THE EMPIRE NEEDS A REFORMER The Sintaran Empire rules three hundred trillion subjects on 150,000 planets. Two trillion of them are government employees. Ruling over this vast bureaucracy is the Imperial Council. It’s only check: The Empress, whose every decree is binding law. The uneasy balance of power between the Council and the Throne is eroding. The corruption of the bureaucracy has reached staggering proportions when a true reformer ascends to the Throne. She has a long-term plan to reform the Empire. What remains to be seen is whether the new Empress and her young allies can succeed, and at what cost.

THE REFORMS MUST CONTINUE At the age of twenty-seven, Deanna Dunham Garrity has become the Empress of Sintar, absolute ruler of 150,000 worlds and their 300 trillion inhabitants. She would continue the reforms of her predecessor, but the Imperial Council stands in her way. How intractable will the Council be? How hard are they willing to push back to maintain their graft and corruption? Will the confrontation turn violent? And if it does, will the new Empress and her loyalists be able to prevail against the Council? And what of the Empire? Can even the sweeping Sintaran Empire survive the confrontation? INTERVIEW WITH RICH WEYAND How long did it take to write Usurper? About 55 days. Normally, I can write a novel in a month or so, averaging 2000 to 2500 words per day. I only averaged 1400 words a day on Usurper, because it has a lot of moving parts and because I didn't take a month off after completing it. I sort of took my time writing it instead. What's the basic plotline? Deanna becomes Empress of Sintar at age 27. We followed her in the first book, how she was cured of this terrible disease by Imperial medicine, how she got a scholarship to university, and how she became the Empress' assistant in trying to reform the corrupt bureaucracy. She feels she owes, literally, her whole life to the Empire, and she is determined to do right by it. This book follows her efforts to continue and step up her predecessor's reforms, against the plotting and machinations of the bureaucracy. Does the confrontation between Throne and Council turn violent? Yes, and that's all I'll say about it. Major spoilers are possible. Is there anything controversial in Usurper? We would find their justice system strange. They have police, and courts, and rights of evidence, trial by jury, and all the rest, just as most Western countries do. That is the system of low justice. But the sovereign, in this case the Empress, also has a system of high justice. She can find anyone guilty of crimes against the Throne. She is judge, jury, and executioner. That is likely to be strange for someone raised on Western values. What about the cover? That’s another incredible original artwork by Aaron Griffin, an exceptional young artist in the UK I found via the net. It depicts Deanna—now the Empress Ilithyia II—on the day of her coronation. The storm clouds gathering behind her are emblematic of the coming conflict. What comes next in EMPIRE? The Throne strikes back against the Council. The Throne must prevail for the Empire to survive.

The Council Revolt has started. The Council has struck at the Throne. As the Council plots to place their own candidate on the Throne, a single survivor is dragged out of the fires burning in the Imperial Residence. Hoping to take advantage of the capital’s chaos, enemies internal and external move against the Empire. With enemies without and within, can the new ruler hope to save the Sintaran Empire? INTERVIEW WITH RICH WEYAND Some readers were upset at you about the ending to the second book of EMPIRE. Yes, but it was inevitable. The Council would not subside, would not buckle under to the Throne. In fact, they were elevating even looser cannons into their midst to carry the fight to the Throne. And yet, the Throne had to let them strike first, to keep clean hands in the matter. There was only one way that was going to come out. This was planned from the start as a five-book series, right? At least. Five books were rough-plotted before I started. As it shook out, the first three books form a trilogy, the first EMPIRE trilogy. As such, the second book doesn’t have a happy ending, which is pretty typical of trilogies. There is at least one more trilogy in the EMPIRE universe. The main character of this book is Robert Allen Dunham? Bobby Dunham. Yes. EMPIRE was always the story of Bobby Dunham, from my very earliest plotting, for reasons that will become abundantly clear in the next trilogy. But if you look back to book 1, to the very beginning of the book, the first person you meet of that next generation is Bobby, out hunting at age fourteen. He is the hero of the series. And he takes the reign name Trajan? Yes. Trajan was the second of Rome’s so-called Five Good Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius. Trajan was the best of them, the best emperor Rome ever had, and perhaps the best emperor anyone ever had, anywhere. Like Bobby, he was a commoner and a military man, and instituted reforms and kept the peace, even as he suppressed border wars by the simple expedient of winning them. He is Bobby’s role model. How long did this book take to write? Thirty-three days, for 80,000 words. That’s about 2500 words per day average, which is a pretty comfortable pace for me. I write just about every day. I can have 5500 word days and 500 word days. It depends on how clear the plot right in front of me is. If it’s clear, I write about as fast as I can type, until I hit a spot where I can’t see what happens next. Then I go stare out the window. So you do make it up as you go along? Yes, absolutely. I often have no clue—or only a vague idea—of what is beyond the piece I’m writing at the moment. I had no idea that Amanda Peters existed until I was a quarter of the way into this book. She just came around the corner of the lane in the gardens one day, singing and dancing. It makes it fun and exciting for me to write, and I hope it also makes it fun and exciting to read. The cover continues your use of artist drawings for this series. Yes. Aaron Griffin is the artist once again. He’s a tremendously talented artist in the UK. I signed him for the whole series. What’s next in EMPIRE? The first book of the second trilogy, tentatively titled Warlord. This one won’t be out in a month, though. I don’t see it in my head yet, beyond the gross plot points. I have to think through a lot of military technology, not so I can describe it, but I have to know how it works or I can’t write about it. I can’t plot around it. Any hints about Warlord? Let’s just say that not everyone is happy about how well the Sintaran Empire is doing under its new management, and leave it at that.

THE EMPIRE’S NEW NAVYThe Emperor Trajan is building a powerful new navy for the Sintaran Empire. Remotely piloted warships can accelerate faster than humans can withstand, and ships spend so much time in hyperspace, a single crew can man multiple ships, solving the perennial manpower problem. But even with the help of a genius young team of design engineers, there’s a lot of work to do to even get to the point of building new ships. It will take years, years the Emperor may not have. Someone’s causing trouble, and war is coming. Will the Empire’s new navy be ready in time? THIS IS THE FOURTH BOOK OF EMPIRE

INTERSTELLAR WAR!Their resentment of Sintar’s success fanned by the Democracy of Planets, the Alliance has voted to wage war on Sintar. They are mustering their fleets and gathering their strength to take on the Imperial Navy. Over three million warships are gathering to deliver the blow that will bring the Empire to its knees, with seven million additional warships in reserve. But Emperor Trajan, aware of their war vote, can see them mustering their ships in the Empire’s top-secret hyperspace map. And he has no intention of waiting for their declaration of war. The Empire brings up its new navy, seven million new-design warships, plus eight million of the deadly little picket ships. Can the Empire prevail in this clash of titans?

ANOTHER INTERSTELLAR WAR!The Empire has won the war against the Alliance. But at the close of that war, an invasion fleet from the Democracy of Planets sought to annex Jasmine. So Jasmine annexed to Sintar, and Sintar destroyed that fleet, causing resentment that is driving the Democracy of Planets to go to war with Sintar. The Democracy of Planets is a much more deadly enemy than the Alliance. They have a new navy, too, with powerful new warships, and are much more of a military challenge. The Emperor’s strategy from the Sintar-Alliance war won’t work on the DP. Will the Emperor’s new strategy work? And if he wins the war, how will he ever win the peace? THE STUNNING CONCLUSION TO EMPIRE INTERVIEW WITH RICH WEYAND It sounds like the Democracy of Planets government gets sucked into a war they don’t want in EMPIRE: Conqueror. That’s right. The leadership doesn’t want a war, but they’ve been manipulating public opinion against Sintar for years. When the fleet sent to annex Jasmine is destroyed in EMPIRE: Warlord, it inflames their public opinion, and they have no choice but to proceed to war. This sounds like a tougher war than the one in EMPIRE: Warlord. Yes and no. The Alliance was a real threat to Sintar. Their strategy was good—to occupy portions of the Empire and force a peace on their terms—but their tactics were bad. In particular, they didn't know the Empire could see their forces mustering and already knew about the war vote. The Democracy of Planets is a different challenge. They have some structural weaknesses in their military posture. But it won't be enough to win the war. The Emperor has to fight the war in such a way as to win the peace. That's actually a tougher challenge. The Empress and the Co-Consul are there to help, though. Yes, and so is Saaret’s wife Suzanne. She’s the ‘everyman’ inserted into their councils. She has given me, since EMPIRE: Tyrant, a touchstone for the Emperor’s policies, as well as a person for the reader to use to learn what was going on. I see the new ideas group is back as well. They’ve been there all along, together with the business ideas group and the new ideas review group, as the Consulting function in Imperial administration. But you’re right, they’re explicitly back in EMPIRE: Conqueror, to research how to win the peace long term. They’re critical in advising the Emperor how to ensure the peace. What is the cover scene this time? It’s one of the confrontations between a main Sintar formation of thirty-two thousand ships and a main DP formation of twenty thousand ships. It’s more of a tactical display because the ships wouldn’t be anywhere near that close in a real confrontation. But the perspective did allow James Lewis-Vines, the artist, to showcase the difference between the new-design Sintaran warships and the new-design DP warships. How long did EMPIRE: Conqueror take to write? Thirty-seven days, so five to six weeks, pretty par for the course for an EMPIRE book. More interesting is that I finished the day before the first anniversary of starting EMPIRE: Reformer, so I wrote all six books in a single year. You have an Author’s Afterword at the end of EMPIRE: Conqueror. Yes, I wanted to talk to the reader a bit about the story, about how I write, and about my themes. In particular, I wanted to tell the reader the starting premise of the whole series. There’s a big reveal there.

WHAT’S UP WITH DALNIMIR? Reports coming out of Dalnimir are troubling. People opposed to the current planetary and provincial governor are getting mugged, they're getting arrested, some of them are even getting murdered in jail. It's three months' spacing to get from Julian to Dalnimir Province, in the Earth Sector, on the other side of the Empire. But Ann Turley and Paul Gulliver could use the time out of sight to let their notoriety fade a bit after the Julian Uprising. But can even Section Six's most successful team figure out who is at fault and set things right? More to the point, can they survive the attempt? INTERVIEW WITH RICH WEYAND So what's up in Empire 14? There are reports coming out of Dalnimir, a provincial capital in the Earth sector, that political opposition is being actively suppressed by the planetary governor. Planetary governors in the former Democracy of Planets are elected, and the opposition politicians and press to the current governor are having a run of bad luck. Like getting mugged, being jailed on minor offenses and then getting shivved in jail, that sort of thing. And Section Six is involved? Yes. Ann Turley and Paul Gulliver are a team after the Julian Uprising, and they go to Dalnimir to find out what's going on. It's four or five thousand light years away - it's all the way across the Empire - so it takes them three months to get there, but they need the time to fade from the news anyway. They're in disguise this time? Yes, they are using aliases and have disguised themselves a bit to avoid being linked to the Julian revolution in EMPIRE 13. He's posing as a university professor investigating crime and justice, and she's going as an investigative reporter looking into corruption. So they get made right away as trouble. Oh, yes. To get the rats to show up, they diguise themselves as cheese. What's on the cover? That's not a tank. No, it's an armored personnel carrier. The Imperial Marines get involved as mounted infantry, and an APC is their ride to work. What does Dalnimir mean? It's a corruption for the Russian dal'niy mir, which means 'far world.' It's only two hundred light-years from Earth, but back when it was first settled, that was a long ways, and the trip was full of risks. The planet has no axial tilt, however, so you can grow three crops a year, which was a big attraction.