As promised, I read this next. The book continues to follow the adventures of the Emperox, a scientist, and the head of the business side of a Royal House as they work separately, together, to try to deal with the end of the world. The throughways that allow for travel between the stars are closing, and since humanity mostly lives in habitats that aren’t self sufficient, this could be the end of the line.
I genuinely enjoyed Scalzi’s portrayal of Lady Kiva, the business end of things. She swears like a sailor, enjoys sex and violence, and is damn good at her job. I should note that after I finished I happened to read a few reviews online and as expected, this character angers a lot of people for her vulgarity. Not me. I have no problem with Scalzi’s almost continual use of f-bombs with this character. Maybe it is because I am also on the swearing end of things. (I do try to keep it under control…)
There were some unexpected twists and turns, but this part of the story wrapped up well and I am looking forward to reading the final book. I am saving it for a reward for finishing up my latest short story and pressing “submit.” Hopefully within 2 weeks?
I did spend some time thinking about craft while reading this but I didn’t have any takeaways. Scalzi’s style is light, fast-paced, and an easy read with Adams-like humor. He plays with conventions (at one point while discussing a character, she thinks to herself something like, ‘I’m a real person, its not like I’m a fictional character in some shitty book’) which are always fun. I found a few Easter eggs and I am sure there are more. But my tone and style tend towards the more serious. Case in point, one of my shorts currently out on submission started its life 11 years ago as a more humorous take on the plot, and through comments, workshopping, and massive editing, I changed it all around to be more serious. I guess what I’m saying is I write more like Powell or Tchaikovsky than Scalzi. (I can dream, right?).