The Collapsing Empire (The Interdependency, #1)

by John Scalzi

Leave. Do it now. Tell the emperox what we know. If we’re lucky, he may still have time to prepare.” “Prepare for what?” “The collapsing empire,” Jamies said. “And the darkness that follows.”

“No one wants the Interdependency to end. Including the House of Wu. There’s too much money and power at stake,” Attavio VI said. “And the survival of humanity doesn’t matter?” Cardenia asked, incredulously. “Not if it means the end of the Interdependency.”

“I’m continually confronted with the human tendency to ignore or deny facts until the last possible instant. And then for several days after that, too.”