The Last Emperox is the thrilling conclusion to the award-winning, New York Times and USA Today bestselling Interdependency series, an epic space opera adventure from Hugo Award-winning author John Scalzi. The collapse of The Flow, the interstellar pathway between the planets of the Interdependency, has accelerated. Entire star systems–and billions of people–are becoming cut off from the rest … people–are becoming cut off from the rest of human civilization. This collapse was foretold through scientific prediction . . . and yet, even as the evidence is obvious and insurmountable, many still try to rationalize, delay and profit from, these final days of one of the greatest empires humanity has ever known.
Emperox Grayland II has finally wrested control of her empire from those who oppose her and who deny the reality of this collapse. But “control” is a slippery thing, and even as Grayland strives to save as many of her people form impoverished isolation, the forces opposing her rule will make a final, desperate push to topple her from her throne and power, by any means necessary. Grayland and her thinning list of allies must use every tool at their disposal to save themselves, and all of humanity. And yet it may not be enough.
Will Grayland become the savior of her civilization . . . or the last emperox to wear the crown?
The Interdependency Series
1. The Collapsing Empire
2. The Consuming Fire
3. The Last Emperox
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As you all know by now, John Scalzi is one of my favorite authors, and this last book in his Interdependency Series did not disappoint. The stakes were high, and everyone had a hand in the conspiracies. I liked that Scalzi managed to wrap up everything in the same manner that he started the story — funny, witty, and surprising. Kiva Lagos continued to be my favorite character, and her transformation at the end made me say “Didn’t see that coming” out loud. Once again, Wil Wheaton did a great job with narrating. I could listen to him allllllll day.
This was a reasonably good wrap-up to Scalzi’s Collapsing Empire series. There was plenty of action and skulduggery. Most of the important loose ends are tied up. The main crisis of the story is the imminent collapse of the faster than light network that makes the empire possible. While this crisis not fully resolved, in the end there is reason to hope the approaching dark times will be hard, not truly horrible. I enjoyed the story but to be honest, it did not have as much dramatic tension as some of his other work. Most of the time, the bad guys seemed out-gunned and their plots seemed doomed to failure – though I admit some of the twists caught me by surprise. If I could, I would probably given it 3.5 stars, but I don’t mind rounding up.
John Scalzi wraps up his Interdependency trilogy with The Last Emperox, a fitting and satisfying conclusion to this fun and highly accessible sci-fi series revolving around an interstellar civilization’s last days.
Spread across the stars, the planets of the Interdependency are united by a series of flow streams that make rapid travel across the vast distances of space possible. Unfortunately, the flow streams are collapsing, and soon the systems of the Interdependency will be cut off from one another, and the trade routes that exist between planets and keep life as we know it up and running will be no more.
The flow streams operate as an analog to our present-day concerns of climate change and the ways in which rapid environmental changes and disasters will impact our own society. There’s plenty of people more than willing to stick their head in the sand and ignore the threats these changes promise, but for the rich and powerful 1% it’s a chance to gain more power, money, and influence as they cash in on the trauma and devastation wreaked across the other 99% of the population.
The Last Emperox, like the previous two volumes, largely revolves around the palace intrigue surrounding Emperox Grayland II as she races against time to save the lives of billions of people, coming into conflict with her rivals in the House of Wu, and the machinations and behind-the-scenes manipulations of Nadashe Nohamapetan, who has already attempted to assassinate Grayland twice previously in an effort to wrest control of the Interdependency for herself.
While it’s not the grimdark equivalent of Game of Thrones in space, it does have its fair share of political games, financial interests, and assassinations, and Scalzi certainly manages to pack a wallop on a couple of occasions. One savagely abrupt event hit me particularly hard and left me reeling, to the point that I had to stop listening to this audiobook edition in order to process what had just happened. I was shellshocked and left swearing at the author for quite awhile, even as I was left wondering how the hell the rest of the book was going to shake out. Don’t get me wrong, I trusted Scalzi to know what he was doing and to deliver on the premise laid forth over the course of these three books but… damn. Goddamn.
Wil Wheaton returns, as expected, to narrate, and frankly I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m sure I’ve said it in reviews of the previous two Interdependency books, but for my money there is no one better to narrate Scalzi’s words than Wil Wheaton. They’re a perfect match, and while I haven’t listened to much else Scalzi has written beyond this series and The Dispatcher, I’m very eager to get to Wheaton’s other readings of this author’s works.
For a new Scalzi fan, The Interdependency has been a terrific introduction to this author and his style. He doesn’t over-write, and his prose and dialogue is filled with a tremendous sense of humor and wit that left me laughing out loud at multiple points, even in the face of some truly awful bad guys doing awful bad guy things. He doesn’t get bogged down in the science of the Flow, opting for layman’s explanations rather than hard science infodumps, which make it all the more engaging and easy going.
As the last book in a trilogy, The Last Emperox ends on a satisfying note and wraps up the various character arcs in dramatic fashion. One particular relationship even left me a bit misty-eyed and hopeful, so kudos to Scalzi for pulling that delicate balancing act off successfully! We might not see these characters again, although the door is certainly open for some to return should the author so choose, but I can at least rest content in the fact that I still have plenty more of this author’s work to explore, particularly those read by Wheaton! Not a bad deal, as far as I’m concerned.
The entire series is great. Typical Scalzi
Really a lightweight writing by Scalzi. His earlier books were a lot more entertaining.
Scalzi is among the best in science fiction today. A fitting conclusion to this trilogy.
All of Scalzi’s story’s are entertaining but with a bit more going on than just that. Always worth reading and this is certainly no exception.
Fantastic! The perfect capstone to a great series. And, you’ll never guy how it ends. Scalzi creates such great characters. I hate finishing his books because I don’t get to see those characters anymore. It’s like your friends leaving town.
Weak ending following two better books in trilogy. Disappointing.
Great book, I will be reading more from John Scalzi!
Scalzi never disappoints! Read it, you will love it