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olliums 's review for:
The Collapsing Empire
by John Scalzi
i liked this! interesting space empire concept, fun characters, fast paced plot. will probably read the next two in short order even tho that will spoil my book club discussion of book 1 only- so i think that's an endorsement.
the concept is basically "there are [sci-fi FTL wormhole highways] connecting the human empire to itself across the universe, but in the next 5-10 years they will collapse entirely, leaving every individual, non-self-sustaining world stranded." seems to be drawing partially from cyberpunk corporate dystopia type novels, along with some fantasy royalty stuff (since the Empire does have a monarch) and political scheming type plots. i'm definitely thinking of Goblin Emperor in here a little bit, although I'd probably have to attribute 90% of that to the "outsider suddenly thrust into power" and the "royal we" parts.
as in a lot of Scalzi this book relies a lot on the plot and like, action-y twists and turns, which work for me since I think the concepts are interesting and the twists are good. ALSO like a lot of scalzi i think too many of the main characters have Scalzi Sarcastic Everyman voice which is annoying, i think, when it comes identically from 1) the 20s~30s society woman emperox of the universe, 2) 60-y.o. space-time physicist, and 3) intentionally crude trust fund company kid. i can get over this but i do would love it if scalzi could write other characters at least a little bit in his multi-POV books. also as always I have to attribute at least some of that dislike to the Wil Wheaton audiobook too. wil wheaton learn voices.
the concept is basically "there are [sci-fi FTL wormhole highways] connecting the human empire to itself across the universe, but in the next 5-10 years they will collapse entirely, leaving every individual, non-self-sustaining world stranded." seems to be drawing partially from cyberpunk corporate dystopia type novels, along with some fantasy royalty stuff (since the Empire does have a monarch) and political scheming type plots. i'm definitely thinking of Goblin Emperor in here a little bit, although I'd probably have to attribute 90% of that to the "outsider suddenly thrust into power" and the "royal we" parts.
as in a lot of Scalzi this book relies a lot on the plot and like, action-y twists and turns, which work for me since I think the concepts are interesting and the twists are good. ALSO like a lot of scalzi i think too many of the main characters have Scalzi Sarcastic Everyman voice which is annoying, i think, when it comes identically from 1) the 20s~30s society woman emperox of the universe, 2) 60-y.o. space-time physicist, and 3) intentionally crude trust fund company kid. i can get over this but i do would love it if scalzi could write other characters at least a little bit in his multi-POV books. also as always I have to attribute at least some of that dislike to the Wil Wheaton audiobook too. wil wheaton learn voices.