2016 SF, second of its trilogy. Hailimi has survived one plot to depose
her, but there are more waiting their turn…
There are several ways this could have gone. The one I wanted to
read was along the lines of Hail using her hard-won interpersonal
skills to win over potential allies and make foes betray themselves;
it's not Wagers' fault that that mostly isn't this book.
Rather, she reaches out to try to establish an understanding with the
neighbouring polity (that's been saying "no, no, those aren't our
shock troops invading your planet"), goes to a meeting on a planet
known for its neutrality… and the latest conspiracy, again a
combination of internal and external players, stages an attack, makes
it look as though she's dead, and takes over at home. And the rest of
the book is dealing with that, using her old gunrunner contacts to
call in seed resources and use them as leverage to set herself up as a
credible empress again even if she isn't holding the capital.
(My own feeling, given opposition broadcasts saying "the Empress is
dead and that's why we're seizing power", is that she should
immediately broadcast "oh no I'm not", even if she needs to stay in
hiding for the moment—so that she presents potential loyalists not
with a choice between a possible usurper and confused anarchy, but
rather between an actual usurper and the rightful ruler. But hey.)
This isn't the sort of SF that explores ideas which don't fit in the
real world—it wouldn't be impossible to play this out in a lower-tech
setting—but it's also not the pseudo-setting that one tends to meet in
romantic SF, there only to provide a background for All the Feels.
Good stuff.