/lit/ - Literature

The Collapsing Empire, The Interdependency #1 - John Scalzi (2017)
This novel isn't going to change how you feel about Scalzi if you dislike him. For me it was high quality comfort food. The book's tone can be described with a single word: snarky. If snark isn't your sort of humor, then you may not like this, because many characters often are. If you're looking for an entirely serious space opera this isn't that. I read some interviews he gave about the book to confirm what I thought, and it's basically "What if Game of Thrones in space with a basis in Dune with a whole lot of snark and female leads?"
I don't know what effect he was going for with having the book be with rife with profanity. There are 183 instances of "fuck" over 336 pages, which mean it's used on average every other page. One character is said have had that be the first word she ever spoke. That's the most used, but similar sorts of words are used to a lesser degree.
The collapse, as per the book's title, is being caused by a metaphor for climate change and some other contemporary issues are also present in disguise. The setting is feudalism in space, complete with noble houses, guilds, churches, and sealing documents with wax stamps.
There's also sexposition, which is to say two characters are having sex while discussing the fate of the empire. Scalzi seems to have fully adapted to modern sf trends to remain highly salable, which if nothing else is something he knows how to do. One female character is particularly interested in sex and has multiple sex scenes and talks about previous sex they've had.
Almost all the characters that matter are female and they're all highly competent and powerful. Which isn't to say they're well-written because I wouldn't consider myself a very good judge of that, or of characters in general. The male characters don't receive such preferential treatment. The dialogue is highly modern, youthful, and irreverent. I know that can certainly be a problem for some.
It was a fun and enjoyable space opera that provided a lot of entertainment. I'll be reading the books that are out, the second and third, sooner than later.
4/5