Vortex (Sten #7)

Hailed as a "landmark science fiction series," the Sten novels have thrilled millions of readers all over the world. Set three thousand years in the future, they tell the tale of a tough, street-wise orphan who escapes his fate as factory planet “delinq” to become the strong right-hand of the most powerful man in the Universe -- a virtually immortal figure known to his billons of subjects as "The Eternal Emperor." THE SEVENTH ADVENTURE The Eternal Emperor had returned at last from the dead, to pick up the pieces of his crumbling Empire. But even that great leader could not halt the Empire’s decline alone. And so Sten — master spy, military strategist, and assassin — found himself appointed Ambassador Plenipotentiary to the Altaic Cluster, where a brewing civil war threatened the stability of the Empire itself. Quelling a civil war is nothing new for Sten, but as the war intensifies, he begins to suspect that he is up against more than a mere local disturbance. Someone — operating in deep–cover and seemingly backed by the highest authorities — is working behind the scenes to manipulate events and escalate disaster. And that someone wants nothing more than to see Sten dead… THE STEN SERIES Sten The Wolf Worlds The Court of a Thousand Suns Fleet of the Damned Revenge of the Damned The Return of the Emperor Vortex Empire’s End