Sherwood Smith 
Phoenix in Flight 

Brandon nyr-Arkad, the Emperor’s scapegrace youngest son, defies protocol and evades a ceremonial duty, an act punishable by death. He’s just ahead of an attack on the Panarchy of the Thousand Suns by Eusabian, a revenge twenty years in the making. Phoenix in Flight begins the five volume arc of Exordium, as Brandon discovers what happened to his home after he left, and he has to make a decision: stay an outlaw, or return and deal with the smoking ruins of his rejected world?