2017. Bought for $8.47 (too many holds at CLP) on 12/3/24 to read for Geeks Read on March 4, 2025. I’ve become fond of Scalzi, hope this one lives up to my prior experience. A review by Dan Ruffalo:
https://strangecurrencies.org/2020/03/27/review-of-the-collapsing-empire-by-john-scalzi/
Prologue is thrilling. Then it settles into Scalzi-fun: running gags, evocative and amusing names for people and for ships,
Everyone “smiles thinly”
The ship names are really funny.
“collapsing” 17 times; collapse(d) 48 times
“An open planet is no place for humans.” p. 183. Because they’ll just ruin it.
Bedroom farce pp. 210-212 ch. 12 (The sex is a running gag passim)
It’s a treat to watch Ghreni Nohamapetan, the antagonist sociopath asshole, get his nuts handed to him early (ch. 8) and repeatedly (interlude pp. 213-220)
Opulence & vomitous that “looks like a museum exploded inside of it.” p. 280
The antagonist is formidable indeed:
Same problem today, both politically and environmentally: “the majority of the parliament still thinks it’s nonsense even though we have proof…. 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.” p. 327
Vocabulary:
bolt thrower, dart pusher (hand guns)
push, push field, push field power
bubble
jabong
beanstalk
fivers and tenners
Flow, Flow shoal
skimmer
data crypt (thumb-sized of course)
squicked
cockwomble
assonant
