, she has studied everything from alchemy to zoomancy, and in the late 1970s worked occasionally as a professional tarot card reader and palmist at the Magic Cellar in San Francisco.
She has two domestic accomplishments: she is a good cook and an experienced seamstress. The rest is catch-as-catch-can.
Divorced, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area - with two cats: the irrepressible Butterscotch and Crumpet, the Gang of Two. When not busy writing, she enjoys the symphony or opera.
Her Saint-Germain series is now the longest vampire series ever. The books range widely over time and place, and were not published in historical order. They are numbered in published order.
Known pseudonyms include Vanessa Pryor, Quinn Fawcett, T.C.F. Hopkins, Trystam Kith, Camille Gabor.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 20, 2009
My freshmen year in college, I read two books. Okay, I read a heck of a lot more than two books, but these two books were different. They were fantasy books where each chapter was written by a different author. I don't think it worked because the only thing I can remember about the books is that one had wonderful cover art, and the other had a funky creature in it. Yarbro's Crown of Empire seems to be like those books. There are a total of four books, three of which feature David Drake writing with a different guest. This one is the only one not to feature Drake.
I should say that I haven't read the other books in the series, and I found this one at an used book store. I, therefore, have no idea what happened in the rest of the series and whether or not this book actually works with the rest of the series.
The book is a quick and good read. It's not deep. There is no excellent and deep characterization. There is a one H**l of a body count. The book is action packed. It starts at a break neck speed and doesn't stop until the end. There is a wonderful twist towards the end of the book, which I found to be extremely funny.
While the majority of the characters lack depth, two of them stand out. They would be Ver and Jessine who transcend the illicit lovers. The character of Wiley is annoying, and the character of Tira, predictable.
The action of the book makes up for the lack of characterization, though I don't think it would have been worth the orignal cover price of $4.99. It was worth the $3.50 I paid though.
I should say that I haven't read the other books in the series, and I found this one at an used book store. I, therefore, have no idea what happened in the rest of the series and whether or not this book actually works with the rest of the series.
The book is a quick and good read. It's not deep. There is no excellent and deep characterization. There is a one H**l of a body count. The book is action packed. It starts at a break neck speed and doesn't stop until the end. There is a wonderful twist towards the end of the book, which I found to be extremely funny.
While the majority of the characters lack depth, two of them stand out. They would be Ver and Jessine who transcend the illicit lovers. The character of Wiley is annoying, and the character of Tira, predictable.
The action of the book makes up for the lack of characterization, though I don't think it would have been worth the orignal cover price of $4.99. It was worth the $3.50 I paid though.
December 2, 2015
As soon as I opened this series-ender, the wide margins and large-ish typeface made me suspect that it was finished in haste, and the rest of it bears this out. It remains a fun and interesting read, but not the opus that I hoped would pull together the parallel plotlines of the previous three.
The book begins shortly before the other three do, and ends shortly after. The instigating event, as with all of them, is the assassination of a Space Emperor, but this one takes place much closer to that event spacewise, as it deals with factions tearing apart the Empire's capitol planet in an effort to control the succession. The Emperor's three surviving family members (son, daughter, trophy-wife) are given equal time in alternating chapters as they team up with oppositely gendered protectors who try to get them to safety and may or may not have their best interests at heart.
The story makes good use of technologies and alien races established in the others, and adds to it a nice bunch of intrigue where no one knows who else to trust (the Imperial family least of all), and it brings in characters from another book to an extent unprecedented in this series. But...a lot of it feels like a series of sketches that would have had meat added later. It's a good structure but without enough specificity, and with too much of the time between each character's alternating chapters completely unaccounted for. Example: someone is driving a tank at the end of one chapter, then piloting a flying car the next time we see them. Not an unbelievable development, given the chaotic situation, but it seems like the transition would be something worth mentioning.
It also doesn't add much new insight into the nuts & bolts of how the Imperial military technologies worked, which made the previous books feel real despite their high-adventure or horror tones. But the novelty of seeing this amazing center of wealth and power tear itself apart so quickly is enough to make it a good, very quick, read.
The book begins shortly before the other three do, and ends shortly after. The instigating event, as with all of them, is the assassination of a Space Emperor, but this one takes place much closer to that event spacewise, as it deals with factions tearing apart the Empire's capitol planet in an effort to control the succession. The Emperor's three surviving family members (son, daughter, trophy-wife) are given equal time in alternating chapters as they team up with oppositely gendered protectors who try to get them to safety and may or may not have their best interests at heart.
The story makes good use of technologies and alien races established in the others, and adds to it a nice bunch of intrigue where no one knows who else to trust (the Imperial family least of all), and it brings in characters from another book to an extent unprecedented in this series. But...a lot of it feels like a series of sketches that would have had meat added later. It's a good structure but without enough specificity, and with too much of the time between each character's alternating chapters completely unaccounted for. Example: someone is driving a tank at the end of one chapter, then piloting a flying car the next time we see them. Not an unbelievable development, given the chaotic situation, but it seems like the transition would be something worth mentioning.
It also doesn't add much new insight into the nuts & bolts of how the Imperial military technologies worked, which made the previous books feel real despite their high-adventure or horror tones. But the novelty of seeing this amazing center of wealth and power tear itself apart so quickly is enough to make it a good, very quick, read.
February 1, 2021
i can't even- this story was so dull. i couldn't keep track of who was who- it was all fighting and dialog. i didn't even know where the characters were half the time. i'm definitely putting this on my "do not recommend" list. disappointing because in general, i really like this author.
October 29, 2007
This is the only review I've written here so far. I CANNOT tell you how much this book infuriated me. Crisis of Empire was a GREAT concept, and EXTREMELY well-executed. Until some brain-dead editor decided that Chelsea Quinn Yarbro would make a great anchor-author to the series WTF!!!!!?????!!!!! Three AMAZING novels in a row, and then some God Forsaken Glorified SHORT STORY of HORRIFIC quality and VERY dubious relevance to the rest of the series??????? Honestly, after three very hefty novels, who thought a 28,000 word (I was so mad I counted) short story to end it all could POSSIBLY do it justice!?!?!?!?!?!
Honestly, this was the worst ending to a series I've ever encountered. I felt TOTALLY cheated out of my $6. I would'nt pick up a lottery ticket if it had Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's name on it.
Words have not yet evolved in the English Language to indicate how much she, and this piece of crap, suck.
Honestly, this was the worst ending to a series I've ever encountered. I felt TOTALLY cheated out of my $6. I would'nt pick up a lottery ticket if it had Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's name on it.
Words have not yet evolved in the English Language to indicate how much she, and this piece of crap, suck.
October 15, 2015
Totally worthless book about chaos in a royal family some time in the far future or far past.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews