A Dark Space Opera Unfolds in the Shadow of a Crumbling Multi-species Empire, Driven by a Nihilistic Quest for Power
The central palace of Crysth is overrun; the empire has surrendered to an invading army led by Wilhelmina Ming, a traitor from its own capital city. However, the invaders can no longer control their divine power source--a being they worship as god--and now both invader and the invaded are trapped inside the palace with no way to rein in the eldritch force that has taken over, and no choice but to join together against it.
Ming's last hope is Speaker, the slain emperor's twin and former imperial steward who is somehow bonded with the deity. A wannabe artist and writer, Speaker has been held hostage by the invaders for months, forced to recount the final days of the empire in the hopes that something in these details might give a clue as to the god's desires and motives.
The Emperor's Twin is a haunting exploration of power, identity, and the terrifying intersections between the human body and the divine—the grotesque and the sublime—that questions the nature of control, survival, and the price of unrelenting ambition.
