The Collapsing Empire

eBook, 336 pages

English language

Published March 21, 2017 by Tor Books.

ISBN:
978-0-7653-8889-6
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4 stars (110 reviews)

The first novel of a new space-opera sequence set in an all-new universe by the Hugo Award-winning, New York Times-bestselling author of Redshirts and Old Man's War

Our universe is ruled by physics. Faster than light travel is impossible—until the discovery of The Flow, an extradimensional field available at certain points in space-time, which can take us to other planets around other stars.

Riding The Flow, humanity spreads to innumerable other worlds. Earth is forgotten. A new empire arises, the Interdependency, based on the doctrine that no one human outpost can survive without the others. It’s a hedge against interstellar war—and, for the empire’s rulers, a system of control.

The Flow is eternal—but it’s not static. Just as a river changes course, The Flow changes as well. In rare cases, entire worlds have been cut off from the rest of humanity. When it’s discovered that the entire Flow is moving, …

2 editions

Scalzi does space opera

3 stars

The premise is that faster than light travel is only possible for space ships if they enter "the Flow" at specific points and exit at specific points, like getting on and off one way buses at specific stops. The ruling house of the Interdependency maintains control by granting monopolies to specific guild houses who must produce their goods on specific planets. Thus, one planet is dependent on the monopoly goods of another planet and vice versa. And the ruling house of the Emperox collects tribute from all the other houses/planets because they control the hub of the Flow, the "central" location where most trade has to transit.

OK, so that's the setup. However, a Flow physicist on an outlying planet has figured out that the Flow is collapsing, which means that every planet has to become self sufficient beforehand. Or die.

Can the physicist get word back to the Emperox …

Review of 'The Collapsing Empire' on 'Storygraph'

2 stars

THE COLLAPSING EMPIRE is a quippy sci-fi epic about the end of an era and the pivot from archaic relevance to necessity as the interstellar Flow between planets collapses.

All the characters were quippy and witty in this way that started to make them all feel the same. The overall effect was to make it so Cardenia was the only one who actually stood out, but that’s mostly because she’s new to her position, out of her depth, and knows it. Everyone had schemes and machinations that they were totally sure would definitely work out well for them. Sometimes they did, sometimes they didn’t, but their smug self-confidence was frustrating when it was coming from every character at once. I will admit that there a few characters who are so insufferable that I might enjoy watching their downfall in later books, but I’ll be totally fine if I don’t read …

One review fits all

3 stars

This is very much just one part of a three-part novel, which I find difficult to review in isolation. Because this site works best when people review the things they read, however, I will be adding the same review to all volumes.

John Scalzi is a nice guy writing nice SF novels.

You could almost leave it at that, really. For the sake of context, I will add a few more details to this assessment. This, like all of his novels I have read, is smoothly plotted and written, entirely unsurprising in its cliffhangers and ultimate resolution, and contains exactly one original idea. This being said, it’s an entertaining read if, at times, a bit too glib to my taste (I don’t think Scalzi has ever seen a witty repartee he didn’t like). If what you want from your SF is what I just described, you could do a lot …

Review of 'The Collapsing Empire' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

A blunt, sweary take on the end of an empire, think Armando Ianucci's Dune. Guilds, Noble Houses, Emperors and a rebellion on a miserable planet, but instead of a fight to control the means of FTL travel, it's just going away altogether whether anyone believes it or not coughclimatechangecough.

It's a fun read that's eerily prescient in some places given it was written '15-'16, and world (universe?) building is decent, but there's a lack of subtlety that takes the edge off. I liked how the characters don't quite have all of the right information at any one point in time, but none of the skullduggery is particularly surprising. Will probably read the rest eventually.

Review of 'The Collapsing Empire' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This is a fantastic book and Wil Wheaton’s reading is superb as usual. It has been a while since I read any Scalzi books. I always mean to and then never do it. But since this is Hugo nominated this year, I kind of had to.

So the premise is that humanity managed to colonize the stars by using something called “The Flow” for FTL travel. The human empire called the Interdependency - ruled by the Emperox, and church, parliament, the guilds and the executive committee - spans about 42 star systems, however not Earth. Because sometimes the Flow changes and so contact with Earth was lost. And as one can guess from the title, more changes or rather collapse is coming to the Interdependency, which is really terrible because the name for the empire comes from each system being dependent on others because only one single system - End …

Review of 'The Collapsing Empire (The Interdependency Book 1)' on Goodreads

3 stars

Double-dealing, fast-talk ing foul mouths are always trying to run the universe, and it is up to the pure of heart to prevent them from doing so with their good intentions.

Overall, an enjoyable read, almost a confection in how lightly it treats intrigue and sabotage and murder, but engaging in its twists and turns. It even manages to make sociopathically self-centred and greedy characters somewhat sympathetic, even if only in relief.

It felt like it ended a little too soon, which perhaps doe the job of setting me up as a reader (buyer) of the next book in the series.

Review of 'The Collapsing Empire' on 'GoodReads'

3 stars

Залихватская мягкая фантастика со всеми обязательными элементами и достаточным количеством слов "fuck" чтобы я не начал ныть о том, что в книге в принципе ничего не происходит (а начнёт происходить в следующей, сюрприз).

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Subjects

  • space opera

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