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A review by eesh25
The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi
4.0
This is a good time for me to review this book because I just finished discussing it, and the person I discussed it with loved it. So I have a lot of positive feelings. The rating will remain four stars though, partially because of an unfortunate case of a poorly-written synopsis.
The official synopsis says that this book is about the collapse of Flow pathways. The Flow is a means of travelling long distances in short periods without trying to make light-speed travel work. There are Flow pathways between different star systems that would otherwise not be in contact because they're several lightyears apart. These interconnected systems form The Interdependency, an empire that can't function without the Flow because each system is dependent on the others.
And now, since the Flow pathways are collapsing, the Emperox must be told about it so the empire can prepare for the collapse.
And... that's kind of the actual synopsis as well. Except it's more a synopsis for the series. And if you're just waiting for this plotline to advance, you're gonna feel like the book is slow-paced. Even though it actually has a great pace, and devotes the right amount of time to world-building—enough to make sense but not convolute.
Besides the Flow storyline, there's a subplot that's more-or-less contained in this novel. It follows a powerful family of the Interdependency, the Nohamapetans. This family—or some members of it, at least—are up to something that could seriously screw everything up for the empire. And it's up to our main characters to figure out what that is.
There are several important characters in the book. There's the new Emperox, who doesn't yet know about the coming collapse. There are two Flow scientists, father and son, who have just discovered how fast the collapse is going to happen. There's Kiva Lagos who... I'll let her remain a surprise because she's the best character, and you should discover her awesomeness on your own.
There's also Vrenna, Ghreni, Naffa... But even with a bunch of characters, they all have such distinct and interesting personalities that they're easy to remember.
Combine that with a great pace, a surprising amount of humour, some space politics, and what is, essentially, the end of the world looming over everything, and you have a pretty entertaining read. I definitely enjoyed it. Though I did feel that the book took a while to really get started, but that can be blamed on the synopsis.
Overall, this was a great book, and I highly recommend it. I'm also looking forward to the sequel, which I'll be reading very soon.
The official synopsis says that this book is about the collapse of Flow pathways. The Flow is a means of travelling long distances in short periods without trying to make light-speed travel work. There are Flow pathways between different star systems that would otherwise not be in contact because they're several lightyears apart. These interconnected systems form The Interdependency, an empire that can't function without the Flow because each system is dependent on the others.
And now, since the Flow pathways are collapsing, the Emperox must be told about it so the empire can prepare for the collapse.
And... that's kind of the actual synopsis as well. Except it's more a synopsis for the series. And if you're just waiting for this plotline to advance, you're gonna feel like the book is slow-paced. Even though it actually has a great pace, and devotes the right amount of time to world-building—enough to make sense but not convolute.
Besides the Flow storyline, there's a subplot that's more-or-less contained in this novel. It follows a powerful family of the Interdependency, the Nohamapetans. This family—or some members of it, at least—are up to something that could seriously screw everything up for the empire. And it's up to our main characters to figure out what that is.
There are several important characters in the book. There's the new Emperox, who doesn't yet know about the coming collapse. There are two Flow scientists, father and son, who have just discovered how fast the collapse is going to happen. There's Kiva Lagos who... I'll let her remain a surprise because she's the best character, and you should discover her awesomeness on your own.
There's also Vrenna, Ghreni, Naffa... But even with a bunch of characters, they all have such distinct and interesting personalities that they're easy to remember.
Combine that with a great pace, a surprising amount of humour, some space politics, and what is, essentially, the end of the world looming over everything, and you have a pretty entertaining read. I definitely enjoyed it. Though I did feel that the book took a while to really get started, but that can be blamed on the synopsis.
Overall, this was a great book, and I highly recommend it. I'm also looking forward to the sequel, which I'll be reading very soon.