![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
The Collapsing Empire (Scalzi)
3/5. Read for "Best Series" Hugos.
...I got to this at exactly the right time; I would probably have bounced off its breezy shallowness a couple years ago -- no wait, ha, I did bounce off its breezy shallowness when I was supposed to read it for 2018 Hugo-reading -- and six months ago I wasn't reading much at all -- but I've started reading things again now, and I was in the mood for popcorn. Which this is. It hasn't got much in the way of substance, but it's fun light space opera. Well, the book deals with... a collapsing empire, and various people die, etc. so I guess in that way it's kind of dark? But the plot and characters are entertaining while also being shallow, so one doesn't have to care very hard about any of it.
The most hilarious part of it was what I think was supposed to be a major plot/thematic twist, but which really wasn't. Midway through, the emperox dramatically learns that -- horrors!! the foundation of the Empire was motivated not by idealistic goals and prophecies for humanity but by trade guilds wanting to secure their hegemonies and maximize their profits!! WHO COULD EVER HAVE GUESSED.
Like, okay, I know basically zero history (except, now, for gossipy sensationalism in 18th C Prussia, in what continues to be Total Awesomeness) but even before the last couple of years I knew that... empires don't get founded out of idealism. No matter what the propaganda says.
First of a trilogy (so the story is only a third done at the end of this book), and against my expectations I actually ended up placing a hold on the next book right away. I wouldn't rec it unless you were in the mood for something pretty shallow where you don't have to care about anything you're reading about, but if you are, this is fun!
...I got to this at exactly the right time; I would probably have bounced off its breezy shallowness a couple years ago -- no wait, ha, I did bounce off its breezy shallowness when I was supposed to read it for 2018 Hugo-reading -- and six months ago I wasn't reading much at all -- but I've started reading things again now, and I was in the mood for popcorn. Which this is. It hasn't got much in the way of substance, but it's fun light space opera. Well, the book deals with... a collapsing empire, and various people die, etc. so I guess in that way it's kind of dark? But the plot and characters are entertaining while also being shallow, so one doesn't have to care very hard about any of it.
The most hilarious part of it was what I think was supposed to be a major plot/thematic twist, but which really wasn't. Midway through, the emperox dramatically learns that -- horrors!! the foundation of the Empire was motivated not by idealistic goals and prophecies for humanity but by trade guilds wanting to secure their hegemonies and maximize their profits!! WHO COULD EVER HAVE GUESSED.
Like, okay, I know basically zero history (except, now, for gossipy sensationalism in 18th C Prussia, in what continues to be Total Awesomeness) but even before the last couple of years I knew that... empires don't get founded out of idealism. No matter what the propaganda says.
First of a trilogy (so the story is only a third done at the end of this book), and against my expectations I actually ended up placing a hold on the next book right away. I wouldn't rec it unless you were in the mood for something pretty shallow where you don't have to care about anything you're reading about, but if you are, this is fun!
no subject
This is pretty much my feelings as well. I've read this and the second book so far, and I felt like the second book was less enjoyable than the first one (though still fun). I might or might not get around to finishing out the trilogy for the series Hugo -- I kind of feel like I already know where it's going to rank on my list, and it's not going to be super high.
no subject
...it will probably rank above Lady Astronaut for me, as I've yet to get more than a couple of chapters into any of them. Lots of people seem to like the last book, even people who didn't like the first one, but I couldn't get very far into it either; there's something about her writing that sets my teeth on edge. And then there's, well, McGuire. I don't know anything about October Daye, and I did like Middlegame actually more than this Scalzi, so I suppose it could go either way.
no subject
October Daye... On the one hand, I've read 7? 8? books of it, and I think on average I enjoy it more than the Wayward Children books or anything else by McGuire I've attempted (which, I haven't tried Middlegame). On the other hand, I don't think it's a very good series, actually. There are aspects of it I enjoy (a couple of recurring characters, some nicely creepy setpieces, a couple of twists), and there are things it does that set my teeth on edge. For example, starting out writing "urban fantasy P.I." type of stories when McGuire really does not seem to be any good at writing mysteries. On the other hand, I do feel like at least the Toby Daye books tend to be less preachy than the Wayward Children books, which is a plus in my book.
Anyway, I'll be curious to see what you think of that series if/when you get around to it.
no subject
Heh, maybe I should read some October Daye, then. The preachiness of the Wayward Children books is what makes me really unhappy about it, and I seem to be more-or-less enjoying Scalzi's series, so!
no subject
no subject
Oh RIGHT I forgot to mention that, what was up with all the infodumping?? I felt like this happened a bunch, where the character would end a chapter on a ~plot cliffhanger~, and then in the next chapter instead of actually writing about what happened the character would be doing something else entirely and then remember "oh yeah, here is the resolution of the cliffhanger." It was weird!
I haven't read much other Scalzi -- the only other book I think I've read by him was Redshirts, which I don't remember anything about (except the conceit).
I didn't mind the plot of Empire as much as you (I thought it was adequate if only he hadn't presented it as Super Twisty, which no) but wow that characterization was nonexistent.
no subject
That's a literal description of the entire plot structure of Foundation, and I love Foundation, so that's not the problem to me. I'm fine with that structure, if it has good storytelling motivation. The problem is that in Foundation those resolutions are genuinely unexpected, complicated puzzles involving a deeply constructed worldbuilding scenario, whereas in the Interdependency the twists are just unmotivated junk to keep the plot sort of moving.
no subject
...but I went back and looked and the resolution of the cliffhanger infodumping is, yeah, like you say, driving interesting puzzles and also folded into a scene that furthers the plot and the worldbuilding. Whereas I felt like Scalzi's scenes were so static! Cardenia would be like "dum de dum let me do this thing that has no relation at all to the cliffhanger, and oh by the way now we will have a flashback to the resolution of the last chapter," and it just didn't make any sense why he would do it that way!
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject