Review » The Collapsing Empire, by John Scalzi

Full Title: The Collapsing Empire
Author: John Scalzi
Year: 2017
Genre: Science Fiction, Novel
Publisher: Tor
ISBN 978-0-7653-8890-2 (paperback)
Wikipedia page
Author’s Wikipedia Page

Summary

A finalist for the 2018 Hugo Award for Best Novel, John Scalzi’s The Collapsing Empire is the first book of a three-book trilogy (as I write this, the second book has been on shelves for about two months).

Set in the “Interdependency”, the empire that rules all human-colonized planets — which are connected via “The Flow” — this story follows a handful of key characters who come to realize their entire civilization is about to change in ways they can barely understand. It begins with a new emperox (head of state) taking the reins from her father — and this is about the only slow part of the book. Characters come to life with unique and sometimes hilarious personalities and the story moves quickly.

Unlike the previous book of Scalzi’s that I reviewed (Old Man’s War), I enjoyed this one immensely — until very near the end — I’ll note the single disappointing part in the next section.

What I Liked Least About It

No ending, lack of character descriptions and forward-backward time jumps.

What I Liked Most About It

The story is epic in scope (which explains the need for multiple books to tell the whole story) and the backstory that Scalzi has created is unique — at least among the science fiction I have read. Briefly: because faster-than-light (FTL) travel is impossible and because Scalzi decided to stick to the science on this point while still wanting to colonize the galaxy, he invented “The Flow”, which is (according to the book’s back cover) “an extradimensional field available at certain points in space-time”. Once discovered, The Flow can be exploited by human-built spacecraft to travel across what would otherwise be impossible distances. Trips that would take hundreds of years in conventional spacecraft can be accomplished in mere months via The Flow.

The world-building Scalzi engaged in here is way beyond par for the course. Not only does he lay out believable planetary systems and habitats, but the socio-political-religious civilization system he sets up is magificent (and believable) as well. The emperox runs a thousand-year-old government set up to rest on three pins: the mercantile guilds, the church, and an elected parliament, all of which are a little more deeply intertwined than one would like (much like current real life). The guild houses are run by powerful, ancient families oozing in opulence; the nobility and caste system keeps everyone in their proper places; and the church, well — I noted that Scalzi’s description of the church part was paltry at best, which is probably a good idea if you don’t want to offend too many readers.

Some reviewers complained that this book was slow-moving due to “so much world-building” and setup, but I didn’t feel that way at all. Not only do I enjoy when authors devote careful attention to world-building, but it seemed to me like Scalzi peppered his explanatory paragraphs sparsely among dialog and action — a near-perfect mix.

Additionally, I think Scalzi did well describing each character’s personality and motivations — something he doesn’t always do well enough for me.

Conclusion

Despite my complaint about the missing (delayed until Book 3) ending, I think this is the best science fiction novel I’ve read in a long time. It’s fun, with fun characters (especially Kiva Lagos — no spoilers!), a brilliantly-constructed universe, several plot twists (of varying levels of surprise), and all of this tightly and enjoyably written.

Note: A shorter version of this review is available on Goodreads, here.