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Synopsis

From E. E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman, to George Lucas' Star Wars, the politics and process of Empire have been a major subject of science fiction's galaxy-spanning fictions. The idiom of the Galactic Empire allows science fiction writers to ask (and answer) questions that are shorn of contemporary political ideologies and allegiances. This simple narrative slight of hand allows readers and writers to see questions and answers from new and different perspectives.

The stories in this book do just that. What social, political, and economic issues do the organizing structure of "empire" address? Often the size, shape, and fates of empires are determined not only by individuals, but by geography, natural forces, and technology. As the speed of travel and rates of effective communication increase, so too does the size and reach of an Imperial bureaucracy. Sic itur ad astra -- "Thus one journeys to the stars."

At the beginning of the twentieth century, writers such as Kipling and Twain were at the forefront of these kinds of narrative observations, but as the century drew to a close, it was writers like Iain M. Banks who helped make science fiction relevant. That tradition continues today, with award-winning writers like Ann Leckie, whose 2013 debut novel Ancillary Justice hinges upon questions of imperialism and empire.

Here then is a diverse collection of stories that asks the questions that science fiction asks best. Empire: How? Why? And to what effect?

Table of Contents:

• "Winning Peace" [Jackaroo] (2007) novelette by Paul J. McAuley
• "Night's Slow Poison" [Imperial Radch] (2012) short story by Ann Leckie
• "All the Painted Stars" (2012) short story by Gwendolyn Clare
• "Firstborn" (2005) novelette by Brandon Sanderson
• "Riding the Crocodile" (2005) novella by Greg Egan
• "The Lost Princess Man" (2009) novelette by John Barnes
• "The Waiting Stars" [Universe of Xuya] (2013) novelette by Aliette de Bodard
• "Alien Archaeology" [Polity Universe] (2007) novella by Neal Asher
• "The Muse of Empires Lost" (2006) novelette by Paul Berger
• "Ghostweight" (2011) novelette by Yoon Ha Lee
• "A Cold Heart" (2014) short story by Tobias S. Buckell
• "The Colonel Returns to the Stars" (2004) novella by Robert Silverberg
• "The Impossibles" [Retrieval Artist] (2011) novelette by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• "Utriusque Cosmi" (2009) novelette by Robert Charles Wilson
• "Section Seven" (2003) short story by John G. Hemry
• "Invisible Empire of Ascending Light" (2008) short story by Ken Scholes
• "The Man with the Golden Balloon" [The Great Ship Universe] (2008) novella by Robert Reed
• "Looking Through Lace" [Looking Through Lace 1] (2003) novella by Ruth Nestvold
• "A Letter from the Emperor" (2010) short story by Steve Rasnic Tem
• "The Wayfarer's Advice" [The Imperials Saga] (2010) novelette by Melinda M. Snodgrass
• "Seven Years from Home" (2010) novelette by Naomi Novik
• "Verthandi's Ring" (2007) short story by Ian McDonald

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