Empress of a Thousand Skies
Young Adult Fiction
Penguin
February 7, 2017
Audiobook
320
For fans of Pierce Brown and Firefly comes an epic sci-fi fantasy that Kiersten White, author of And I Darken, calls "dazzling--an adventure as sweeping in scope as the galaxies it spans!”
Empress
Rhee, also known as Crown Princess Rhiannon Ta’an, is the sole surviving heir to a powerful dynasty. She’ll stop at nothing to avenge her family and claim her throne.
Fugitive
Aly has risen above his war refugee origins to find fame as the dashing star of a DroneVision show. But when he’s falsely accused of killing Rhee, he's forced to prove his innocence to save his reputation – and his life.
Madman
With planets on the brink of war, Rhee and Aly must confront a ruthless evil that threatens the fate of the entire galaxy.
Rhoda Belleza crafts a powerful saga of vengeance, warfare, and the true meaning of legacy in this exhilarating debut, perfect for readers of Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles and Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman's Illuminae Files.
WrensReads Review:
I think I liked this one more than I feel I liked it.
It’s Science Fiction based in space, so it kind of threw me for a loop there, but everyone around me was saying what an amazing book this was so of course I gave into peer pressure and picked it up!
What I really want to point out is how the author really strikes home with the racial discrimination. There are “Dusties” who are hated and thought to be dirty and worthless and we see the struggle of one of our main characters getting the hate, trying to overcome it and just barely dealing with it.
Rhee is a princess finally old enough to reclaim her throne. After a certain amount of unfortunate events though, she is on the run to save her life and to avenge her families untimely death. With the whole galaxy thinking she is dead though, how will she get back her throne? And who can she trust when she realizes all she’s ever known is a lie?
Rhee was annoying. She got better towards the end because she wasn’t as naive I guess, but her character was not one I enjoyed reading. I bet she gets better. Hopefully her character will continue to grow.
Alytosha, or “Aly”, is one of our main points of view. He is being framed for a horrendous crime that he had no part in and is the most wanted “criminal” in all the galaxies. He is well known on top of that because he was apart of some reality TV show. So his face was already recognizable before someone pushed blame on him for a crime he didn’t commit.
Speaking of TV shows, this guy complains a lot about the fact he can’t even scratch his head without everyone in the world knowing. Talk about your privacy issues.
Not to mention the fact that everyone in the galaxy has these “cubes” that basically records your life. It holds all your memories. So what happens when people don’t respect the universal rule to never take/read/see/ someone else’s cube?
I liked that these characters barely crossed paths for most of the books. They are linked but their stories are different. It will be exciting to see when they finally collide.
Oh! And I also liked that there was very little romance. Like the story focused on so many other aspects which I loved!
It shaped up to be a great read, Now to wait for until next year…
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