The Collapsing Empire

Locations
Call Number: Science Fiction / Scalzi, John, Adult Book / Fiction / Science Fiction / General / Scalzi, John
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Malletts Creek Branch, Traverwood Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Science Fiction / Scalzi, John	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Science Fiction / Scalzi, John	4-week checkout	Due 05-21-2024
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Science Fiction / General / Scalzi, John	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Science Fiction / General / Scalzi, John	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Science Fiction / General / Scalzi, John	4-week checkout	Due 05-04-2024

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. But when it's discovered that the entire Flow is moving, possibly separating all human worlds from one another forever, a scientist, a starship captain, and the emperox of the Interdependency must race to find out what can be salvaged from an empire on the brink of collapse. -- adapted from book jacket.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Another great read from John Scalzi submitted by KathyD on August 24, 2018, 6:58pm This book came in second place for the 2018 Hugo award, so enjoyed by many readers. Like many of Scalzi's books, Collapsing Empire is smart, funny, and has interesting characters without getting too bogged down in lengthy descriptions of his world. Apparently some people thought one of the characters swore too much, but that's part of what defines the character. He's also good at ending books in a satisfactory manner while leaving room to continue. Looking forward to the sequel.

Interesting submitted by anacoluthon on August 26, 2019, 2:22pm A very intriguing interplanetary mystery/thriller from John Scalzi! The changing Flow is a great metaphor for our current climate change, the denial thereof, and those who profit from it.

Great start to an incredible series! submitted by CWicki on June 13, 2020, 7:41pm John Scalzi’s world here is after Earth has collapsed and humans have journeyed out into the stars via wormholes (but not really, Scalzi explains it as a system of rivers) called “The Flow” that sends them millions of light years across the universe. Separated by the Flow, humans have grown reliant on these tunnels. So therein lies the crux of the story: Humans have grown reliant on something, therefore this something must fail.

The story mainly follows The Emperox Grayland II (Cardenia), a woman with a lot of spunk, though you may not see it at first. She’s just a normal person thrown into a position she wasn’t prepared for. She is the ruler of the “Interdependency,” different habitats and worlds separated by the Flow. The system of ruling is based in monarchy with a guild system as well, and a little bit of church thrown in for good measure. As for characters, there’s also Kira, a family member of one of the guilds, who is hilarious and crass, Marce Clairemont, a Flow physicist, and so many more!

I don't want to spoil too much, but I will say John Scalzi has created a fantastic world with great characters, filled with so many twists that I never saw coming. It is truly a book worth sinking your teeth into.

a successful story told with Scalzi's usual brilliance submitted by Susan4Pax -prev. sueij- on June 17, 2020, 9:02pm Everyone will call this science fiction because it is set in space, so we’ll go with that. (For those who wish to be better informed, true science fiction is when you can extrapolate from the science we have now to something in the future. In this book, you could probably extrapolate extraplanetary habitats and spacecraft from our current technology, but as we have nothing like the Flow for extradimensional space travel, that actually makes this book fantasy set in space… just like Star Wars.)

Scalzi tells great stories. This one is about empires and knowledge and people who manipulate power. He happens to set it in space across the galaxy, but he theoretically could have put in on a continent and used railroads or on a planet and used shuttles. In the end, it’s about resource control and faulty humans with divergent goals. Setting it in space appeals to a certain set of readers, and allows the author to shift certain variables the way he wants with ease. In the end, he tells a successful story with his usual brilliance. Recommended if you like these sorts of things. 4.5/5 stars

Trying too Hard submitted by krogers on June 19, 2023, 8:29pm As with all of the military fiction of Scalzi’s that I’ve read, he manages to create interesting worlds and storylines, and overall it’s a decent read, but the Old Man’s War series was much much better. I get that the excessive profanity was part of the character who was constantly spewing it, but I found it gratuitous and extremely distracting. I got the point pretty quickly, so the book would have been much more readable if he just made the character nonessential and killed her off within the first 100 pages. It felt like the author was trying too hard to be different in his character choices, but even though profanity and crudeness are a part of many real-life personalities, this character felt forced.