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Originally published in 1988, Imperial Bounty is one of a series of novels taking place in the universe first described in War World (republished as Galactic Bounty). These are the stories of Sam McCade, "the best bounty hunter in the galaxy."

The book starts out on Sam's home world, Alice. An iceworld on the frontier, Alice is the home to a particularly savage beast called the icecat. Sam answers a distress call, and volunteers to kill an icecat for a fellow colonist. A more cautious person might have waited for more people to show up, but then what sort of story would that be!

After the icecat is dispatched (as you knew it would be), Sam meets an old "friend," Rear Admiral Swanson-Pierce, who asks him to find someone -- the emperor. The old emperor had died in a hunting accident, but not before naming his son, Alexander, as his heir. Alexander had been a playboy, but had disappeared ten years previously. The other contender for the crown is his sister, Claudia, who had worked her way up through the Imperial Navy.

If Prince Alexander cannot be found within three months, Claudia will assume the crown. Once she were emperor, she would escalate the conflict with the Il Ronn.

If Princess Claudia took over, she might destroy the delicate balance of power preventing war between the human and Il Ronn empires. For a number of reasons humans and Il Ronn were natural enemies. Strangely enough, their mutual hostility stemmed more from similarities than differences. Both races were ardently expansionist, and as their respective empires grew in size, the once thick band of frontier worlds separating them grew constantly thinner.

Leon Olszewski has read science fiction and fantasy for most of his life. He works at Spyglass, Inc. as their Manager of Network Services.