The Radiant Seas

Living in exile on a deserted planet, Sauscony and Jaibriol, each the heir to an interstellar empire, become entangled in the machinations of the Skolian Empire. Interstellar war erupts and Jaibriol is snatched away to be the unwilling ruler of the Highton Aristos. Sauscony must lead an invading space fleet to rescue him from his own Empire-without revealing that they are married. With much of interstellar civilization poised on the brink of destruction, it is the devotion of these two lovers, their sacrifices, and their heroism, that might just forge a new order.

Kirkus Reviews

More romancing and high-tech saber-rattling in the far future: a sequel to Primary Inversion (1995), as the Skolian Empire again squares off against the feudal Traders and their sadistic Aristo leaders. Jaibriol of the Highton Aristos, heir to the Trader leadership, a telepathic, sensitive guy, is secretly married to "Soz" Sauscony, a psi-powered Jagernaut warrior and next in line to the Skolian throne. (Yes, the irony is that heavy-handed.) Jaibriol, presently a prisoner of Soz's brother, the Emperor Kurj, escapes his cell and attempts to leave at lightspeed with Soz in hot pursuit. Both ships vanish, but there are plenty of adventures ahead. Eventually, Jaibriol will become Emperor Qox, and Soz will take over as Imperator Skolia when Kurj blows up himself and his opposite number. With the empires at war, you'd expect complications, and you'd be right.

Catherine Asaro was born in Oakland, California and grew up in El Cerrito, just north of Berkeley. She received her Phd in Chemical Physics and MA in Physics, both from Harvard, and a BS with Highest Honors in Chemistry from UCLA. Among the places she has done research are the University of Toronto in Canada, the Max Planck Institut für Astrophysik in Germany, and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Her research involves using quantum theory to describe the behavior of atoms and molecules. Catherine was a physics professor until 1990, when she established Molecudyne Research, which she currently runs.

A former ballerina, Catherine has performed with ballets and in musicals on both coasts and in Ohio. In the 1980s she was a principal dancer and artistic director of the Mainly Jazz Dancers and the Harvard University Ballet. Catherine still teaches ballet in Maryland.

Catherine's fiction is a successful blend of hard science fiction, romance, and exciting space adventure. She has published more than ten novels, almost all of which belong to her Saga of the Skolian Empire, including The Quantum Rose, which won the Nebula Award for best novel of 2001

Her husband is John Kendall Cannizzo, an astrophysicist at NASA. They have one daughter, a young ballet dancer who loves math.