“Gladstone has recklessly folded space and time in order to project a galaxy-sized adventure into this book-sized container. Take care when you open it.”
—Howard Tayler, Hugo Award winner
“Empress of Forever blasts through a vast sparkling cosmos, powered by myth and boundless imagination, crewed by characters you can’t help but love.”
—Hannu Rajaniemi, author of The Quantum Thief
“A fast-paced thrill ride and a breakneck epic that explores a wildly, boldly imagined universe, filled with awe and wonder.”
—John Chu, Hugo Award-winning author
“This is what ‘big’ science fiction is for—challenging ideas, spread over an epic canvas with a set of characters that are both fantastical and perfectly human (even the alien ones).”
—Geoffrey Thorne, showrunner, Avengers: Black Panther’s Quest
“A marriage of Star Wars, Iain M. Banks, Hannu Rajaniemi, and K. J. Bishop, but with more pop culture references.”
—Joel Cunningham, B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MAX GLADSTONE is a fencer, a fiddler, and a two-time finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. He is fluent in Mandarin and has taught English in China. He is the author of the Hugo Award–nominated Craft Sequence of novels, a game developer, and the showrunner for the fiction serial, Bookburners. Max lives and writes in Somerville, Massachusetts.
Website: www.maxgladstone.com, or sign up for email updates here.
Twitter: @maxgladstone
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Acknowledgments
Also by Max Gladstone
Praise
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
EMPRESS OF FOREVER
Copyright © 2019 by Max Gladstone
All rights reserved.
Cover art by Tommy Arnold
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates
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New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC.
The Library of Congress has catalogued the print edition as follows:
Names: Gladstone, Max, author.
Title: Empress of forever / Max Gladstone.
Description: First Edition. | New York: Tor, 2019. | “A Tom Doherty Associates Book.”
Identifiers: LCCN 2018054087 | ISBN 9780765395818 (trade pbk.) | ISBN 9780765395832 (ebook)
Subjects: | GSAFD: Fantasy fiction.
Classification: LCC PS3607.L343 E47 2019 | DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record avilable at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018054087
eISBN 9780765395832
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First Edition: June 2019
Empress of Forever Page 56