Empress of Forever – Max Gladstone

Vivian Liao is a prodigy, in a dsytopian near-future that crushes trouble-makers. She has one shot at surviving - a call-it-a-worm of her creation that can take control of the internet. That shot is interrupted, and she finds herself thousands of years in the future. In this future she is the only person without a ‘soul’ - an innate connection to the computational Cloud that pervades the universe. And yet the Cloud - or something - responds to her in some ways. She can unlock anything.

The Empress rules this future. She controls….well….anything she cares to control, and she is not benevolent. We are pretty sure it was the Empress who interrupted Vivian, though we don’t know why she would bother. All Vivian wants is to go home. She isn’t planning to go up against the Empress, but she may not have a choice. Especially once she unlocks the Empress’s arch-enemy.

It’s a delightful book, tightly scripted. Nothing is wasted as the story spirals towards her encounter with the Empress.