The Last Emperox

Cardenia Wu-Patrick rules as Emperox Grayland II, and she has already outlasted several assassination and deposition plots. New conspiracies are forming even as the old ones fall away.

The Flow streams that link the star systems of the Interdependency are collapsing. Only one planet, End, can keep humans alive without outside support. The exiled Nohamapetan family has taken End and sealed it off to guard their own power, while billions of refugees have no other place to go.

Nadashe Nohamapetan gathers allies to bring the Emperox down. Cardenia answers with two partners: her lover Marce Claremont, a physicist who is following a theoretical new Flow stream toward End, and Kiva Lagos, a foul-mouthed ally. Together they try to break the blockade and save what remains of civilization.

This is science fiction and political intrigue, with the physics of the Flow driving the stakes. The tone is sharply funny. It is the final volume of the Interdependency trilogy.