This is the first in a five book series, of which three are currently available. Humanity lives amongst the stars in colonies and space stations connected only by the Flow. In Hub, the great underground habitat where all the lanes of the Flow converge, there's a new Emperox, Cardenia, known as Grayland II, untested and not quite ready for her elevation to ruler of the (known) universe. On End, the farthest flung colony, revolution is in the air, and a flow-scientist, Marce, tries to keep his head down and stay safe, but he knows the Flow is changing course and his father wants him to take a message to the Emperox. Colonies could be lost to fatal isolation. Between Marce and Cardenia, Kiva Lagos, a ship-board daughter of one of the merchant houses, the House of Lagos, smells a rat. The Nohamapetan merchant house is conspiring to take over End from the present duke. This is very readable and moves along nicely, though never feels rushed. I enjoyed it so much I've already started to read the second book, The Consuming Fire.

John Scalzi es uno de los autores más populares de ciencia ficción space opera (u opera espacial). Sus novelas son entretenidas, divertidas y ligeras. En general. Su tono es mayormente comercial y aunque a veces se ha escapado de esta corriente más "mainstream" dentro del propio género con obras como Lock In (o la secuela Head On), suele esribir obras situadas en el espacio, con navecitas pew pew y personajes carismáticos. Explico esto porque cuando me dispongo a leer un libro de Scalzi espero ciertas cosas: cierto oficio, es decir, no una novela excelsa en cuanto estilo pero si funcional, con una estructura sólida, estilo eficiente y un ritmo aceptable. Buenas tramas, y no las mejores tramas, pero sí buenas, que tengan sentido y me enganchen, por muy simples que puedan ser. Personajes memorables, y sentido del humor. Si uno de estos elementos falla o flojea, el conjunto se resiente, y esto es lo que me ha ocurrido con The Collapsing Empire de John Scalzi.

The Collapsing Empire incia una nueva saga para nada relacionada con su trabajo más popular, Old Man's War (La vieja guardia). En esta nueva serie tenemos el típico imperio humano galáctico que está interconectado por una red llamada Flow, una especie de túneles que contectan todos los planetas. No existe tecnología para desarrollar el viaje interestelar, por lo que estos túneles son vitales. Y ya. No hay más. Scalzi situa a una serie de personajes a través de este imperio terriblemente tópico y plano y les ocurren cosas. Quizá lo que más me dolió fue la pereza al construir el mundo. Aunque bueno, diríamos, si el resto es guay, da igual esto del guolbildin, ¿no? Veréis, el caso es que la trama no es especialmente entretenida, no es ingeniosa y no sorprende. Los personajes son más de lo mismo, tópicos y clichés que siguen una serie de pasos que todos conocemos y sueltan frases prefabricadas. Además, Scalzi se permite el lujo (lujazo, diría yo) de conseguir que toda esta novela sea introductoria para la nueva serie. Es decir, tenemos una novela que comienza una nueva saga de ciencia ficción que no explica apenas nada, con personajes sosos, una trama aburrida y que no consigue enganchar. ¿Por qué? ¿Por qué iba a seguir leyendo el resto?

A ver, la novela no deja de ser entretenida. Tiene sus disparos y sus pew pew, y el final me sorprendió (algo prodigioso si contamos el desarrollo del resto de la obra), pero me ha parecido una novela muy pobre, plana y sin interés. Creo que Scalzi tiene potencial como autor, y lo ha demostrado en la ya mencionada La vieja guardia o en Lock In pero cuando leo novelas de este tipo no puedo evitar pensar en que cierto autor necesitaba pagarse unas reformas en la casa (totalmente legítimo, no deja de ser un oficio). El caso es que no la recomiendo, y mucho menos si es vuestro primer Scalzi. Aunque es cierto que se lee en dos tardes y tiene momentos de humor muy conseguidos, el conjunto, para mí, no pasa el aprobado. Una lástima.

The Collapsing Empire has all the ingredients of a gripping, urgent drama of the sort I adore, with Machiavellian politics, mysterious forces, and an enjoyable group of protagonists (Cardenia is pragmatic and ethical; Marce is clever and earnest; Kiva is fabulously sweary and and utterly ruthless – yes, I know, not hard to spot my favourite here). And – Scalzi being Scalzi – there’s plenty to like in the incidental world-building, from Kiva’s in-your-face sex drive to the casual acceptance that Cardenia could achieve the necessary dynastic alliance with House Nohamapetan by marrying Lady Nadashe as easily as by marrying her brother Amit.
Unfortunately, it never became more than the sum of its parts for me. The book is the first act in what may turn out to be a gripping drama – but as the first in a series, it feels incomplete. It sets out the context but lacks an effective climax, and consequently it never delivers enough drama to get me fully invested. That's not to say it isn't entertaining - it is - but it doesn't quite hit the high bar I've come to expect from Mr Scalzi.

Unfortunately I couldn't really get on with this book as it would appear to be the start of a series but doesn't really go anywhere. The story line is very thin, although the premise is good. The characters are ok, although there was a lot of unnecessary bad language

A brand new canvas for Scalzi, as he presents his latest space opera opus, a very different universe to the one in his Old Man's War series. In this new series, humanity has spread to the stars through the Flow, an extra-dimensional field that allows for faster than light travel. Through the Interdependency, mankind has evolved into a society that lives mainly below ground or in habitats, in a civilization so intrinsically linked that no one planet can survive without the others. And so, of course, a change to the Flow is about to bring this all crashing down....

Through a series of fantastically quirky and interesting characters, Scalzi presents this universe and all of its facets. Although a large number of the characters are from the upper echelons, we still get a nice grasp of the society has a whole. Scalzi's trademark humour is used to full effect and it is great to hear the dialogue zipping off the page. Delving into politics, trade and science with equal panache, Scalzi manages to have us rooting for the characters and fully invested in what will happen next. A great read!

If we are going to be honest here, this is Scalzi so of course I am going to love it! The question is simply four and a half stars or five?
And this was definitely a 5.
The language and some ‘intimate’ scenes make this book unsuitable for younger readers but it was all put to great use creating the character of Lady Kiva. Hardly a personality you love or trust at first sight, she grew on me. A lot.
And she is just one of the vibrant female characters that populated this exciting space opera.
I smiled at Scalzi’s snark, laughed out loud at his humour and wished that I knew several of the protagonists in real life.
My only regret – getting to the end and remembering that the second book in the series hasn’t been written yet.

This is a brilliant Space Opera which I just could not put down.
Can't wait for the next in the series.

I’m a newbie to the work of John Scalzi, and the only previous experience I have with his work was the fun audiobook edition of The Dispatcher. But, given how much those sad/rabid/pathetic puppies loathe him, while simultaneously attempting to ride on the coattails of his success (with one even going so far as to write a knock-off book of this particular title, with knock-off cover art that pretty well screamed copyright infringement, and a fake name that played off John Scalzi’s actual name in the hope of duping unaware readers to make a quick buck!), I figured he had to be worth a read, or in this case, a listen. Happily, I was not the least bit disappointed. So, thanks to all the doggie idjits bemoaning Scalzi’s work for prompting me to finally check out some more of his books!

Scalzi has a pretty large body of work behind him thanks to the Old Man’s War series and several other stand-alone titles. The Collapsing Empire is the first in a new series, and it’s the perfect starting point for new readers like myself.

Thousands of years in the future, humanity has formed the Commonwealth of the Interdependence and spread across the stars. Each of their various habitats are connected by the flow, a spatial anomaly akin to a river in space. The flow has allowed the Interdependence to grow and succeed, and without it humanity would wither and die as each star system becomes cut off from one another. Well, there wouldn’t be much room for drama if there wasn’t a massive problem, and so as it happens, the flow is beginning to collapse. Couple this with a bunch of political and trade guild drama, crosses and double-crosses, a newly crowned emperor, a fermenting rebellion, and random acts of terrorism, and you have The Collapsing Empire.

Scalzi keeps the pace rapid-fire and the tone light, despite a simmering undercurrent of darkness that could quickly turn the whole affair into pitch-black nihilism. Thankfully, there’s room for plenty of hope, and a whole lot of humor. The author also injects some wonderful heroines as the primary leads, and the foul-mouthed, sexed-up, aggressive Lady Kiva might just be one of my new favorites. She’s a total jerk, and I loved all of her expletive-laced rants as she chewed out anybody who attempted to cross her or get in her way.

Narrating all of this is Wil Wheaton, making The Collapsing Empire my first introduction to both the author and narrator. I found there to be a wonderful bit of synchronicity between the pairing of Scalzi and Wheaton, and the latter does an outstanding job narrating. Each character has a distinct voice, and there’s enough range and acting chops to give this audiobook a nice bit of oomph. The science fiction plot itself is easily digested and technobabble is kept to a minimum, while the listening experience itself is highly engaging and kept my attention the whole way through.

The bottom line is, The Collapsing Empire is just flat-out fun. The story is wonderfully conceived, it has some truly terrific character beats, and plenty of laughs. More importantly, it left me fully invested in this series going forward. As soon I reached the end of this audiobook, I immediately wanted to dive into the second installment. But since that’s not out yet, I’ll just have to content myself with some of Scalzi’s back catalog in the meantime.

My first Scalzi. Maybe I should have picked another one. 20% into the book I was contemplating to DNF it. Mostly talk, talk, talk, not much plot or character development, interchangeable characters, little world building, a lot of swearing instead of decent dialogue.

30% into the book things finally started to get more interesting and by the halfway point I was hooked and wanted to find out everything. Still too much pointless swearing, but at least the plot was evolving.

In the end I liked this well enough and I am pretty certain that I will have a go at the sequel, whenever it comes out. I am not convinced yet, that I am actually a fan of Scalzi's writing style. I liked his characterizations, eventually. The world building was interesting, but not as deep as I would have wished. It somehow all felt a little superficial to me. Not scientific enough, a little rambly at times, not as funny as it's probably supposed to me. The over-the-top swearing of the Lagos family members made me think of overexcited teenagers.

I might expand on this pretty measly review at some point. Or I might not. Image me using an expletive at this point, to show you how much I care about those prospects. Can't actually write that down, otherwise Amazon won't let me post this review. Now imagine me rolling my eyes. I am rambling. Whatever.

<i>"I'm continually confronted with the human tendency to ignore or deny facts until the last possible instant. And then for several days after that, too."</i>

I received this free e-copy from the publisher/author via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review, thank you!

John Scalzi – The Collapsing Empire

Details
Parent Category: Reviews
Published: 22 April 2017

John Scalzi – The Collapsing EmpireWhat do you call a human Empire, spread out across a number of star systems, and set up so each system relies an all or most of the others for survival? With an Emperor (sorry, Emperox, gender neutral term) at its centre, a trade guild/house system ruling it together with a Church, and a society in what amounts to a caste system? Thriving? (well, yes). Wealthy? (yes, albeit much more true for the top layer). Corrupt? (oh, certainly).

But more to the point, this first book in John Scalzi's new Interdependency series, The Collapsing Empire, also adds 'Endangered - due to its reliance on the little-understood Flow links which tie this Empire together' to the list of attributes. Never mind the fact that this could mean the end of humanity as they know it...
There's more to be added here, but I really don't want to spoil a book which you should read for yourself! But let's just say that the title alone has at least two meanings.

John Scalzi is an American SF writer, who has been entertaining the readers with his tales since 2005, and has won Hugo, Locus, Campbell, and Seiun awards for his work during that time. He is a former president of the SFWA and was (to some extent still is) an exponent in the last few rounds of politics in the SF community (e.g - google Puppygate if you like non-edifying squabbling). He also writes non-fiction, and regularly blogs on whatever.scalzi.com on a wide variety of topics.
The Collapsing Empire, out for a few weeks as I'm writing this (yes, I'm behind. Sorry.) kicked off the new Interdependency series in style: Scalzi summarised it as “Sales records broken, bestseller status achieved, and TV deal gotten”. Way to go...



The book kicks off with a little opening action sequence on the ship Tell Me Another One which, whilst on its way to End (the system where the Empire sends its criminals, one way, ie some kind in Intergalactic Australia ;-) both goes through a mutiny, mainly for personal gain, but also unexpectedly drops out of the Flow which is becoming notably less reliable, a sign of things to come. It neatly wraps the reader into the story whilst introducing a number of concepts rather key to the rest of the book, without lengthy info dumps and explanations (there's very little in the book which actually feels like the reader is having things explained to him/her except maybe in the briefings to Cardenia, the new Emperox...).
On a note - the naming of the ships is whimsical, and reminiscent of Banks (Yes Sir, That's My Baby; Tell Me Another One; No Sir, I Don't Mean Maybe;...) if not nearly as gnomic in character or naming as the Culture ones.
But in parallel to the above, and yet unknown to the crew of the ship (Scalzi's nod to Causality and event cones, even if this is obviously rather screwy in a universe with travel shortcuts amounting to FTL), the old Emperox dies, and is replaced by his daughter, Cardenia aka Emperox Grayland II. Cardenia was not raised to be Emperox, and only dropped into the role, not completely willingly, when her brother was killed in an accident. I was impressed how Scalzi managed to depict the Cardenia/Bactrin scenes whilst the old Emperox is dying without making them either soppy or toe-curling to read – great writing, that!
Things also are not allowed to settle – already during the coronation there is a first attempt on the life of the new Emperox, incidentally killing off one of the characters I really liked having around... Generally it does not pay to get overly attached to characters – on the one hand Scalzi is wont to kill them off, and on the other they might only have been there for the purpose od exhibition, and might never again re-enter the story! With some notable exceptions, of course.

The universe Scalzi sets this new series in is interesting, and decidedly a Space Opera one... the Interdependency consists of 47 planets/systems, linked together by the flow, with its centre at Hub (both of the Flow, and thus the Empire). Most of these systems are not great for living on, inimical to human life, but given the reliance on where the Flow links go humanity cannot be picky. The only place where life on the surface is viable is End, the system furthest from Hub, the Empire's Penal Colony. The link to Earth, plus to another system, was lost millennia ago. The general fragility of the systems, and the fact that they cannot really stand on their own gives the Interdependency its (obvious) name. But of course there's more to it than something that simple...

One of the key strands driving the first part of the book is that Count Claremont, sent to End to (surreptiously) study the changes to the Flow, detects that he collapse of the system is imminent, and tries to notify the Emperox of this – whilst there is a civil war going on (a recurring event on End), and one of the more powerful houses is pulling strings to its own ends...

The story leaves the reader with some big questions – like, what is the House Nonehampton playing for with all its machinations? Why was the Interdependency set up like this? Why does one of the previous Emperoxes, in the Memory Room containing the memories of all prevoous Emperoxes, call the Empire a Scam? And what is Kiva's role in all of this?
Ah, Kiva. One of the key owners of House Lagos. Developing into some kind of Joker or potential future linchpin as the story unfolds. She is refreshing in being, in this very political environment, smart but rude, and not giving a toss about being exceedingly straight forward. Being herself. Apparently Scalzi had fun writing her, and she's actually quite fun to read, most of the time. And I cannot shake the feeling that he is setting her up as a key piece in the game... not really a pawn levelling up, but rather a knight, except that those are not straight forward in Chess, of course.

The book closes with an epilogue which very directly sets up the next instalment (Scalzi is prone to some foreshadowing and less than subtle hints and pointers throughout), so far without an official title or a release date. We also don't know yet to how many books the series is planned to run to.
I presume the ePub formatting issues which drove me round the bend are limited to the eARC only – but boy were parts of this book hard to read!

Overall a cracking opener to the new series, and a must-read for fans of cleverly structured Space Opera.



More John Scalzi

Title: The Collapsing Empire
Author: John Scalzi
Series: The Interdependency
Series Number: 1
Reviewer: Markus
Reviewer URL: http://thierstein.net
Publisher: TOR
Publisher URL: http://www.panmacmillan.com
Publication Date: March 2017
Review Date: 170414
ISBN: 9781509835072
Pages: 336
Format: ePub/HB
Topic: Space Opera
Topic: Imperial Politics

Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.

I originally received this to review, but then I also grabbed it the minute I saw it in the shop. I’m pretty busy at the moment with ridiculous amounts of class work, which seemed like the perfect time to read something by John Scalzi. His work is pretty much universally compelling, readable and fun — often with a great deal of humour as well. The Collapsing Empire delivered more or less what I expected: I could have done with less of Lady Kiva and her foul mouth and more of Cardenia and Naffa. Or indeed, Cardenia and Marce, when he reaches her; that’s a relationship I’m going to be happy to cheer on in future books, in whatever form it takes.

(Kiva herself is fun, all the same, particularly in her indiscriminate approach to sleeping with whoever she can. Hurrah for a female character who can do that with such abandon, and a world which accepts that. Too many people port over all our society’s hangups to a world removed from ours by vast distances or even dimensions. Scalzi dispenses with that. Good.)

The set up of the Interdependency works well, though the fact that it’s a scam is obvious from the beginning — at least to a sceptical-minded Leftist like me who distrusts Empire and anything that looks like it, just on principle. I don’t know how the science holds up, if it does at all, since relativity and quantum physics all sound like wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey to me — but in-universe, it held together and seemed convincing, which is what matters. (To me, anyway, and when it comes to physics. If you fudge biology, you might lose me, admittedly.)

It’s a quick and enjoyable read; I’ll be interested to read more. Just what I wanted from a Scalzi novel.

First in new space opera series by a modern master of science fiction. Great opening plotline with a variety o of characters - keeping in mind this is written for a large scale universe - so some character development will be done later in series, but basic characters and inhabited areas are outlined well.

Scalzi being one of my favourite scifi authors, I couldn't resist getting this new novel of his.

From the prologue, the narration was full of humour and snark, something the author does very well. Mix to that interesting characters - from Cardenia, the new reluctant Emperor of this Interdependency society, Marce, scientist on a mission, to the the foul-mouthed but oddly likeable Kiva - and action scenes, and you have a pretty entertaining read. The setting itself is intriguing with a society spanning several star systems and connected by The Flow, only means of travelling in this universe where TFL doesn’t exist. And guess what, The Flow is breaking up… threatening to strand all these pockets of humanity and ultimately doom most of them.

All the fun put aside, Scalzi does portray a story focused on power and its abuse. Expect cut-throat personalities, manipulations of every kind, crazy politics, deception, and of course a good dose of humour to make it more palatable.

This is indeed a Space Opera, or rather the first instalment of one. And this is where I had my main problem. This novel is really ‘just’ an introduction to all the main players. It sets the scene beautifully but I would have preferred to have a little more...


My thanks to NetGalley for a copy. I also purchased the audio version, excellently read by Will Wheaton, as always.

I got a copy of this from NetGalley to review and I was very excited as I really enjoyed Redshirts and have a lot of Scalzi’s other books on my TBR list. It’s been a while since I read a space-opera and this reminded me just how much I love them.

I won’t say too much about the plot, because I loved it so much that I don’t want to spoil a thing for anybody as it kept me gripped right until the end and I could barely put it down. The writing is fantastic, it flows so well and really helps you immerse yourself in the novel. The dialogue between the characters is great and they all have their unique voices.

The characters though, the characters are what really made me love this novel. Cardenia is the reluctant Emperox and I’m not usually a fan of the whole “reluctant ruler” trope but here it worked really well. I also loved how she was fully represented, including at one point describing how awful her cramps were from her period which is something I don’t think I’ve ever seen mentioned in a Sci-Fi novel before and I adored it. Then there’s the fantastic, sex-positive Kiva who will sleep with anybody and is very open and unashamed about it. At one point she’s trying to decide which of a pair of siblings would pleasure her the most. Her sexuality is never mentioned, but she’s definitely not straight (I read her as bisexual). These are the two main POV characters and so it was excellent getting to read a space-opera mostly from the view of very well-written women. The final of the three characters is Marce, a scholar from the planet End, whose father studied the Flow and he’s also great fun to read about and in particular, I really enjoyed his interactions with Cardenia.

The worldbuilding is excellent and I really like the system that has been set up with powerful families and guilds having monopolies on different items making all the systems dependent on each other, which of course is a massive problem now due to the issues with the Flow.

This is a book I would highly recommend and not only did I adore it, but it’s made me put the rest of Scalzi’s books to the top of my TBR list because I just really enjoy his writing style.

Wow, just wow! I must confess that this is the first John Scalzi book I have read and that makes me feel like a fool because this was pretty much a perfect piece of space opera, in my opinion. There are fascinating sci-fi concepts here, such as the flow, which removes the need for faster than light travel (conveniently), without removing any of the wonder in being able to travel huge distances in a matter of months. The over-arching idea of the Inter-dependency is wonderful, creating a maelstrom of political machinations and intrigue that George R R Martin would be jealous of. The characters are intensely human - flawed, cowardly, profanity spewing and ultimately, fabulous and the whole tone of the novel is so sardonic as to be almost painful. Just the name of one of the ships can sum up this great, great novel better than I can - 'Yes Sir, that's my baby'. Love, love, loved it and genuinely cannot wait for the next instalment.

I loved the idea that dark matter includes The Flow which allows humanity to escape from Earth and colonise space. The Interdependency is a nifty idea that has managed to – more or less – keep the empire from fracturing and allows an elite to make a very, very good living, with the rest more or less managing. In other words, capitalism is alive and kicking…

And then there is a gamechanger and a new ruler all at the same time. Said gamechanger is going to shake everything up in such an extreme manner, the information isn’t even accepted without a lot of hard evidence – which means there isn’t a lot of time left to do anything about it…

I loved the premise – it was every bit as interesting as I had hoped. I particularly enjoyed the fact that not only did we get a ringside seat when the new emperox finds herself landed with a job she didn’t want, we also got to see exactly what motivates the main antagonist as they manoeuvre for more power and agency. The plotting and double-crossing going on results in plenty of action – some of it nicely unexpected, which is why I’m keeping my comments reasonably general.

Scalzi’s easy style keeps this book barrelling along at a fair pace, so that while the pages didn’t fly by quite at the speed I would have liked – it was taking too much effort to decode the abysmal formatting in my Netgalley arc – nevertheless the story unfolded with pleasing ease. The finale brought the main story arc to a satisfactory conclusion, though there are sufficient dangling plotpoints such that I will be looking out for the sequel in due course. After a number of great standalone reads, such as Lock In, I’m delighted Scalzi has now embarked upon another major series.

While I obtained the arc of The Collapsing Empire from the publisher via NetGalley, this has in no way influenced my unbiased review.

Okay, first question: WHY HAVE I NOT READ ANYTHING BY JOHN SCALZI BEFORE?!

By which I mean, oh boy did I enjoy this book! It’s not perfect, but it was a LOT of fun!

What I loved about this book was the cast of characters, particularly the thoroughly amoral, self-serving, foul-mouthed Lady Kiva. She seems incapable of not using the f-word in every sentence, so do be warned – about that, and also her obsession with having sex with anyone who wanders into view! This might not be to everyone’s taste, but the absolute hedonism with which she lives her life is kind of refreshing.

Tales of the future are so often dark and miserable these days. In fairness, we’re only seeing the higher echelons of society here, but while lives are not perfect at least it feels like society has made some improvements. Like, the utter irrelevance of gender, it would appear – loved that!

I was wondering as I approached the end if there was actually a good case for a sequel, let alone a series, but the last few lines do add an intriguing hook – and I can’t wait for volume 2! I just have to hope that the author’s back catalogue – shamefully overlooked in my reading to date – is half as much fun as this :)

Look, I know if you're a Scalzi fan you're probably going to read this book. Same deal if you are a huge reader of space opera.

But the REST of you? You're probably looking to see if this book is worthwhile, right?

Well, the short answer is, yes. It has some fantastic characters, really cool sci-fi tech, and the backdrop of the collapsing empire isn't just window dressing. There are a lot of really good things going on in this book, and while it was a bit slow to start for me, I'd definitely recommend it.

The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi

Mankind has spread out from Earth, dispersed by the Flow, extra-dimensional pathways that move between planets, connecting worlds. The settlers have no say in which planets will be connected. They are randomly ‘selected’ and at great distances from one another. They are also largely uninhabitable, with humans having to live in sealed habitats underground, relying on other planets along the Flow for resources. As a result, the Interdependency has developed. The Interdependency controls trade between the Flow, the movement of power and wealth, and is ruled by the Emperox, who works in tandem with the other institutions of the empire’s establishment – the Church, the politicians, the guilds and the military. But Earth itself is barely even a memory. The Flow might seem stable and constant but it isn’t. Long ago Earth was lost when the Flow shifted. And now the signs indicate that the Flow might be about to undergo an even more drastic change, a change that could throw each colony along its course into an isolation that would mean its death.

The Interdependency has a new Emperox. Based on the capital planet of Hub, the Emperox is finding her new role difficult, relying on the memories of her ancestors to help her along. Rival noble families are becoming dangerously powerful. One planet, the most dismal of them all, and appropriately named End (it is the furthest planet along the Flow from Hub), is under attack from rebels and is threatened by all-out war. Terrorists, pirates and traitors are everywhere. The Emperox has no idea who to trust. But all of these problems fade away when she learns of the greatest threat facing the Interdependency. She becomes driven by her one goal – to save mankind.

I loved the sound of The Collapsing Empire and was keen to read it as soon as I heard about it but I had no idea just what kind of world I was about to enter. This is one of those rare treats of a book that I fell in love with on the very first page and my love didn’t fade from that page on. The story is absolutely fantastic and fully lives up to its glorious premise. Wormholes, conspiracies, colony planets, angry nobles, battles, pirates, impending apocalypse, sin and rage – all of these are promised and many more and each is delivered. I couldn’t lap it up fast enough.

Quite apart from the story which, as I say, is brilliant and never lets up from first to last page, John Scalzi gives us the best of characters. And I say ‘best’ but actually some of these people are the worst. But their bad behaviour is so well developed, I found I loved to hate them. Most of the baddies have a saving grace or two, even if it’s just how audacious their plotting is, or how extraordinarily deluded they are. But the characters I enjoyed the most are the Emperox and, supremely, the outrageous, foul-mouthed Kiva, the daughter of one of the largest and most powerful families and an absolute joy to accompany through this adventure. While the Emperox has the most to worry about, Kiva undoubtedly gets the best lines.

I love John Scalzi’s writing as much as I love his imagination – the prose is so easy to get along with, so descriptive and perceptive, but, above all, it is so witty! There are some great lines in these pages and they are delivered by some enormous personalities. And so the superb worldbuilding meets its match in the quality of the dialogue. All of this makes me realise that I mustn’t neglect Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series any longer.

The Collapsing Empire is hugely thrilling and very fast. It’s undoubtedly a pageturner. It does have a great ending (matching the superb beginning) but I was so relieved to see ‘Book 1’ written on the novel’s spine (I only spotted this as I finished it). This can only mean there will be a Book 2 and I was crying out for it as this first book came to its exhilarating end. Do not miss this!

Other review
Lock In

John Scalzi is one of my favorite authors when it comes to Science Fiction and I’m happy to say that he once again did not disappoint. I would even go so far and say I liked this even more than his Old Man’s War series. The Collapsing Empire has one hell of a prologue that instantly sucked me into the story and it only got better from there.

I’m not someone who enjoys rather political stories but here comes along Scalzi and makes it work for me. This is mostly due to me liking the characters A LOT and all their scheming and plotting, them fucking each other over, being pretty entertaining. It’s a very character driven and less action packed story but it works exceptionally well with such well grafted characters.

I always like Scalzi’s characters a lot. Scalzi’s humor is right up my alley and his characters are always able to make me laugh, a lot. The ones in The Collapsing Empire are on an entire differently level than his previous characters though. Two of the three main characters are kickass ladies, who express their power in very different ways. Especially Kiva is a new favorite character of mine now. She has the best lines in this book, her sass dripping from the pages. You can’t but love her even though she is probably the least “likeable” main character of the three, which might be why I love her so much.
While I also like the third main character, it’s the two women that I liked most because I was just too excited about the way women were portrayed in this book. The Collapsing Empire is very sex-positive, the characters having casual sex/talking about it casually (them also being bi). My favorite part was probably when one of them mentioned being on her period and having to deal with that on top of it all. It shouldn’t be a big thing but it’s so damn rare in fiction, it made me quite happy.
These ladies might not literally be kicking asses but they are definitely radiating power.

The world building is exceptionally clever in my opinion. For a science fiction book where the main plot, the possible loss of the flow, is heavily based on science, The Collapsing Empire keeps the science talk to a minimum. I was glad we don’t get bombarded with scientific facts and that Scalzi was able to still make it all believable and comprehensible.

In typical Scalzi fashion, this book will make you laugh while rooting for great characters. The Collapsing Empire has everything I was hoping for, from kickass lady characters, over great humor and sass, to well thought out and engaging world building and plot. Scalzi delivered a fantastic start to a new series which I can’t wait to read more of.