Kevin Kuhn's Reviews > The Collapsing Empire

I finally got to “The Collapsing Empire”. I loved, loved the whole Old Man's War Series and that set my expectations of future Scalzi work ski high. Which is why I only mildly enjoyed his book, “Redshirts”. I expected it to be hilarious, but found it only mildly amusing. The coda’s helped, but didn’t put it over the top for me. I kinda ignored this and still went into “The Collapsing Empire” with big expectations. Keeping in mind those high expectations, I found this book to be . . . wait for it . . . very good. Yes, not great, not awful – I enjoyed it, but wasn’t blown away like I was by every book in “Old Man’s War” trilogy.

Having just toured Italy for ten days and getting to see feudal Europe firsthand, I was primed for this book. What did I learn in Italy? In medieval times, people went to incredible lengths to protect themselves. They built amazing walled cities on top of mountains to avoid being pillaged. When you see it firsthand, you can’t help but be awestruck at what it must have taken in a pre-mechanized society to build and live in those cities. You realize there was this crazy juxtaposition of conflict and violence against the need, or even requirement of cooperation and dependence. That’s what Scalzi world built around, which is, I must say - awesome. I love the physics concept of the flow (a force that allows interstellar travel – but only along a set path – like an ocean current) setting the underlying scaffolding for this universe. I love the backdrop of Earth getting cutoff from a disruption in the flow.

So why was it very good and not outstanding? Well, it started with a bang – an attempted mutiny on a starship navigating the flow. It got me all revved up for a high-adventure, action story and whump, we drop out of hyperspace and slow the ‘f’ down into about 200 pages of palace intrigue a’ la space opera drudgery. To be fair, those two hundred pages are well-written and introduce some great characters and this awesome universe that we are going to live in for an entire trilogy. And to be fairer, it wasn’t all politics, we get to see more and more of a political uprising. However, for my money, the real action (the good stuff) doesn’t start back up until the final 75 pages of the story. But when it finished, I was satisfied. There was enough resolution of plot to feel like a complete book, but plenty of setup for the remainder of the trilogy. There are some great characters in this book, kick ass women, manipulative baddies, and a few main characters I really wanted to root for. There is plenty of conflict and peril, both in this book and setup for the trilogy. A good indicator is that I’m excited to read the next book in the trilogy.

A strong and fun start to a promising sci-fi trilogy, that established a fantastic backdrop for the remaining trilogy.