On The Nightstand – The Collapsing Empire – 1/8/2018

Here’s the second book I finished during the cruise – “The Collapsing Empire – first book in the newest series by John Scalzi.  Like most readers, the first Scalzi book I read was “Old Man’s War”.  I read it when it first came out way back in 2005 and – while I don’t remember the details – I do remember that I really enjoyed the book.  It’s attraction grew out of a novel premise – which I’m not going to describe – and Scalzi went on to build a 6 book series around the original release.

The rights to the first story were bought by Paramount and there were plans to turn it into a movie that was never made.  Rights were then picked up by the SyFy Channel with the intention of turning it into a TV series – another plan that never came to fruition.  In December of last year, the rights were acquired by NetFlix and I believe their intention is to turn it into a 2 hour movie.  I’m very hopeful that it’ll finally make it to the screen this time – even if just the small screen – I remember the book being that good.

One quick confession here – I never finished the remaining five books of the Old Man’s War series.  Along with “Old Man’s War”, I’ve purchased them all in hard cover:

• The Ghost Brigades
• The Last Colony
• Zoe’s Tale
• The Human Division
• The End of All Things

Unfortunately, I never made it back to the series.  They’re still sitting on my shelf – waiting for the day when I have the chance to dig back into what was a pretty fascinating character and universe.

That’s relevant because when “The Collapsing Universe” was released last year, I saw it and decided I really should give Scalzi a second try.  As I sometimes accidentally do, I double bought and now have two copies – which means I’ll eventually be writing an “In The Cart” post on that second copy.  I also downloaded an e-copy so that I could take it on my trip.  It was a quick and easy read and – while I didn’t enjoy it as much as I remember enjoying “Old Man’s War” – I was glad I gave it the time.

I enjoy Fantasy and Science Fiction novels for many reasons.  Sometimes it’s just an amazing, totally immersive experience that does everything right.  “Dune” falls into this category – a book I’ve read many, many times.  Most don’t reach that level but still manage to grab me.  Sometimes it’s because of a compelling culture or universe – a topic for tomorrow’s post.  Sometimes it’s because of one compelling character that carries the entire book.  For me, “The Collapsing Empire” falls into that second category.  The concept, the plot, the universe in which the story takes place and most of the characters are all good and interesting enough but they aren’t compelling and they aren’t particularly memorable.  The exception in this book is Kiva Lagos – the one aspect of the book that goes waaaaay beyond better than average.  She’s a foul mouthed, amoral, incredibly capable, couldn’t give a s**t, overwhelmingly alpha female character who stumbles her way into being on the side of the angels.  My only regret about the book is that there wasn’t enough of her in it.  I don’t know what else to say – except that Kiva will be enough to keep me buying these books for as long as Scalzi continues to write them.  You’ll likely buy the first book because you like Scalzi.  You’ll buy the second book in the series – when it eventually comes out – because you LOVE Kiva.

One final note – reading the book was enough to convince me to go back and finish up the Old Man’s War series.  I’ll be moving all the books in the series – including the first – “Old Man’s War – out of my “On The Shelf” category and into my “On The Nightstand” category this year.  I think it’s finally time to tie up this loose end – particularly since it may be popping up in the not too distant future on NetFlix and I don’t want to tie my hands here in the same way I’ve tied them with Game of Thrones.

Cheers