up:: Books
[!even-columns]
About
- Type:fiction
- [Author:: John Scalzi]
- [pages:: 336]
- [ddc:: 800]
- [Year published:: 2017]
Reading
- [status:: read]
- [rating:: 3.75]
- [added:: 2022-12-13]
- [started:: 2022-12-13]
- [read:: 2022-12-31]
Links
🛒 [kindle:: none] 🏫 [library:: none] [thumbnail:: “https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51iaZv0S0EL.jpg”] [id:: 2SoaDAAAQBAJ]
The Collapsing Empire
Spoilers up to chapter 10
Bit of a mixed read for me so far. I like the setting and premise. The Flow is interesting and specific things like the memory room are super cool.
However, the pacing and ‘challenge’ of it feels off to me. Especially on End, it seems like we’re just zooming through events. Anything the antogonists throw at our ‘heroes’ resolves super quickly without any repercussions.
Also, the sweary-lady character doesn’t quite work for me yet. It seems like her main character trait is to be profane? Maybe we get more character out of her later.
The most interesting story arch to me is the empero’s. But right now most of the story revolves around End. And even her character progression seems to be fast-forwarded to being able to shut down her opponents pretty quickly.
The humour and tone of the book is a bit hit and miss too. Sometimes the self-irony is quite funny. Other times it ruins the stakes of the story. Eg. Mars gets kidnapped and might die? Let’s joke throughout the interrogation and afterwards. The story wants us to believe that the collapse of the entire human race is imminent. But that urgency and tension doesn’t land with me because of the jokey and nonchalant tone of the narrator and characters.
That being said, it’s still an entertaining read. I think a bit less fluff would do it well, so let’s see how it continues!
Spoilers whole book
Some thoughts on the whole book: Story-wise it picked up around the halfway point. Actually the Ahmed Nohamma Pieton (no idea how to spell that) viewpoint was one of the most interesting ones! I liked seeing the ploy from his perspective and the wrong research they acted on was an interesting twist.
I agree that the characters felt quite flat and we don’t really get to see much character progression in my opinion. What also didn’t vibe with me was the casualness of sex in this book. Maybe I’m a bit prudish but Marce sleeping with the woman who was happy to kill him just minutes before seems totally out of character. That just accentuates the ‘carricature’ feel that the characters have.
In total, I feel like there is some missed potential. The premise is interesting and the character dynamics could have been explored in a meaningful way, but the book remains on a fun chirpy surface level. 3 out of 5 from me.