Vows of Empire

The Bloodright Trilogy, Book 3

By: Emily Skrutskie

Narrated by: James Fouhey, Anthony Rey Perez, Carolyn Kang, Siho Ellsmore

Two young princes on opposite sides of a war must decide between loyalty and love in this galaxy-shaking finale of the Bloodright Trilogy.

“Skrutskie handily sticks the landing. Series fans are sure to be pleased.”—Publishers Weekly

Gal and Ettian have never been farther apart. Once, they were roommates and best friends, each suffocating under a secret of galactic consequence. When Gal’s came to light—that he was heir to the Umber Empire and all of its brutal conquest—the two were forced to flee their military academy, fall in with a brewing rebellion to reclaim the Archon Empire from Umber’s grasp, and face their long-held feelings for each other.

Then the rebellion discovered Gal’s identity and to save his life, Ettian had no choice but to unveil his own secret: that he was the long-lost heir to the Archon throne. With Gal as a political prisoner, Ettian began the fight to restore his own empire—and to open Gal’s eyes to the possibility of a galaxy reclaimed from Umber’s greed. But just when Gal was starting to come around, a team of Umber operatives rescued him from Archon’s clutches and dragged him home to take up his crown.

Now, separated for the first time and in full command of the might of their respective forces, the star-crossed rulers find themselves truly at odds. And with the war reaching a tipping point, the time has finally come for Gal and Ettian to confront what they owe their empires, their friends, and each other if they’re ever to forge a universe where the two of them can be together.

©2022 Emily Skrutskie (P)2022 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Readers will easily jump back into the complex political machinations of Skrutskie’s beautifully detailed world. . . . Skrutskie handily sticks the landing. Series fans are sure to be pleased.”—Publishers Weekly

“A good blend of worldbuilding, fast-paced action, intrigue, but, most of all, complicated relationships . . . Those who enjoy exciting Young Adult LGBT Sci-fi or Space Opera should definitely give it a go.”—Books of My Heart

“Vows of Empire neatly wraps up the Bloodright Trilogy, providing satisfying endings for its trio. . . . Worth every second.”—Wealth of Geeks

great gay space opera

Fantastic young adult series about some gay monarchies IN SPACE. I was a bit iffy on the messages being sent by the constant focus on blood-right and genetic determinism in the series, but the end had the right message.

Favorite trilogy!

This trilogy has been EVERYTHING and I devoured this last installment in one weekend. This is the space opera I’ve been waiting for. And what a fantastic ending to an incredible series!!!

Great Series with minor issues.

First off as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I am always fascinated with our stories. And I sometimes take for granted the amazing opportunity I’ve been granted by living in the age that we do. Especially with how many amazing books that we have on hand that goes through the lives and legacies of LGBTQ+ people. However we still do not have what heterosexual people have in the way of fantastical stories about people who don’t and couldn’t exist in our lifetimes. That’s why I love love love this series. It challenges tue science fiction status quo by not only dealing in the gay relationship between the two main characters, but also the the subtlety of other LGBTQ+ relationships in the galaxy.

It goes above and beyond being a dramatic space opera with twists and turns a plenty and rivals the greats. 10/10 for the story and would recommend it for any and all people not tied down to a heteronormative existence.

The literal only fault is the readings of Wen and Hanji from a performance level. They mispronounced proper nouns established by the first two performers and soured the tail end of this book. But all in all a fantastic series none the less.

Gwyn is abusive and it takes a weird hetero turn

It was a good story till she wrote Gwyn into a manipulative user and she took the queerness out of it. Straight marriage was not needed nor desired. Puke.

An amazing finale.

I love this trilogy! I was counting down the hours to when this dropped, and could barely put it down when I started. I’m lucky i had today off from work because, ruttin’ hell— I wouldn’t have made it otherwise!

I love the structure of this book, how there are multiple points of views that you can experience throughout it. I will say there are definitely parts of this story I had to completely stop what I was doing to really take in what was happening— and the different twists and turns made my head spin! I love that about a book!!

Overall a fantastic conclusion to the trilogy, with plenty of blanket-kick worthy moments and events that caused my bedroom wall to take more than enough frustrated shouting. I enjoyed this final book and the story overall, dare I say this is a new comfort series for me!

Oddly paced ending, but worthwhile

The story comes to a climax at an odd point, leading to a careening endgame. Fantastic performances by the voice performers

Ending is Predictable

It's a good story, but I figured out the ending before starting the book.

A sad series of fumbled twists in a great series.

LGBTQ science fiction is very difficult to find and what is generally found has several tropes in it that for some reason publishers feel is required for the books to be published. As a LGBTQ person myself I accept this because I want to see representation. Sadly the problems with this book have nothing to do with tropes poorly executed. Below I'll post a few issues I have with the book that have been mildly sanitized of spoilers.

TLDR: plot twist literally ruined four chapters before it happens and the removal and change of one character for a third of the book.

I actually never finished this book, I put it down with a few scant hours left because of a very poorly executed plot twist. One of the characters is assassinated by somebody that they adore in order to scream the words "freedom from blood right". This would make a very compelling twist and a sad ending that could have turned this book into a decent tragedy. However a few chapters before the author decided to show us that death was completely recoverable and everyone in power in this setting that is not the main characters is completely inept.

Earlier in the book we see several individuals killed horribly at a dinner party. Then just before the large plot twists that we were supposed to be shocked by we set see them alive and well crawling around inside of a starship. 4 chapters later a main character is assassinated. What could have been an interesting twist is completely ruined by the fact that we have seen that death is completely reversible.

To add to that disappointment we also have that character completely removed from the book until the epilogue. His chapters being removed from the book means that the person who killed him becomes the main focus of his half of the story. I could accept this except it's such a total change on that character's part that it is jarring and counter to what we've seen of their entire personality. Presumably this was done to have us be shocked that the character that was dead is actually alive unfortunately again death isn't permanent, and we've been cleanly showed this.

I feel that the author was either done with the series before this book or hit writer's block and decided to throw in a twist that they had already ruined.