The Collapsing Empire - Books.Infosec.Exchange

eBook, 336 pages

English language

Published March 21, 2017 by Tor Books.

ISBN:: 978-0-7653-8889-6
Goodreads:: 30078567

(1 review)

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, …

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, possibly separating all human worlds from one another forever, three individuals—a scientist, a starship captain, and the emperox of the Interdependency—must race against time to discover what, if anything, can be salvaged from an interstellar empire on the brink of collapse.

2 editions

Armamix reviewed The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi (The Interdependency, #1)

Review of 'The Collapsing Empire' on 'Storygraph'

3 stars

Warning: For me, this book doesn't really work on its own, it's a setup for a series. Scalzi builds an interesting society that mixes progressive social norms with a feudal economy in a way that is close enough to believeable to work. Unfortunately his characters are still a bit on the bland side, and some of the more interesting ones tend to die or disappear from the plot (hopefully they'll return later.) The plot on its own is good and I'll definitely stick with this series.

Subjects

space opera