bsparks2112 's review for:

The Last Emperox by John Scalzi

4.0

adventurous hopeful tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Maybe it's because a solid ending is key to how much I enjoy a story (which might just be a personal preference thing), but I found this to be the strongest of the Interdependency trilogy, and a really entertaining read. Scalzi delivers on the expected space-opera intrigue and colorful characters and dialogue that he is known for, and has the benefit of having two other books' worth of familiarity with the characters and story to build on. The book has several really significant twists and gut-punches, in comparison to the preceding entries; indeed, the whole trilogy had been building to some of the climactic moments here, and they were presented in a satisfying and entertaining way. As with the other two, the world-building is a unique twist on space-opera tropes, with a lot of the details left to the imagination but just enough info given to make the story a compelling one. Some of the drawbacks of the first two appear here as well, namely the blazing-fast pacing that almost feels like scenes were skipped for the sake of making the book leaner, which might have enriched the narrative or filled in gaps if left in; I think at this point, this is just a feature of Scalzi's style, for better or worse, and admittedly it was less of an issue here than in the earlier books in the series. Overall, I'm definitely satisfied with the conclusion found here, and I do hope that Scalzi decides to revisit this universe in the future.