Empire of Man

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The Empire of Man is a series of science fiction books by David Weber and John Ringo. It combines elements of space opera and military science fiction.

1 Plot summary
2 Books in the series
3 External links

[edit] Plot summary

The series tells the story of Prince Roger, the spoiled younger son of the Empress of the galaxy-spanning "Empire of Man", third in line to the throne and generally regarded as an over-handsome useless fop—part of which reputation he owes to the acts and status of his father, who is estranged from the empress. When he is sent to a backwater planet to "show the flag" at a native ceremony, he goes sulkily and reluctantly.

But sabotage sends his spaceship adrift to Marduk, a primitive world only nominally a part of the Empire of Man. There things rapidly get worse, for the spaceport has been betrayed to the sinister Saints, a star nation of religious zealots who make an obsession of ecological purity. The crew of the ship sacrifice themselves as a decoy so that Prince Roger and his bodyguards can take their shuttles to the surface unobserved.

Prince Roger and his bodyguard unit fight their way across half a "very hostile rain forest" planet populated by fearsome beasts, while successively forging alliances with a succession of local polities of various and varied societal archetypes ranging from hunter-gatherers to early gunpowder civilizations.

The third book of the series ends with the spaceport recaptured and Prince Roger about to start on his way back to civilization with the survivors of his bodyguard, as well as a sizable force of Mardukan allies. A complication is that he will not be welcomed home as he is believed dead, and leader of the coup attempt in which his brother and sister and their children had been killed.

The fourth book is set mainly on Earth, where the Empress is being mind-controlled by a group of high-ranking traitors, including Roger's father. Roger and his marine guards and allies must assault the heavily-defended palace to rescue the Empress and wrench control of the throne from the usurpers without first being destroyed by the imperial armed forces.

Baen Books has contracted three more books in this series to be written by David Weber and John Ringo. David Weber is writing the outlines and John Ringo will fill out the writing. According to the Baen website the gap between the fourth book (We Few) and the fifth will be at least as long as the gap between March to the Stars and We Few leading many to expect this book in late 2008 or early 2009.