The Throne of Madness — S.P. Somtow

Kelver had been chosen by a heretic to be the chosen one who would bring down a galactic empire that had lasted twenty thousand years and controlled a million worlds. He was sent to Uran s'Varek, the vast artificial sphere build around the black hole at the heart of the galaxy, to be trained in the ways of the High Inquest, the godlike elite who ruled the known universe.Instead, he fell in love with the beautiful, cruel White Inquestrix Siriss, and the violet-eyed boy Arryk — was entranced by the singing city of Shentrazjit — wept at the sepulcher of worlds — made love in a desert of powdered chocolate — and was finally possessed by the Throne of Madness, whose unimaginable power came from the deaths of stars.The Inquestor Series, a dazzling future history of a galactic empire of shattering beauty and brutality, was iconic science fiction of the 1980s by World Fantasy Award and Campbell Award winner S.P. Somtow, who created worlds, languages, cultures and spectacle. In the words of Analog magazine, He may yet give us the greatest science fiction novel of all time.Forty years on, the series has come to life again, with additional novels, revised editions and new introductions and ancillary materials. Somtow's far-flung galactic civilization is a creation to rival Silverberg's Majipoor or Herbert's Dune.It is a universe with its own language and exotic customs, vividly etched characters and rich history that spans thousands of worlds and tens of thousands of years.The godlike Inquestors of the High Inquest had forsaken all that made them human. But one young Inquestor rediscovered the power of compassion and hastened the end of their ancient, starflung empire....In a prose that evokes the spirited imagination of thesymbolist painters and poets, Somtow postulates a complex universe of immense scope ... upholds the author's place as one of SF's formidable talents.– Publishers Weekly