Ruler of Naught: Exordium 2. Exordium, #2

Smith and Trowbridge describe the flavor of their five-book retro-futura space opera Exordium as a cross between early Star Wars and Dangerous Liaisons by way of the Three Stooges. With its fast-moving blend of humor and horror, of high-tech skiffy and the deep places of the human heart, Exordium launches the reader into a complex, multi-layered universe as Brandon nyr-Arkad, youngest son of the ruler of the Thousand Suns, abandons the life of Service planned for him and flees into the lawless Rift.
In the revised sequel to The Phoenix in Flight, Brandon vlith-Arkad  is now heir to the Panarchy. He wants only to rescue his father, the Panarch. But everyone wants a piece of him. The Dol'jharians, who smashed the Panarchy and took his father prisoner. A Rifter pirate and her crew, who helped him escape a doomed planet - twice - and now wonder what to do about a royal prisoner with the price of ten planets on his head.
And the remnants of the government of the Thousand Suns, for whom he'd at best be an inconvenience. The chase is on, and unexpected detours await.