Empress of Forever

I read that after reading Gladstone's scifi book[1]. I liked the poetic and emotional nature of it, but I thought it tried too hard to be both that and a science fiction story. When I tried to grasp at the scifi aspect, it felt like I was grasping at air. [1] _Empress of Forever_, while not poetic, I thought had interesting ideas that were more fleshed out. A lack of focus kept it out of top-tier scifi like Simmons' Hyperion for me, but it's worth a read if you like high-concept scifi like that.