The Collapsing Empire

I was a huge fan of the entire Old Man’s War series, but hungry for more Scalzi after that I turned to Red Shirts and was pretty let down by the second half (in which it became entirely too meta/self-aware and stopped being fun). So I went into this skeptical, but hopeful, as I suspected crunchier sci-fi/space opera is where Scalzi really shines. What I got was better than I feared, but still somewhat less than I hoped for.
We’re introduced to a new universe that in some ways resembles the socially liberal future of Old Man’s War (which is good). We get some strong female and male leads, distinct personalities (though not necessarily dynamic ones), believable social mores, and its clear reasonable early on that characters can and show more will be sacrificed for the sake of plot. All of that is good. However, while the book was fun and rapid to digest, I found myself somewhat unsatisfied. I have seen other readers suggest that it felt a bit like information and developments might be being held back as this was intended as the first book in a fairly long series from the outset, and perhaps that’s part of the problem...but story felt almost rushed to me. For all this is meant as a galaxy spanning empire with complex political and social systems and scheming (perhaps a send up to Dune as others have said), it feels curiously light on details concerning what are undoubtedly intricate plots and socio-political and business connections, even where they would be directly relevant to the plot. We get some straight up exposition about it from the adorably vulgar Kiva Largos and the eminently hateable Nohamapetans, as well as from the memory room, but I feel like other major houses are largely ignored, as is the role of the Church. Why have such a rich and varied socio-political system if we aren’t going to explore its intricacies a bit?
And maybe it’s just because I loved Old Man’s War so much, but the storytelling as a whole seems rushed...at least until the end of the book which seems to stop too abruptly in media res.
However, at least I found myself interested in and curious about what was going to happen, something I couldn’t say for Redshirts. So i’ll Likely read the next book when it comes out and see if taken together the series seems to be more promising. I’ll definitely want an improvement over this to go beyond book two though. show less

The Collapsing Empire is the first book in the Interdependency trilogy by John Scalzi. The only other book I’ve read by Scalzi so far was Redshirts, which I enjoyed, but I liked this better. This had a different tone, a little more serious and much less campy, although there is still plenty of humor sprinkled in.

The Empire consists of humans who have spread out throughout space, and their outposts are interdependent on each other. Typical science fiction faster-than-light travel is not possible in this story, but there is a phenomenon they call The Flow which can be used to travel more quickly between points along its limited path. Near the beginning of the book, we meet Cardenia at the Hub, sitting at her father’s deathbed. Her show more father is the Emperox, leader of the entire empire, and she’s soon going to have to take his place. She isn’t well prepared because her older brother was expected to fill that role until he had an accident. We also follow a few other characters, and we soon learn that there is something changing about the Flow that the Interdependency relies on so heavily.

I’ve realized that I really enjoy the trope where an unprepared person is thrust into a leadership role, so I was caught up in Cardenia’s story right away. I enjoyed the other plot threads and characters too, though. Even the foul-mouthed and exploitative Kiva entertained me, although she was maybe the one who took the longest to grow on me. She and I certainly wouldn’t be friends in real life, not because of the cursing but because of the lack of ethics, but I thought she was amusing to read about. The story has some political maneuvering, which is something else I tend to enjoy. There’s some action here and there too, and I thought it was done well. It wasn’t drawn out or overdone in that way that tends to make my eyes glaze over.

Although the story comes to a reasonable cut-off point and doesn’t end in an edge-of-your-seat cliffhanger, there are definitely major threads left open at the end. I intend to continue directly on to the 2nd book. I’m rating this at 4.5 stars and rounding down to 4 on Goodreads. show less

I described this to the Worcester Public Library as _Foundation "Lite"_. A good, quick read. Memorable characters. There's both a science plot, many human political plots, and human personal plots, all nicely interacting. There is a human empire spread across planets and space stations connected by The Flow, which enables space travel (which nicely, still takes time! It's not instantaneous), but it's shifting and changing, and not everyone knows this. The motivations, calculations, and machinations drive the plot. The ending is such that it's obvious that this is the start of a series (trilogy).

The Inderdependency is an interstellar empire that has flourished for over a thousand years, ruled by the emperoxes of Hub and built upon the backbone of the Flow – an extradimensional field that makes faster than light travel possible. Imperial bastard Cardenia Wu-Patrick has just ascended to the throne, and she is woefully underprepared, having spent most of her life out of the spotlight assuming her brother would be emperox. Just as she comes to terms with her new responsibility, she learns that the Flow is collapsing, and that means the empire will soon be gone and humanity might go with it. It’s up to her to figure out how to save the empire. with help from noble merchant Kiva Lagos and Flow physicist Marce Claremont. I’m show more always excited for a new Scalzi book – I think of his work as popcorn science fiction. It’s light reading and it’s usually got a pretty good sense of humour, but it’s also science fiction so it has some cool ideas. I was especially looking forward to THE COLLAPSING EMPIRE because I like space opera, and Scalzi’s other space opera universe (Old Man's War) hasn’t been doing much new worldbuilding in recent installments.

THE COLLAPSING EMPIRE met all of my expectations, but still managed to be somewhat different from Scalzi’s other work. It’s grander in scale (more operatic in space opera terms) than the Old Man’s War books, it focuses more on the empire and the larger story of humanity than it does on individual people’s character arcs. The characters don’t really grow or change, they are just the viewpoint from which we see the next great change in human history unfold. I mean, you still empathize with the characters, there are some emotional moments, particularly for Cardenia, but the focus is definitely not on those elements. This book is also a little more adult-themed than Scalzi’s usual work – there’s politics (intrigue, betrayal, plots, etc.), more explicit sex scenes (which I don’t remember Scalzi doing before), and a lot of swearing (mostly courtesy of the Lagos family.)

I had a couple of problems with the book. One of them is that I think I was supposed to like Kiva Lagos (Scalzi has called her one of his favorite characters ever), but I thought she seemed like a terrible person. I can appreciate a good greedy merchant (Quark is one of my favorite characters in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) but Kiva didn’t seem to have any heart, even though she mostly ends up being on the side of the good guys. Another problem is that I felt like the book didn’t tell a complete story, it seemed like it was just moving things into place for the rest of the series Most of the book revolved around getting people to acknowledge that the Flow was collapsing, and it was a serious problem and the antagonists’ plans didn’t seem to make a huge difference to the grand scheme of things. Also, sometimes the characters’ propensity for quips in serious situations can get annoying, but that’s something Scalzi does in all his books and I know to expect, so it wasn’t a real problem.

There are plenty of good things about this book, though. Most of the characters are easy to root for, and the antagonists aren’t just cardboard villains. There’s some good tension in the book when you’re not quite sure what’s going to happen next. And the idea of humanity settling mostly on artificial environments like space stations and becoming reliant on interstellar commerce, then suddenly losing the ability for faster-than-light travel is fascinating. I can’t wait to find out what happens next, especially with the situation at the end of THE COLLAPSING EMPIRE. show less

Definitely one of the best series I read this year. (Review is of the whole series because I read them so quickly I can't remember what parts happened in which volume)
In the far future, humanity is set up on a series of planets and systems that are connected by some pretty neat worm holes. They don't really know where they came from or how they work, which is a problem because it appears that they're closing. The new Emperox is concerned with trying to hold civilization together and rescue folks from worlds that aren't sustainable without the Interdependency because she's a benevolent ruler, but the power- and money-hungry factions of her quasi-government don't really care about that and so they're engaged in all kinds of machinations show more to thwart her in the pursuit of the aforementioned power and money.
Another main character is Lady Kiva Lagos who is probably the most delightfully profane person I've ever come across and I love her deeply. She will (and frequently does) sleep with anybody and doesn't give a F*** about anything but her family and getting laid, until she's in the middle of this whole cluster and seems to just enjoy f-ing up the lives of people who are a-holes.
Lastly, we have Marce Claremont, who grew up on the farthest planet out because his father was exiled there to try to figure out the whole tunnel disappearance thing (one had disappeared a some years prior), and his dad wants him to get back to inform the Emperox what he found out. He's a sweet, nerdy dude with a big brain and an even bigger heart. I love him, too.
In fact, I loved all these characters and also hated everyone trying to get in their way, and if you're a reader of Science Fiction, you know that usually they're more about ideas and plot (or blasting up space aliens) than characters. The great thing about Scalzi is that he writes amazing characters *in addition* to great plots and his stories engage both your mind and your heart. Well done. Highly recommend. show less

There is a basic problem with this book and that problem is that it feels like reading the middle volume of a trilogy, only you didn't know it was the middle volume until you got to the end. If that is an accurate assessment then there is the additional problem that it's probably too short for the purposes that Scalzi had in mind, though I'm grateful that this didn't turn into his homage to Frank Herbert as he initially intended! It also means that much of the book is an extended data dump to get the new leader of this state (and the readers) up to speed on the looming emergency alluded to by the title. On the other hand, I do have high enough expectations in regards to Scalzi that he will write his way out of this situation and will show more carry this story arc to an emotionally satisfying conclusion; meaning that if you have the self control you should wait until the second book comes out and read the two together in one go. The other option would have been for Scalzi to write an extended prologue involving, say, the emperox who is dying at the start of the book and his trusted minion to at least set the scene. show less

I really needed something fun to read. This was it.

All I wanted was entertainment, and I got even a little bit more. The plot is just complicated enough to engage but not so much that you can’t remember who is who and what is what. Absorbing, fun, and just provocative enough for a kick.

The setting, in great space opera style, is a broad empire stretching across star systems. The empire’s elements are connected by the Flow, a faster-than-light natural interstellar freeway system.

Each of the empire’s systems is designed in interdependency, hence the empire’s name, the Interdependency. No system is capable of sustaining itself on its own. In fact, their very existence, since all but one is an artificially constructed and maintained show more habitat buried under an uninhabitable planet’s surface or floating above it, requires mutual trade and services.

As an interdependent system, it is stable. But it also depends on the Flow. Without the Flow, no ships could reach from system to system, providing the mutual support they all need.

And that’s the problem. Only a few know it, but the Flow is breaking down.

That’s the problem the new “emperox”, Greyland II (informerly Cardenia Wu), is facing as she succeeds her father to a job she never really wanted.

The story is a political one. Control of the Interdependency lies in a hierarchical guild structure, with Greyland’s guild house at the top but in constant competition with the others. Political scheming provides the historical background, exacerbates the coming crisis, and circumscribes the possibilities looking forward.

When I think of the elements I want in a big space opera, I think of:
A big idea — the Flow, tied with the political idea of interdependence
A massive, existential threat — the collapse of the Flow streams
Conflict — the guilds’ political scheming
Hope — Greyland’s honesty and naïveté
Central characters that bridge the small and the big scale stories — check (Cardenia Wu, Marce Claremont, and Kiva Lagos lead the way)
Aliens — optional (and absent here — remember, the Foundation also lacked aliens)

And the style, Scalzi’s style, is breezy and irreverent. Pages fly by, and you want more.

I’m a little bummed I finished the book, but there are two more. show less