The Last Emperox

Starred review from February 3, 2020
Hugo Award–winner Scalzi knocks it out of the park with the tightly plotted, deeply satisfying conclusion to his Interdependency Sequence space opera trilogy (after The Consuming Fire). The Flow streams, trade routes that connect the planets governed under the Interdependency, face an imminent collapse that will leave every world but the small planet End isolated and cause countless deaths. Emperox Grayland II works to thwart coup attempts long enough for her lover, physicist Marce Claremont, to work out how to save the population from this impending disaster. Meanwhile, Grayland’s enemy Nadashe Nohamapetan consolidates her control of End while promising disgruntled, powerful noble families exclusive access to the planet in exchange for their political support. Scalzi allows the flaws, foibles, and core personalities of the returning characters—careful Grayson, ruthless Nadashe, and especially foul-mouthed mercenary Kiva Lagos—to steer the story, and his careful, long-game planning allows for pitch-perfect pacing that will keep readers energized from start to finish. Balancing existing character dynamics and surprising—but well-earned—reveals with interstellar politics and pressing ethical questions of sustainability and power, Scalzi sends his series out with a bang.

Starred review from April 1, 2020

The Flow, an interstellar pathway between the planets of the Interdependency, is collapsing, no matter what deniers may say. As entire systems, with all of their people, are cut off from one another, others look to surviving in the moment. Emperox Grayland II continues to stave off the enemies that try to unseat her. Grayland's lover, Marce Claremont, attempts to find a way to stop the Flow's collapse, while many others search for ways to profit off the end of civilization. As conspiracies and coups arise and life as everyone knows it begins to fall, the Emperox must decide how to ensure the survival of her people--even though it guarantees that not everyone will survive. The central voices of Grayland, antagonist Nadashe Nohamapetan, and the brash Kiva Lagos play off each other throughout the story lines, weaving the core points of view into a multidirectional scan of this incredible spacescape setting. VERDICT Scalzi's trilogy conclusion (after The Collapsing Empire and The Consuming Fire) is filled with irreverent, humorous, and intelligent prose, providing a more-than-satisfying end to this trilogy.--Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2020
After putting down one attempted uprising and imprisoning most of her enemies, Emporex Grayland II can only count on her closest advisors. Kiva Lagos works to hold the continuing coups at bay, while Marce Claremont tries to figure out a solution to save more than just a fraction of the millions of inhabitants from habitats across the empire as the Flow (the interstellar channels that cross galaxies) continues toward inevitable and mysterious collapse. The rich and noble families of the Interdependency scramble to save their privilege and wealth as their intergalactic society begins to unravel. Nadashe Nohamapetan will exploit their concerns as she continues to scheme her way out of prison and toward the crown via political maneuverings and assassinations, both successful and not. This profanely funny political thriller is a fitting conclusion for the Interdependency Sequence (The Collapsing Empire, 2017; The Consuming Fire, 2018), and Scalzi delivers on the promise of a last Emperox with clever storytelling as an empire comes to an end.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

Starred review from March 15, 2020
The desperate logistics of planning for the apocalypse reach their climax in the conclusion to a space opera trilogy that began with The Collapsing Empire (2017) and The Consuming Fire (2018). Time is running out for Cardenia Wu-Patrick, aka Grayland II, emperox of the planet-spanning Interdependency. As she struggles to come up with a plan to save the billions who will suffer and starve in the wake of the collapse of the Flow, the extradimensional network connecting the planets of her far-flung empire, her nemesis, Lady Nadashe Nohamapetan, continues to scheme against her. With the support of many of the noble houses--who plan to abandon their subjects while preserving themselves and their wealth in a flight to End, the only self-sufficient planet in the Interdependency--Nadashe now seeks the throne for herself. Meanwhile, Cardenia's lover, the Flow physicist Lord Marce Claremont, attempts to devise a scientific solution to the Flow collapse, unaware that Cardenia is hiding vital data from him. And the clever but hot-tempered Lady Kiva Lagos attempts to spy on Nadashe in hopes of defusing the coup, but she may have gotten herself in too deep this time. Scalzi treads a delicate line here: He set out to chart an apocalypse, and a deus ex machina would be cheating. The book also serves as an acknowledgment that intelligence and good intentions are not an impregnable armor against venality and the pitiless laws of physics. (In addition to slowing down Scalzi's writing--something he acknowledges in an afterword--the current sociopolitical situation in the U.S. has clearly flavored the story.) Given those parameters, Scalzi plays fair while still offering his readers some hope. And even when depicting the direst situations, Scalzi's work retains its snarky cheer. Punchy, plausible, and bittersweet; studded with zingers until the very last line.

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