The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi

I've heard of Scalzi, but I've never read anything by him. I assumed that, since I never cared for sci-fi growing up, I'm not going to ever enjoy sci-fi. Something neat must happen as you age because I enjoyed the HELL out of this book. What else have I missed? Who else do I need to start reading? I feel like I've lost a lot of time here!

I only meant to go renew my library card. My library is so smart, they place the new arrivals right as you walk in the door. You can't get to the front desk without seeing all those new, fresh, ready-to-be-read books. Scalzi was right up there and I thought "I've heard good things, maybe I should give it a try." So he went home with me,

I need to work on wrapping my head around sci-fi concepts of interplanetary living and space travel. But Scalzi's writing is so fantastic I didn't even care if some of the "light travel" concepts confused me. The Collapsing Empire is the first book in a new series (yay! now I get to wait for book 2!). Reading sci-fi is like working out, I think, the more I do it, the better I'll be at it. That's my theory anyways.

The Flow is an extradimensional field that people use to travel from planet to planet. You can't travel faster than light (physics!) so The Flow is necessary to trade at distant planets. The Earth is gone and new planets are inhabited by humans. It's good to know that ruling class still stands and humans are still out to make the most money and rule over the poorer people. Hub is the beginning and end of many of the Flow streams, hence...Hub, and the ruling house of Wu is the richest house while also being the Emperox of the entire planetary system. Several other houses, Lagos and Nohamapetan, want Wu's spot and they are willing to do whatever they need to in order to get it.

The Flow is disappearing. A Flow physicist who lives on End has been researching this for years, paid for by the previous Emperox. If the Flow to a planet disappears, that planet ceases to exist. The people of the planet are left on their own to die out over several years. Depressing, yes? The House of Nohamapetan gets similar information, except they are told the Flow streams are shifting and everything will move away from Hub and shift to End. Underhanded people that they are, they have a plan to rule End so when the shift happens, they will be the top dog.

Nothing goes to plan and it's entertaining to watch. I do adore that Lady Kiva from House Lagos swears like a sailor with Tourette's Syndrome. She's seriously my kind of girl.  I'm very ready for the next book to see where we go and I'm going to have to check out more of Scalzi's work. I'm in love!