John Scalzi is by far one of the most imaginative (and funny at the same time) authors that I read in the last years. This book is not an exception. He brings drama and laughts, gives interesting characters, and give us a great book, once again.

Fantastic, just as i expected. I think Scalzi does a really good job of writing accessible sci-fi. It's complex and technical but it is also full of heart.

"The Last Emperox" is an entertaining and satisfying conclusion to the "Interdependency" series by John Scalzi. The novel picks up where the previous book left off, with the characters facing the ultimate battle for the fate of their interstellar empire. As with the previous books in the series, Scalzi's writing style is engaging, and the pacing is well-balanced, with action and character development interspersed throughout the story.

One of the strengths of this novel, and the series as a whole, is the way Scalzi develops his characters. Each of the characters is given depth and complexity, and the relationships between them are well-drawn. Readers will become invested in the fates of these characters and will find themselves rooting for them throughout the story.

Scalzi's world-building is also a notable highlight of the series, and "The Last Emperox" is no exception. The different planets and societies are intricately woven together, and the political intrigue that plays out throughout the series is well-executed. The idea of the "Flow," a kind of interstellar river that connects the different planets and systems, is a fascinating concept and adds an extra layer of interest to the story.

Overall, "The Last Emperox" is a satisfying conclusion to the "Interdependency" series. Scalzi's writing style, character development, and world-building are all strong, making for a compelling and enjoyable read. Fans of science fiction will find much to enjoy in this series, and I highly recommend it.

Not particularly impressed with the way this trilogy ended. I loved the first book, but this one was underwhelming. I can't quite put my finger on it either; the storytelling is top notch as always for Scalzi, but I guess the story felt rushed? Hard to say.

Scalzi is an entertaining writer, and this book continues that tradition. The trilogy, as a whole, felt a little like a 2 book series drawn out to 3 books.

It starts off slow and kind of dense, but once the action begins, it's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. It reads as a true epic, one that makes you feel the world really has been reshaped as you read it. Would recommend.

But I don't want it to be over! Great trilogy, great final book. It took me a while to fully remember who everyone was, but it did a good job of reminding us as it weaved through craziness. Just as crazy as the books before, if not moreso in some ways. I started this when I needed something fun to read after starting off the readathon with crappy books and it didn't disappoint. Only wish it wasn't over. Can't wait to see what comes next for Scalzi.

The Interdependency is coming to an end or so we are all led to believe. This book completes this thrilling trilogy and is essentially a race against the clock to figure out a way to save everyone with what limited resources are available. Unfortunately this book falls a bit flat in the first half. Scalzi fills up the pages with long political driven conversations and sharp wit but it gets a bit boring after a while. With that being said, he absolutely makes up for it in the second half. Action packed, twists and turns, and an ending which is satisfying and complete. If you like sci-fi politics, this trilogy can't be beat. If you like Scalzi's other works (Old Man's War, Head On, etc.), you may find that this doesn't quite live up to those series but is still darn good.

I greatly anticipated this book. I loved the first book in this trilogy, and enjoyed the second and third books. I was wishing that the author wasn’t going to go through with what happened for the ending of this story. As I was reading the conclusion, I kept thinking that what was happening was only a miss direction. However, after sitting with the ending for a couple of days, I am content with it.

There was a little to much of a family I don’t enjoy and exposition in The Last Emperox for me, but, like the other books in this trilogy, it was a fun and fast-paced read.

I’m happy to have finally finished this space opera series!

I received this title from NetGalley and the publisher (months ago) in exchange for an honest review.

While I liked the Old Man’s War books well enough, I’d have to say that this is the series that made me a Scalzi fan. Smart finale with several unexpected turns and hit me with more emotional investment than I had thought. This ending is strong and clever to both make sense and not be entirely predictable. While I thought the Nohamepetans got off a little easily for what they had wrought over the trilogy, it was a good send-off.

The Interdependency is a space empire spanning innumerable light years and travel between each human colony is viable via the Flow. The Flow runs like a river through space and allows the spaceships that enter it to travel at a speed faster than light and across the vast universe in months or years rather than centuries and multiple lifetimes. However, just like a river, the Flow is changing course and millions of lives might be lost in space if this occurs.

The end of this futuristic civilisation, which has been steadily approaching over the previous two books, has now come but Emperox Grayland II has another end to contend with - her own. Numerous assassination attempts have been made towards her, as well as to those she is closest to, and in order to save the lives of the billions spread across the interdependency she must first control the wealthy elite who plan to take hers.

This book impressed me just as much as the previous two. I found the scientific focus to be just as dense but also just as interesting and I especially loved getting an insight to physicist Marce's perspective as he worked in tracking, exploring, and perhaps even controlling the Flow. Many twists occurred along the way and I remained unsure throughout concerning the future, or lack of one, for the human race as well as for exactly this series would conclude.

Kiva was another character I appreciated the inclusion of. She was as smart as she was sassy and as saucy as she was snarky, which all combined to ensure her both a hilarious and cunning inclusion to this series. In fact, every character included here brought an unique voice and a different element to this space opera. This ensured the recognisable face of humanity was presented no matter the distance in both time and space that separated the reader from this proposed future of our species.

This was a disappointing conclusion to the Last Emperox series. Some story lines seemed to be forgotten and plot developments came out of left field. Scalzi's characters are fun and play off each other well, but the book felt rushed.

This was exactly the ending I was looking forward to from this phenomenal series, I loved it from the first book!
This book ties all the plots back together and sets things right for the Interdependency.

Supurb end to an incredible trilogy. Scalzi keeps getting better every book. Keeps the plot moving, the characters both interesting and engaging.

Some bits of the plot are simply brilliant and come totally by surprise. Highly highly recommended.

A fitting conclusion for a fast-paced, Sci-fi trilogy that echoes Asimov’s Foundation series x though with more curse words and political intrigues.

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.

John Scalzi does it again, and I shouldn't even be surprised.

Final books in a series are scary for readers. We can be so eager to get more of the story and see how it all ends, but THE HORROR if it ends badly. Luckily, I needn't have worried in this case, because In Scalzi We Trust.

This fantastic sci-fi series is short in terms of page count, but packed full of outstanding world-building, memorable characters, and all of the political intrigue you could want. I would read a series double this length set in this world, but that's about my desire for more story, not a comment on this book lacking in any way.

A satisfying conclusion to a sci-fi series that I would recommend to both existing fans of the genre, and newbies who are reluctant to dip their toe in.

It’s the final leg of the Interdependency trilogy and things have been on a dire note since the beginning- end of humankind sort of deal. It’s for all the marbles now and I love when a book or series of books, in this case, reaches that point. I was in high anticipation to find out how things would conclude this amusing bit of futuristic sci-fi.

I don’t plan to offer up any spoilers intentionally, but there may be series spoilerish things noted here since these books are all one story and need to be read in order.

As I said, I was pretty jazzed to pick up this last of the trilogy. I described the book as a survival-style space adventure, but in truth this series has been more political intrigue than anything else since the beginning with a dab of desperation on the side. I really should have remembered that when I went into this book because if I thought the focus was going to be on saving humankind, I was only going to be a little right. In fact, the intrigue was stepped up. I wouldn’t have minded this because I got to enjoy the snappy witticism of several characters and even the wry tone of the overall writing (it’s not a big downer even if it seems like it would be), but I was really starting to wonder what the ‘Hail Mary’ was going to be to save everyone.

And, this brings me to the heart of my moderate level of dissatisfaction with this book. On one hand, I was highly entertained and chuckled a few times at the entertaining dialogues, even by the villains, but, on the other hand, I felt like things stalled out. All the tension was reduced to Marce Clairmont losing sleep as he worked feverishly to figure out enough about Flow physics to see if there was a way to get around the inevitable and the emperox trying to stay alive between coups and assassination attempts to have the authority to allow Marce to work and save as many people as she could. It felt like more of the same from book one and two with the same greedy aristos content to let the world burn because they would get to End and who cared about anyone else. And, there were those who thwarted them which made for some entertaining moments and a very little excitement, but it didn’t seem to be leading up to anything.

But, what really sunk this one was the rushed end. I felt like the big play was all off stage and the rules got changed at the last minute to accommodate a slap-dash ending. I sat there staring at the acknowledgement page and asked myself, “What was that?” A two page wrap-up was the big moment. I felt it was a cop out and I hate saying that because right up until that last chapter I was enjoying myself even with all the passive ‘tell not show’ passages and summations that skipped over direct dialogue and action, but to go the whole series for that?

In contrast, I enjoyed learning the final secrets of the Memory Room, Kiva’s rude humorous personality, sweet and dedicated Marce, and a sensational setting out there in the stars.

In summary, I was having a good time right up until the end. I would still recommend the series for light, sci-fi entertainment. I definitely plan to read/listen to more from this author and am already pondering which series I will start.

Published by Tor Books on April 14, 2020

The Last Emperox is the third book of the Interdependency trilogy that began with The Collapsing Empire and continued with The Consuming Fire. The first book sets up the detailed background that serves as a springboard for the next two. When I read it, I wondered whether all that background was really necessary. Perhaps the trilogy would produce a story that might better be told in a single volume without all the detail, however interesting it might be, that John Scalzi served up in The Collapsing Empire. With apologies to Scalzi, who knows more than I do about how to write John Scalzi books, I confess I was wrong. The final two volumes are each packed with storylines, way too much to cram into a single volume and all of it essential, or at least worthwhile. Anyway, trilogies give writers three advances and royalties on three books instead of one, and who am I to complain about Scalzi earning a living? Readers who invest in all three books will not find themselves cheated.

By the end of The Consuming Fire, we know that flow streams connecting various places that humans occupy in the Interdependency are collapsing. Marce Claremont has brought that news to the relatively new Emperox, whose formal name is Grayland II. Informally, she is still Cardenia of the House of Wu, a relatively young woman who is forced into the life of a ruler when she would rather have the freedom that comes with a less stressful existence. Like most of the female characters, Cardenia has a healthy sexual appetite, much to Marce’s benefit. Various political machinations have ensued, including attempted assassinations, but Cardenia is still holding power, although to what end is uncertain. When the flow streams finally collapse, the Interdependency will collapse with them, producing a period of anarchy and massive death brought about by insufficient and suddenly irreplaceable resources.

The Last Emperox continues the political plot that lies at the novel’s heart. The villainous Nadashe Nohamapetan, seemingly foiled in the second novel, is up to new tricks in this one. She is matched against Lady Kiva from the House of Lagos, a delightfully foul-mouthed woman whose sex drive might better be described as insatiable than healthy, and good for her. Kiva may be allied with Cardenia or working against her. Scalzi keeps the reader guessing.

The plot is lively. Scalzi uses it to make the always timely observation that power is short-sighted. People who hold it want to keep it. If their actions accelerate the destruction of whatever (the environment, the government, the Interdependency), they’ll let the next generation worry about it. Maintaining power and accumulating more of it trumps (pun intended) the harm they cause to everyone else. Naturally, rulers of the powerful houses hatch a plan to save themselves from the flow stream collapse because, if only a few people will be able to survive, they feel entitled to be the survivors.

I expected the protagonists to come up with a plan to save the human race (or that part of it that lives in the Interdependency, which or may not be all of it) and they do, sort of, but the plan surprised me. It’s both clever and a testament to the willingness of good people to set power aside and to sacrifice everything for the greater good. Maybe science fiction fans carry the idealism to believe that our better selves will ultimately triumph. Maybe the fond hope that there is something salvageable, something decent, in human nature is what makes me keep reading science fiction. That, and good storytelling that revitalizes the sense of wonder. Scalzi attains those objectives better than most science fiction writers. In The Last Emperox, he brings a well-conceived plot to a satisfying conclusion while leaving room for related stories to be told. I hope he gets around to telling them.

RECOMMENDED

In the afterword/acknowledgements, John Scalzi apologizes for procrastinating writing this third book in the Emperox trilogy. It was refreshing to hear him acknowledge what was apparent as the end of the book approached. There were many very rich and promising avenues left to explore, and the end, although satisfying on many levels, felt rushed and incomplete. I thoroughly enjoyed this book—the characters are compelling, the story-line is engaging, but I would love to see the fourth book in this trilogy. Definitely recommend reading this, but left wanting more.