Jan 2018 READER Collapsing Empire

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Our READER Pick for January 2018 is The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi. Please use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews, at any time.

I haven't read this one yet. Description is:

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 and faster than light travel is not possible -- until the discovery of The Flow, an extra-dimensional field we can access at certain points in space-time that transport us to other worlds, around other stars.

Humanity flows away from Earth, into space, and in time forgets our home world and creates a new empire, the Interdependency, whose ethos requires that no one human outpost can survive without the others. It’s a hedge against interstellar war -- and a system of control for the rulers of the empire.

The Flow is eternal -- but it is not static. Just as a river changes course, The Flow changes as well, cutting off worlds from the rest of humanity. When it’s discovered that The Flow is moving, possibly cutting off all human worlds from faster than light travel forever, three individuals -- a scientist, a starship captain and the Empress of the Interdependency -- are in a race against time to discover what, if anything, can be salvaged from an interstellar empire on the brink of collapse.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Goodreads tells me that today only the ebook for this is on sale. I grabbed it will try reading it in January.

[Betsy]

I finished this book and found it very enjoyable. I actually had a little trouble getting started with it, but I think that was probably my fault rather than the book's; I was just not in the right mood at first. But once I past the first couple chapters, I was hooked. I'm already looking forward to the second book in the series.

[Conal]

A fun book with great characters and an interesting take on space travel and expansion into space. Will Wheaton did another excellent job as the narrator of a Scalzi story. I really enjoyed the names of the space ships he uses (tip of the hat to Iain Banks). The only thing I found wanting was this was written as the first book in the series with lots of plot lines wide open...

[Esther]

This was one of my favourite reads of last year. I loved the characters and the snark.
The open plot lines would bother me except that 20 pages in I knew I would be continuing this series.

[Alan]

My copy came in last night's mail, and now work is keeping from what I started this morning.

I like what little I've read so far, more so than Scalzi's outright attempts at humor (Agent to the Stars didn't work for me).

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

I've started reading The Collapsing Empire. Since it's right at the start of the book I don't consider this a spoiler. That is the silliest mutiny I've ever read....

Edit: further along. Way too much use of the same terms of profanity. Give us a little variety? Yes, I know people who talk that way, but I expect a bit better in the books I read. Even if you don't get offended, you get bored with the repetition.

[Betsy]

Yes, it does get a little tedious. And I found it a little frustrating that he spend what seems like a larger portion of the book developing the characters of the villains than he did developing the primary characters. But I still enjoyed the book.

[Kirsten]

I don't understand the criticism. I started this last night and read 51% before the Kindle told me it needed a nap.

It's fast paced and has the little humorous asides that I love from certain authors. In some ways, the writing reminds me of A Closed and Common Orbit and All Systems Red.

At no point, do I feel it tedious or boring. The profanity? As it comes from only the one character, I don't have an issue of it. In fact, they make it a characteristic of that character. (It's not like in those Stephen King books where everyone from 8 to 80 has a pottymouth.)

I agree about the mutiny. I thought it was funny that there was actual legal way to mutiny.

Looking forward to the ending and the next book.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

It's a matter of taste and comfort level methinks. I haven't given up yet, but odds are I will never finish, because the few books by this author that I finished (and did enjoy) I found that I couldn't reread.

I have a low tolerance for POV characters that are villains. A few pages a few times in a novel is fine, but too much of it even when different POV characters generally hits my "this isn't fun" threshold and I quit. Sometimes I can just switch to a happier book for a while and then return later.

[Kirsten]

I am always amazed at how different people can get totally different atmospheres from a book. I find this book as light and fun and great space opera, yet others seem to get something tedious or dark about it.

Yet books like Foreigner hit my tedious bar. It's dragging out and I'm still plugging it. But I am not finding it nearly as entertaining as Cherryh's other book Chanur.

It must be the way we're raised or how our brains are wired. So many people loved Gone Girl and it was horrible in my mind.

[Kirsten]

Betsy wrote: "Yes, it does get a little tedious. And I found it a little frustrating that he spend what seems like a larger portion of the book developing the characters of the villains than he did developing th..."

I don't know about developing the villain. I remember in The Force Awakens when they focus on how they "make" their Stormtroopers, I thought that was interesting and brought something to the story. I think you can develop the villain.

Funnily enough, I am halfway through and I haven't seen any totally evil characters. (Not compared to real life.)

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

I think books have always depended on the reader to supply details (or not) . I don't know if I've gotten pickier since my college years or just have accumulated enough bad memories that tend to get triggered when I read books. Or perhaps it's just not as much patience. I'll give up on a book if I reach the point where I'm yelling at the main character "don't DO that! You know it won't end well!!!" too, particularly in YA books which tend to having young idiots doing idiotic things.

[Eric]

I loved this book. It was a fun story with some good hooks. Though, I feel like the end was a bit rushed and left too open, but that could just be nitpicking.

[Bo]

I really enjoyed this book. Just finished last night well past my bedtime because I couldn't put it down. I found the story fast-paced but not breakneck. The dialogue was also amazing. The characters seemed like they actually thought through things and had really good foresight into problems they faced, but it didn't seem unrealistic. The overarching theme for the book is pretty relevant as well to today's world, something I like to see in scifi books.