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babewiththepower.bsky.social · @babewiththepower.bsky.social@bridge.neodb.net

Rated The Collapsing Empire 8/10

I was amused to read a review of Scalzi as an author of "fun but think-y" adventures, but really that perfectly describes his novels. I always enjoy his characters, their witty dialogue, and the plots always keep me thinking with their twists and turns. With this book I also noted at some point well past halfway through, in my opinion, Scalzi is pretty damn good at writing women characters. I read some reviews and see that for some reason there's a lot of dislike/hatred? of the character Kiva, but I love her. Maybe it's because she's a highly uncommon woman character in much of science fiction (and in general), completely unapologetic in her behavior? Hopefully the people who dislike her it's more because they're prudish about everyone and not because it's a woman acting as she does and wouldn't bat an eye if it was a man.<br/><br/>The plot, I felt, was like a wittier, more exciting and fun version of the one Expanse book I've read with a dash of its ancestor Foundation et al. There's a bit of technology important to another Hugo winner I read last year, "A Memory Called Empire," but which I felt was different enough and in my opinion much better executed in this novel. Instead of being a point of frustration for me through the whole story, it was judiciously deployed and nudged the plot along. In general, it made that main character's story less meandering. Oh, and speaking of great women, I did enjoy the wink in Chapter 14 to NK Jemisin. The end, in retrospect, is logical, but I didn't expect one small part of it. I blame magical thinking on my part. :) It leaves you with just enough suspense to want more without making the reader tear out their hair if they had to wait a year for book 2.<br/><br/>Good news for me I can quickly pick up the next one soon! I can't wait to read the rest of the trilogy and see how it turns out for the last emperox Grayland II/Cardenia, Kiva, scientist Marce Claremont, and Marce's dad and sister.

#book

Published 2026-08-18 17:59 UTC · bridged from Atmosphere