The Unwilling Emperor by Tony Webb
Have you ever wondered how different our world might be if the balance of power had shifted thousands of years ago?
The Unwilling Emperor began with a simple idea sparked by a podcast from Professor Brian Cox. He mentioned how fortunate we are to live in a “Goldilocks” world — a planet perfectly positioned around the sun. I started wondering what might happen if Earth’s orbit had been just slightly different.
In this world, the planet sits five percent further from the sun. The equator became the centre of civilisation, wealth, and power, while the colder northern and southern regions were left poor, unstable, and forgotten.
At its heart, the story is a dystopian sci-fi thriller built around murder, political control, race, class, and empire. It follows Amara Koné, a mixed-heritage investigator caught between two worlds in a society that believes some people are born to rule and others are meant to serve.
The novel was written very visually — someone once described it to me as “a story that already feels like a film,” which I loved hearing.
Writers like Margaret Atwood influenced me because of the way they create worlds that feel believable, human, and unsettlingly close to reality.
This is the first book in a trilogy about an empire beginning to change — and, as so often happens, it is the ordinary people who pay the price.
I didn’t want to use this space for a hard sell. Instead, I’d simply ask you to imagine how different our own world might look if history, climate, and power had shifted by only the smallest fraction.
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Author Bio:
Tony Webb writes speculative fiction that explores power, history, and the fragile systems societies are built upon.
His debut novel, The Unwilling Emperor, imagines an alternate Earth where the equator became the centre of civilisation and the colder regions of the world were left poor, divided, and forgotten. Blending dystopian science fiction with political thriller and murder mystery, his work explores race, class, empire, and the uncomfortable idea that history is often shaped more by geography and fortune than morality.
Influenced by writers such as Margaret Atwood and modern cinematic storytelling, he writes character-driven fiction with a strong visual style and a focus on believable worlds.
Tony lives in rural Wales with his wife, two children, and an energetic Cockapoo named Milo. The Unwilling Emperor is the first book in a planned