YMMV / Micronauts (Image)

• Complete Monster: From The Time Traveler Trilogy novels, by Steve Lyons:
  • Book 1: Ordaal is a manipulative slave driver and organ harvester who arrives on Earth seemingly in peace, pulling the population of Angel's Gift into partnership while truthfully butchering its inhabitants one by one and harvesting their organs to be sold on the Microspace Black Market. Ordaal runs a "circus" of various aliens he has enslaved as entertainment for the citizens of the town, all while torturing and even executing some of them if they step out of line. Allying with the mayor of Angel's Gift, Ordaal abuses and threatens the man into allowing Ordaal's evil to be perpetrated, personally killing a large number of the man's security staff for the pettiest of reasons before trying to flee Earth with an entire group of humans as hostages for him to butcher later, and kills his way through a street of innocents blocking his path to escape before being stopped.
  • Book 2: Maruunus Ki assumes command of Micropolis in Baron Karza's absence, and proves to be a near-equally depraved ruler. Enslaving the citizens of Micropolis through brute force and addicting them to his virtual reality tech called "the System", Ki subjects the billions of innocents to starvation and hard labor, torturing and killing any who try to stand up to his rule. When the heroic Acroyear tries to take down Ki, Ki uses his minion Persephone to manipulate Acroyear into falling in love with her, only to later reveal the truth and viciously mock the hero over it. Ki ultimately betrays his entire planet to be afflicted by an alien plague, setting himself up in a secure bunker and slaughtering anyone who knows its location so he can outlive the plague while bragging that the millions who die are replaceable peasants.
  • Book 3 & Micronauts: Karza miniseries: The Emperor was the previous ruler of the Microverse and the catalyst for Baron Karza's evil. Ruling the Microverse with a brutal church state that oppressed and controlled billions through religion and fear, the Emperor hoarded all technology to himself and left the rest of the population in suffering squalor to benefit his elites. Regularly having vast swathes of potential threats to his rule eliminated, the Emperor carries out a genocide against the Pharoid people, murdering Karza's father in front of him before enslaving Karza as his own "son". The Emperor subjected Karza to indoctrination and corruption to make him a suitable heir, even ordering him to pretend to be a rebel just so he can slaughter allies, before betraying and imprisoning Karza for growing too ambitious. In truth having planned for Karza to betray and succeed him, the Emperor sets Karza up to be the monstrous conqueror he becomes simply so the Emperor's legacy will never die.

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