<DIV><P>#1 <I>New York Times </I>bestselling author Westerfeld continues one of the first great space operas of this century<BR><BR>Scott Westerfeld, <I>New York Times</I> bestselling author of <I>Uglies</I>, <I>Pretties</I>, and <I>Specials</I>, reached new heights of excitement with <I>The Risen Empire</I> and left readers begging for more. He delivers the dazzling payoff in book two, <I>The Killing of Worlds</I>.<BR><BR>The immortal Emperor can grant a form of eternal life-after-death, creating an elite known as the Risen, and so has ruled the eighty worlds unchallenged for sixteen hundred years. The only thing he fears are the Rix, machine-augmented humans who worship AI compound minds. They are dedicated to replacing his prolonged rule with an eternal cybernetic dynasty of their own.<BR><BR>Brilliant tactician Captain Laurent Zai of the Imperial Frigate Lynx faces a suicide mission: stopping the next thrust of the Rix invasion with just his own vessel. While ship-to-ship combat rages among the stars, Zai's lover, Senator Nara Oxham, is caught in a deadly political fencing match with the Emperor himself. The Emperor has a terrible secret, a secret Nara is in danger of finding out, a secret for which he would countenance the killing of worlds.</P></DIV>