Robert Allen Dunham IV, the Emperor Trajan, is dead. Daniel Whittier Parnell, the Heir to the Throne, is three weeks' spacing away. In the interregnum, renegade sector governors advance their own candidate for the Throne, Provence Sector Governor Jerome Goulet. The Galactic Empire hovers on the brink of civil war. Amanda Peters comes up with a daring plan to save the Empire, while putting the proper Heir on the Throne. Ann Turley, Paul Gulliver, Marie Louise Bouchard and Dieter Stauss conspire with Peters to carry out her plan, under the very nose of the would-be Emperor.

Once more, the fate of the Empire hangs on Amanda's insight and cunning in her most high-stakes move of all!

INTERVIEW WITH RICH WEYAND

So this is the conclusion of another trilogy?

Yes. The EMPIRE series is constructed as a series of trilogies. While each individual book has an ending, in that the conflict that is the major feature of that book is resolved, the big story arcs are completed in the third volume of each trilogy. Each trilogy includes enough background that it can be read on its own, independent of the other trilogies in the series, though I think the best experience is to read them all through.

And what is the big story arc of this trilogy?

The aging Emperor. It's not much of a spoiler, given the cover illustration and the title, that Emperor Trajan dies at the opening of this third book. The big problem is that the Heir to the Throne is over a thousand light-years away, on Garland. It will take him three weeks to get back, which is more than enough time for people to cause trouble.

Who are the movers and shakers in this book?

The good guys are all people we've met before. Amanda Peters, the Emperor's widow; Daniel Parnell, the Heir to the Throne; Marie Louise Bouchard and her mother, Marena Prieto; and Ann Turley and Paul Gulliver, the Section Six agents. The bad guys are new to this book.

Amanda Peters is how old in this book? How big of a role does she play?

She's 88 years old at the beginning of EMPIRE: Succession. I hadn't expected Amanda to play that large a role when I started the book, but she was right there in the Imperial Palace, had the loyalty of the staff, and felt a personal responsibility to see Bobby's preferred Heir on the Throne. Between that and her understanding of people and power, she was the obvious character to be the ringleader of the plan to install the rightful Heir without causing a civil war.

With this trilogy concluded, what's next for EMPIRE?

The next trilogy is another one from me, the Renewal Trilogy. A couple hundred years after EMPIRE: Succession, the Empire is deteriorating. Spiraling into decline. Why is that, and can the sitting Emperor save the situation? After that, it's at least one trilogy from Stephanie Osborn. Empire 10, 11, and 12 is the Section Six trilogy. It continues the story of Nick Ashton as he sets up and runs the Emperor's private intelligence operation. That will fill in the gap we left in the numbering scheme.

And these will continue coming out on a monthly basis?

That's the plan. We'll see if we can pull it off.