The collapsing empire

Title:

Author:

Scalzi, John, 1969- author.

Personal Author:

Scalzi, John, 1969- author.

ISBN:

9780765388889

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

333 pages ; 22 cm

General Note:

"A Tom Doherty Associates book."

Abstract:

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.

Genre:

Science fiction.

Summary:

Holds:

Available:*

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Summary

*2018 LOCUS AWARD WINNER OF BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL*
*2018 HUGO AWARD FINALIST FOR BEST NOVEL*

"John Scalzi is the most entertaining, accessible writer working in SF today." --Joe Hill, author of The Fireman

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.

"Fans of Game of Thrones and Dune will enjoy this bawdy, brutal, and brilliant political adventure" -- Booklist on The Collapsing Empire

"Political plotting, plenty of snark, puzzle-solving, and a healthy dose of action...Scalzi continues to be almost insufferably good at his brand of fun but think-y sci-fi adventure." -- Kirkus Reviews on The Collapsing Empire

"Scalzi is one of the slickest writers that SF has ever produced." -- The Wall Street Journal on The Human Division

The Interdependency Series
1. The Collapsing Empire
2. The Consuming Fire

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

In the first of a new series, brutal politics and pitiless physics threaten an interstellar empire built on trade.The Interdependency is a group of barren planets and space stations ruled by mercantile trading houses and linked by the Flow, an extradimensional mode of travel. Occasional shifts in the Flow have cut off the Interdependency's connection to some planets (including Earth), but it's remained relatively stable...until now. Count Claremont, a physicist stationed on the remote planet of End, has determined that the Interdependency will soon lose access to the Flow completely. Once that happens, every member of the Interdependency will be cut off from all the others by impassible light-years of distance, and a delicate web of commerce and survival will dissolve. Claremont sends his son to the Interdependency's ruler, the Emperox Attavio IV, to share their findings before the Flow routes disappear. But Attavio IV is dying, and his daughter, Cardenia Wu-Patrick, was never intended to assume the throne. The reluctant new emperox is immediately confronted with assassination attempts and the ruthless machinations of the ambitious House of Nohamapetan, whose members seem to have their own knowledge of the radical change in the Flow. Readers might wonder whether Scalzi can write another space opera that shares the elements that made his Old Man's War series (The End of All Things, 2015, etc.) so popular but be sufficiently different to feel fresh. Both include political plotting, plenty of snark, puzzle-solving, and a healthy dose of action, but there's just enough here that's new for this to avoid becoming a retread. There's nothing groundbreaking, but you'll still want to find out what happens next. Scalzi continues to be almost insufferably good at his brand of fun but think-y sci-fi adventure. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.