Ascendant Sun is the direct sequel to The Last Hawk, in which Kelric, heir to the Skolian Empire, crash landed his fighter on the Restricted planet of Coba and was imprisoned by the powerful mistresses of the great estates. After eighteen years of living in their gilded cage, Kelric finally made his escape.
Kelric returns to Skolian space, only to find the Empire in control of the Allied forces of Earth, thanks to the upheaval of the Radiance War. With little more than the clothes on his back and with his family imprisoned by the Allieds, Kelric is forced to take work on a merchant vessel. But when that vessel enters Euban space, Kelric finds his worst nightmare realized: he is auctioned as a slave "provider" to the cruel Aristos, who subject slaves to torture and sex as the ultimate aphrodesiac.
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"Hearing that Kelric was going to end up as a provider I kept thinking, hasn't the man suffered enough? I liked how everything ended up working but I so wanted him to realize that Jaibriol III is Saus's son."
— Stasha (4 out of 5 stars)
“Series veterans will find this to be yet another fast-paced and pleasing entry in the Saga of the Skolian Empire.”
— Publishers Weekly“Harvard-trained physicist Asaro continues to astound by straddling the SF and romance genres so adroitly, alternating between chin-rubbing speculations on quantum theory and blushingly steamy sex scenes.”
— Amazon.com, editorial review“Anna Fields creates clear pictures of a variety of characters with a range of motives, including ‘bionic’ humans and computers whose artificial intelligence gives them more personality than some of the people. Once again, Fields brings her formidable narration skills to a story of adventure and political intrigue.”
— AudioFile" Next novel that follows Kelric's escape and reunion with his family. Not quite as good as Last Hawk but definitely has some good points. "
— Becca, 9/20/2013" Mills & Boon in Space with a smattering of hard physics. Should have stopped after the first novel, which was great. "
— Galalass, 4/18/2012" a cheesy classic-scifi continuation of the Skolia series. Asaro's tone mixes square engineer-mathmatician scifi with would-be pulp romance to mixed effect "
— Matt, 6/21/2011" Yay! More Skolian-Trader interaction. I definitely like this series more when they continue the main conflict. "
— Whitney, 9/17/2010" fun and good character development, as usual for the author "
— Patrick, 6/30/2010" Starts out okay, then rapidly devolves into a romance/soft porn novel. Improbable primary character/hero and waaaayy too much emotion. If this is the way all her novels are written, it is difficult to imagine how she could possibly have won a Nebula Award. "
— Richard, 3/18/2010" fun and good character development, as usual for the author "
— Patrick, 6/17/2009" "Super-Sexy Space-Stud" snort! <br/> <br/>Kelric is a cool character, but I like Tarquine most of the Eubians so far (I think you're supposed to, actually) "
— Susan, 10/20/2008" Yay! More Skolian-Trader interaction. I definitely like this series more when they continue the main conflict. "
— Whitney, 10/13/2007Catherine Asaro writes science fiction, fantasy, and romance in six series and three stand-alone novels. The Quantum Rose won the 2001 Nebula Award for Best Novel, and The Spacetime Pool won the 2008 Nebula Award for Best Novella. She grew up near Berkeley, California. She earned a BS degree in chemistry with highest honors from UCLA, an MA degree in physics, and a PhD in chemical physics from Harvard University.
Kate Fleming (a.k.a. Anna Fields) (1965–2006), winner of more than a dozen Earphones Awards and the prestigious Audie Award in 2004, was one of the most respected narrators in the industry. Trained at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, she was also a director, producer, and technician at her own studio, Cedar House Audio.