The Last Emperox is the final part of John Scalzi’s The Interdependency trilogy. The previous entries were both full of big ideas, and entertaining stories, which meshed those ideas with convincing characterisation, and a sense of fun that kept the pages turning.
This entry, I am delighted to say, is at least as much fun to read as the preceding entries. That same blend of big sci-fi ideas and characters you can laugh with, love, or hate, remains compelling, with an underpinning of a universe that feels richly woven and believable as a convincing background.
Speaking of which, that universe is, well, ending. An interstellar empire that spans multiple systems is set to collapse into fire and madness, as the space lanes between them shift out of alignment. Each system, populated by artificial habitats, and hamstrung by corporate patents on crops and other necessities, is, well, dependent on the others. As the links between them collapse, the question isn’t going to be who survives, but how long it will take for them all to fail. For all that, the institutions and people of the story - the noble houses, the merchants guilds, the politicians and fixers, the guardsmen and artisans, react much as people seem to. They ignore the end of their world, and settle down to putting another basket of bread on the table, assuming (or hoping) that someone else will fix the problem. The scintillating orbital habitats are wonderfully described, their inhabitants - crotchety, scheming loving, wonderful people, all sharply observed. This is a universe which feels lived in, and as it begins to fall apart at the edges, as the seams unpick themselves, as markets start to panic, and as the rich quietly start looking for lifeboats for themselves, as all of this occurs, its lived in reality gives the slow disintegration of society an emotional kick, a weight, and a tension which you can feel simmering with each turn of the page. Whether anything of this glorious string of worlds can be saved is something the narrative proposes as an open question - and invites the reader to join in finding out the answer.
In this, they’re joined by the characters. I need to take a minute and say how much I appreciate the antagonists. In the main, they’re smart, driven people, doing what they think is best. Admittedly, they tend to be more selfish than our heroes, but they’re not idiots. Callous, perhaps, ruthless, occasionally murderous - but still working with an agenda which makes sense. Yes, you want, say, the Nohamapetan family’s plot to seize control of the Empire to fail, but you have to respect their drive and commitment to the goal; the moments you see things from a Nohamapetan point of view are rather revealing.
Then there’s our protagonists. I have a lot of time for Kiva, the fast-talking, expletive-laden adjutant to the Emperox. She’s quick on her feet, sharp-tongued, and entirely unapologetic about who she is and what she wants. Kiva is, by many lights, exactly as selfish as the villainous Nohamapetan’s. But she’s also self-aware enough to realise that in order to get what she wants, she needs a society to do it in - and she does have a genuine friendship with a few people, and a genuine relationship to fall back on. Speaking of which, Kiva’s romance with one of the Nohamapetan lawyers is unbearably cute; their banter flows wonderfully and makes for a highly entertaining read, and Kiva’s love interest is no shrinking violet herself. There’s an emotional honesty, a fear and a longing and a love under their words, which makes them a fabulous pair.
Then there’s the Emperox, trying to hold everything together, with her own relationship to build, with the physicist modelling the collapse of the Flow. Greyland II, as she now is, is still impressively clever, aware of the stakes, and treading the line between being ruthless enough to rule and kind enough to remain herself. Greyland’s fire is unleashed here, trying to do the right things, the last things, the things which need to be done. That she is making an effort to save the Empire, save the people, without losing a sense of what’s right, makes her a top-draw heroine. You can see the genuine young woman underneath the ceremony as well, struggling to bear up under the responsibility, whose determination is as much a triumph as the political successes of the Emperox who she acts as on a daily basis.
In the end, this is a fantastic conclusion to the trilogy, The story weaves from crisis to crisis, our heroes (and their antagonists) struggling to get the upper hand, to shape the world and to save the universe. The story is snappily paced, and it’ll keep you wanting to know what happens next, turning those pages again, well into the night. So yes, this is a fantastic novel, and a great conclusion to a wonderful sci-fi series. Read it!
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