Book excerpt: Rock of Ages: He's the Human Constellation's number-one-rated Allowed Burglar, one of a very select few permitted to rob the public and keep his plunder - provided he performs with style and avoids getting caught before the caper is broadcast galaxy-wide to his enormous audience. Drake is so famous as an Allowed Burglar that he has been invited to join the Diadem, the group of celebrities who are well-known enough to need only one name, and whose every movement is recorded and broadcast, and sighed over by billions of humans and aliens in both the Empire and the Human Constellation. Maijstral has made himself a legend by declining to join. But being Number One has its drawbacks. Suddenly you become the target of every other Allowed Burglar in the system. You can't go anywhere without being suspected of every theft that occurs, and your friends suddenly become all too cautious about their valuables. And then there are the Duels. Drake Maijstral can tolerate the constant suspicion and the suddenly cancelled invitations. But the challenges to fight to the death over imagined breaches of hospitality are too much for him. The last straw comes when Drake himself is the victim of a burglary that is clearly a challenge to his status. Someone has stolen Drake's father's coffin, the hibernation module that maintains the old Duke in his status as Legally Dead. Clearly, something must be done.