Review: The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi

The Collapsing (The Interdepenency #1) by John Scalzi
Publisher: Tor Books
Publication date: March 21st 2017
My rating: 4 Stars
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Our universe is ruled by physics and faster than light travel is not possible -- until the discovery of The Flow, an extra-dimensional field we can access at certain points in space-time that transport us to other worlds, around other stars.

Humanity flows away from Earth, into space, and in time forgets our home world and creates a new empire, the Interdependency, whose ethos requires that no one human outpost can survive without the others. It’s a hedge against interstellar war -- and a system of control for the rulers of the empire.

The Flow is eternal -- but it is not static. Just as a river changes course, The Flow changes as well, cutting off worlds from the rest of humanity. When it’s discovered that The Flow is moving, possibly cutting off all human worlds from faster than light travel forever, three individuals -- a scientist, a starship captain and the Empress of the Interdependency -- are in a race against time to discover what, if anything, can be salvaged from an interstellar empire on the brink of collapse. 

My Thoughts:

The book description best describes the futuristic world of The Collapsing Empire. The main POVs are the newly crowned Empress of the Interdependency, Cardenia, Lady Kiva of the trade house of Lagos, and Marce, Lord Claremont, a scientist.

Empress Cardenia: She never thought she'd become Empress being the bastard child of the Emperox, but with the sudden death of her older brother she was next in line for the throne. She inherits the throne when, unknown to the majority, the space pathways ("The Flow") that connect her Empire are failing, potentially cutting off planets and space habitats from each other, and dooming the human race. Each of these habitats or planets depend on each other to replenish goods and items necessary for life in outer space.

Lady Kiva of House of Lagos is kind of a cut-throat business woman, but you need to be to survive the House politics. From her take-no-shit attitude, to her constant swearing (she loved the F-word) I liked her, a lot! Her House business takes her to End, a planet at the farthest ends of space currently in civil war. Her business doesn't go well, but Kiva, with smart, ruthless maneuvering makes up the losses. Her path collides with Lord Marce Claremont in the course of her dealings on End. I won't say anymore.

Marce Claremont is a physicist, and one of the few who know exactly what's going on with the Flow. He comes under the eye of the Duke's "advisor" Lord Ghreni Nohamapetan, of the House of Nohamapetan who figures in prominently in the story, as well.

The House of Nohamapetan is an ambitious, and not particularly principled lot, and it was entertaining to see their plans thwarted here and there.

The prologue grabbed me! But I will say that it took a while to get into the story after that. The beginning chapters with Empress Cardenia were a little slow, although necessary to lay the foundation for the story. Her chapters become much more interesting as the plot progresses. The chapters with Kiva and Marce were my favorite and much of the action happens with them in the beginning. All of the characters stories come together by the end. The story is at times funny and sarcastic, but pretty riveting as the plot thickens.

It's a race for human survival, but power plays and cooperation from the complicated Empire will probably mean major road blocks ahead. I can't wait for the next book! I can't believe I have to wait until 2019!

I listened to the audio version and Wil Wheaton's performance was superb!