Fortunes of the Imperium by Jody Lynn Nye was a book that I kept thinking I would stop reading all the way up to the end. The principal problem for me was that it has a social structure that I completely disapprove of --- basically an emperor and a ruling class of aristocrats that, while completely self-absorbed ninnies, are worshiped by “ordinary” humans. Despite this I kept reading because I was curious about how certain plot points would resolve and in the end found that I had read the whole book. Plot wise we have a vaguely Wooster like character who is sent to a neighboring sector of space to find out why trade is backed up. There is a group of merchants who have been imprisoned for smuggling and are facing the death penalty. There is power hungry political adviser. There is an aristocratic girl fleeing from the importunities of a caddish non-aristocrat. And in the end (spoiler) everything works out well for our hero.While I still really don’t like the social structure in the book and find that the people/aliens portrayed are far too contemporary for a time so far in the future that Earth is referred to as “lost Earth” I would recommend it to readers’ who like plot heavy SF.
