I really enjoyed the first book in this series (and several others by Nye) so had been looking forward to this. It really didn't disappoint.

The Imperium series is a very person-focused kind of science fiction, and this volume even more so than the first. Personalities and interactions are the core of the story. Although we open with a dramatic prologue that sets the scene for the coming mission, even that is primarily interested in the innocents caught up in first bureaucracy, then crime. Soon we are back with Lord Thomas Kinago and his thoughts, and here we will chiefly stay. Overwhelmingly, the book consists of either Kinago talking to other characters, or Kinago thinking about other people.

Nye has slightly tweaked her approach since the last book. Having established the 'frivolous noble' aspect of Kinago, she trusts us to bear it in mind and moves on, delving a little more into his personality. We see the deep (if fleeting) enthusiasms that seize him, this time in the form of superstition and divination. His sincere but academic interest is nicely balanced, allowing him to immerse himself in fortune-telling and mysticism as a loving exploration of human psychology, and to thoroughly enjoy playing the wizard. At the same time, his firm disbelief and disavowal of occult power keeps him sympathetic (he never seems to be toying with others, but trying to share his enthusiasm with them) and enhances that sense of dilettantism that marks out the character.

Despite this new hobby, and regular immature impulses, I felt a definite sense that Kinago had grown since the first book began. Throughout this story, his genuine desire to serve his people and his deep affection for not just humanity, but pretty much everything, is a strong and recurring theme. There are no foolish indulgences here, at least not 'onstage', though one is mentioned in the backstory. What we see instead is the way his enthusiasms, and his continuing naivety, can plunge him into trouble. His sheltered upbringing and narrow understanding of others is not yet discarded as mere backstory; his fortune-telling not only gets him into trouble, but causes serious unrest and distress that he had simply not anticipated.

As the primary viewpoint character, and the only first-person narrator, the story is highly coloured by Kinago's playful and somewhat childish personality. We see the impulses that he stamps down, as well as those he yields to, and the sympathetic reasoning behind his sometimes curious decisions. It also reinforces the fact that although he may appear a foolish fop, Kinago is actually a kind, faithful, intelligent and observant man. His care for and interest in others is constantly visible, though often dotted with frivolity. His relationship with Parsons has also grown subtly; unlike the first book, he no longer struggles against Parsons' inscrutability and secrecy, but accepts whatever oddities it produces, with a sense of trust rather than impotence. When dealing with the merchant prisoners, he is full of compassion, but the political ramifications are more prominent in his mind than they previously might have been - he is learning.

As always, Nye doesn't neglect the supposedly-minor characters either. The old crew are back in force; they take a slight step back in this volume, but I still enjoyed the brief and evocative presence of each of these characters, and am intrigued to see what will become of them. There is a clear sense of the affection that has grown up between them and Kinago, despite the social gulf between them, and each has a distinct and pleasing relationship with our hero.

The step back, of course, is necessary because of the new characters who appear, and demand fair treatment. The ruthless and despicable Bertus are not precisely appealing, but there is a touch of something about them that demands some kind of sympathy. The two ladies who join the Bertus are not simply sketches; Nye does nothing by halves, and these two apparently throwaway characters are painted vividly and individually, leaving me wanting to know more about their lives and motivations. The Autocracy court is formal enough that it's hard to get a good read on anyone, but those uctus we do meet more intimately brim with life. The framed merchants, who get their own viewpoint chapters, become as rich and appealing in those few chapters as many sci-fi protagonists achieve in entire volumes. The Autocrat herself is an enchanting... counterpart, I suppose, to Kinago himself, and I really hope to see more of her in future. In fact, I can't think of a single named character I *don't* feel an urge to know more about.

And what of the plot, you say? In its outlines, it's relatively straightforward, another political gambit like that of the first volume. This has more of the mystery to it, and it was a fun and clever one. Nye makes no bones about laying the trail far in advance, allowing the reader plenty of time to work out the broad strokes of the scheme, but there were plenty of touches I didn't work out until they were explained. The pacing felt excellent, with truth unrolling gradually throughout the story. The prose is clean, lively and confident, and always laced with a sense of whichever character is driving at the time. The climax is satisfyingly dramatic, with that mixture of the cool and the daft that makes me like Kinago so much.

I have only two minor reservations about this book. There were a mere handful of simple editing glitches, which I suspect came about in the conversion to ebook - a stray extra word here and there. Also, it ended and the next one isn't out yet. ( )

As I was reading I was working out the review in my head, developing carefully worded comparisons with Miles vK, Bertie Wooster, and, of course, Retief. But, somewhere around the middle, the story took a nose dive. The last half of the book is really pretty awful, with badly conceived local characters and a denouement that is completely stupid because the same result could have been achieved more efficiently with a quiet spoonful of poison or a sharp whack on the head. The elaborate activity that forms the plot is unneeded for such a tiny objective and, as the elaborate activity would be grotesquely expensive, no one would ever attempt it for such a small return. I was terribly disappointed.

I received a review copy of Fortunes of the Imperium by Jody Lynn Nye (Baen Books) through NetGalley.com. ( )