The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi

The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Jacket Blurb: The first novel of a new space-opera sequence set in an all-new universe by the Hugo Award-winning, New York Times-bestselling author of Redshirts and Old Man's War.

Our universe is ruled by physics and faster than light travel is not possible -- until the discovery of The Flow, an extra-dimensional field we can access at certain points in space-time that transport us to other worlds, around other stars.

Humanity flows away from Earth, into space, and in time forgets our home world and creates a new empire, the Interdependency, whose ethos requires that no one human outpost can survive without the others. It’s a hedge against interstellar war -- and a system of control for the rulers of the empire.

The Flow is eternal -- but it is not static. Just as a river changes course, The Flow changes as well, cutting off worlds from the rest of humanity. When it’s discovered that The Flow is moving, possibly cutting off all human worlds from faster than light travel forever, three individuals -- a scientist, a starship captain and the Empress of the Interdependency -- are in a race against time to discover what, if anything, can be salvaged from an interstellar empire on the brink of collapse.

Read for May scifi book group.

Classic Scalzi. Classic Space Opera. A fun and fast read.

Premise of the book is humanity is spread across the galaxy and is connected via the Interdependency and the Flow, a space travel concept that allows ships to move great distances in a relatively short period of time as compared to conventional travel. All planets, habitats and space stations fall under the rule of the Emperox and the Church, located at the Hub. The Interdependency has a new Emperox, one of the ruling Houses is making a bid to take over as Ruling house, and the Flow is about to collapse, stranding humanity again.

As I noted above, classic space opera. It's political intrigue and drama set across vast expanses of space. There is the Emperox, the Church, ruling families, the guild families, merchants, universities and everyone else. The beginning of this series (and it will be a series) has everything in flux - from the ascendancy of a new Emperox, the fall of the Flow, to the political maneuvers of a major ruling house and the counter moves from a major Guild house.

It's total brain candy. I loved it! And it's ok if you don't. That's the great thing about books - none of us are reading the same book.

The characters are varied, interesting, and kept me engaged. The back stabbing and political maneuvering was quite a lot of fun and helped to keep characters on their toes and the plot moving forward with alacrity.

I didn't worry about the "science" of the Flow. This is where the "fiction" part comes it. Not any different than say, trying to explain Warp Drive. It exists in this universe, except when it doesn't, and that's good enough for me.

As noted by the author, this is a Book One, so no surprise at the end when there is no overall resolution and threads are left floating in space. Thankfully, no obnoxious cliffhanger.

And with that I will say...recommended. If you enjoyed Old Man's War, you will probably enjoy this.



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