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4.1 AVERAGE
4.1 AVERAGE
Look after I said shit about the last book ending too easily this one really punched me in the face. I’m still crying about it. That won’t stop me from loving it though. Also a plus: Wil Wheaton’s French accent continued to delight. He’s really come a long way from his early audiobooks and I’m impressed.
Really an epic conclusion to an already pretty epic story. The people who were scheming and plotting for short term profit in the face of a worlds ending catastrophe finally get around to scheming and plotting for a catastrophe. We make a significant discovery about the First Emperox which walks us hand in hand into a final act that firmly sets all pieces into place. I should have seen the final plot twist coming, but completely missed it. As has been true throughout the trilogy, the best part of the book is our characters.
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A really wonderful conclusion to the story. Although I would have wished everyone made it out alive in the end, it felt like the right way to take the plot. I wish we could have another book though; I feel there's another story to be told about Marce's journey to Earth, and I'd love to see that.
I started off as a big Scalzi fan. I can't remember if I started with Old Man's War or Agent to the Stars, but both books were fun reads, with the right touch of character and plot to keep me engaged and turning pages. Lately, though, it seems like his style has become much snarkier and more sarcastic, and somehow it makes the tone of his novels come across as mean. I think I said in one of my recent reviews of his books that his novels now sound like extended posts from his blog, and that's true of The Last Emperox, as well.
Aside from the tone, though, the book concluded in pretty much the way one would expect it to end at this point. It had the potential to be a grim ending, what with the way Scalzi set up events leading in to the series' conclusion, and I'm a little disappointed that it wasn't a bit darker. Then again, dark (save for The God Engines) isn't really Scalzi's thing, so I guess I was expecting something that wouldn't be delivered.
Readers who are still Scalzi fans will love the book, I'm sure, but I think I'm over him.
Aside from the tone, though, the book concluded in pretty much the way one would expect it to end at this point. It had the potential to be a grim ending, what with the way Scalzi set up events leading in to the series' conclusion, and I'm a little disappointed that it wasn't a bit darker. Then again, dark (save for The God Engines) isn't really Scalzi's thing, so I guess I was expecting something that wouldn't be delivered.
Readers who are still Scalzi fans will love the book, I'm sure, but I think I'm over him.
adventurous
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
An interesting series.
On the good side:
- When Scalzi writes in his typically wry, humorous style, it's fun.
- There's a nice, wide variety of characters
On the not so good side:
- Scalzi literally pulls a deus ex machina. Literally
- The thinly veiled allegory for climate change wears even thinner after a while
- The class struggle side of the story is a little heavy handed. The lesson is: "Kill all the elites"?
- Things get wrapped up pretty quickly.
- The supposed main protagonists are less interesting than some of the side characters.
In some ways, this book felt a little like the last few episodes of Game of Thrones. Overall, I enjoyed the series, but it's not Scalzi's best. Both of the preceding books in the series are better, in my opinion.
2 stars for this book, 2 1/2 to 3 stars for the entire series.
Straight up the middle: exactly more of the same, as it should be, no better and no worse than the first two books. And that leaves me back in the same place: despite my enormous liking for John Scalzi as an individual and a nonfiction writer, I found this book, like the now-concluded series as a whole, mildly entertaining but thin and unmemorable. As before, the characters are utterly two-dimensional — which is not to say that some of them aren't enormously likeable, it's just that even they are uncomplicated, and the villains (of whom there's really only one left by this book) are cartoonish. And while this is a minor detraction, it continues to bug me that the people in this high-technology interstellar civilization of the far future still use pretty much the same technology and household objects that we do, except for spaceships. (This time it was one character "texting" another from her "tablet" that really pulled me out of the book.) So, I wouldn't recommend the series especially, but I certainly wouldn't recommend against reading it, especially if you're in the mood for some moderately enjoyable empty calories.
(Worth noting that the character Kiva Lagos provides so lopsidedly the most fun parts of the book and series, in spite of being no better developed a character than any of the rest, that she almost provides a reason to read them all by herself. In Scalzi's virtual book tour a couple weeks ago, one of the submitted questions, which went unanswered, was, "How can I become more like Kiva Lagos?")
Wil Wheaton's audiobook narration is good as usual. He's a good fit to the material, and the relish with which he tackles Kiva's torrents of profanity is really enjoyable.
(Worth noting that the character Kiva Lagos provides so lopsidedly the most fun parts of the book and series, in spite of being no better developed a character than any of the rest, that she almost provides a reason to read them all by herself. In Scalzi's virtual book tour a couple weeks ago, one of the submitted questions, which went unanswered, was, "How can I become more like Kiva Lagos?")
Wil Wheaton's audiobook narration is good as usual. He's a good fit to the material, and the relish with which he tackles Kiva's torrents of profanity is really enjoyable.
adventurous
emotional
funny
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Great ending. Matched the tone of the rest of the series and was funny and irreverent.
As for character growth, it’s not so much an individual book noticeable growth as over the entire trilogy.
Diversity, well there are various houses that descend from all over earth but there’s no specific descriptions of people as darker skinned or anything like that so it’s ambiguous.
I loved this series. Kiva is Awesome and I loved seeing Cardenia grow through the series, especially in this book. I love how progressive the society is
As for character growth, it’s not so much an individual book noticeable growth as over the entire trilogy.
Diversity, well there are various houses that descend from all over earth but there’s no specific descriptions of people as darker skinned or anything like that so it’s ambiguous.
I loved this series. Kiva is Awesome and I loved seeing Cardenia grow through the series, especially in this book. I love how progressive the society is
This book ended abruptly, tidily, and with space for a follow-on trilogy if the author is so inclined. A few well duh twists, satisfyingly just desserts for the villains (albeit left to the reader's imagination).
Was it good? 9/10. See previous installments.
Did I like it? 9/10.
Was it good? 9/10. See previous installments.
Did I like it? 9/10.