sophia_sol: photo of a 19th century ivory carving of a fat bird (Default)
soph ([personal profile] sophia_sol) wrote2020-09-03 08:45 pm
  • Add Memory
  • Share This Entry
Entry tags:

The Last Emperox, by John Scalzi

Third and final in the Interdependency trilogy, and by this point in the series I was finding myself....bored. Look, as I said in my reviews on the previous books in this trilogy, the characterizations are shallow and the narrative tone is lightweight, even when the book is dealing with some fairly serious issues. I'm not given any reason to care about anything in this series, and it turns out there's only so far I can be carried along with nothing but easy read prose and kinda interesting ideas to hold my attention. I almost didn't even bother reading this book.

But in the end, well, the library ebook was right there, and I did more or less want to know how things would be wrapped up, so I essayed a quick read.

And yup, it's more of the same. Cardenia and Marce continue to be so bland as to be presenceless and thus extraordinarily boring to read about, Kiva and Nadashe continue to be mildly fun watching be their one-note selves, politics and science happen. I couldn't even bring myself to be annoyed about a major thing that happens in the last half of the book that would ordinarily be a thing I HATE in a book, because I just didn't care that much.

Oh well. This book is not aimed at an audience of me and that's fine. Probably I'm going to be more cautious with bothering to pick up Scalzi books going forward, because I am recognizing more and more that he does trend towards not being interested in the same kinds of things that I am interested in.
Flat | Top-Level Comments Only
michelel72: Suzie (Default)

[personal profile] michelel72 2020-09-04 01:29 am (UTC)(link)
I wanted to like his "Redshirts", but I just couldn't care about anyone in it. I found his "locked in" books better on that score but still more about the ideas than the people. So I suspect I'd have the same reaction you did to this series ... which is a pity, because I'd had hopes for it, too.
sophia_sol: photo of a 19th century ivory carving of a fat bird (Default)

[personal profile] sophia_sol 2020-09-04 02:08 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah I think that characters just aren't his strong suit. I wasn't really attached to anyone in any of the previous Scalzi books I've read either, I think. Too bad!
sholio: sun on winter trees (Default)

[personal profile] sholio 2020-09-04 01:42 am (UTC)(link)
I also tend to have that reaction to Scalzi - and I'm curious what the thing was that you usually nope out on? I don't mind being spoiled; I'm not that likely to read this one, but I'm curious if it would be a dealbreaker for me.
sophia_sol: photo of a 19th century ivory carving of a fat bird (Default)

[personal profile] sophia_sol 2020-09-04 02:12 am (UTC)(link)
Ah, the main character dies about 3/4 of the way through the book! Usually I am NOT about that, unless there are really extremely compelling reasons it makes sense for the story to go there, and also it is signposted from the beginning that it's going to be that kind of story so I can be emotionally prepared. But in this book I was just like, well, at least we're likely to spend time with the more interesting secondary leads now that she's dead.
sholio: sun on winter trees (Default)

[personal profile] sholio 2020-09-04 03:14 am (UTC)(link)
Ack! Okay, yeah, that WOULD be a dealbreaker for me, I think; I'm glad I asked. Although I guess if a character is too boring for their death to be tragic, that's just sad. XD
sophia_sol: photo of a 19th century ivory carving of a fat bird (Default)

[personal profile] sophia_sol 2020-09-04 12:44 pm (UTC)(link)
yeah I thought that one might be a dealbreaker for you!

And like, maybe other readers had more attachment to her than I did? but I just couldn't really care
conuly: (Default)

[personal profile] conuly 2020-09-04 06:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Also, the ending just sort of... happened? "Whoops, we have one more chapter left, uh, everybody made it!"
sophia_sol: photo of a 19th century ivory carving of a fat bird (Default)

[personal profile] sophia_sol 2020-09-04 07:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah I was not impressed with that either!!
seekingferret: Two warning signs one above the other. 1) Falling Rocks. 2) Falling Rocs. (Default)

[personal profile] seekingferret 2020-09-04 06:19 pm (UTC)(link)
No, no, no, you don't understand, John Scalzi is the progressive replacement for Robert Heinlein.
sophia_sol: photo of a 19th century ivory carving of a fat bird (Default)

[personal profile] sophia_sol 2020-09-04 07:27 pm (UTC)(link)
hah, yeah, I've heard people saying that -- and you know, given that I'm not particularly interested in reading Heinlein either, he can replace him all he wants and it won't draw me in!
seekingferret: Two warning signs one above the other. 1) Falling Rocks. 2) Falling Rocs. (Default)

[personal profile] seekingferret 2020-09-04 09:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Sorry, I don't think my sarcasm came through, I was talking about this post I made the other day: https://seekingferret.dreamwidth.org/354040.html In any case, not that I am encouraging you to read Heinlein in any way, but Heinlein's characters are just so much less annoyingly bland than Scalzi's were in the Interdependency books.


I have to admit, it's kinda enjoyable to see you drifting over to my side on this series, you were much happier with book one than I was. :P
sophia_sol: photo of a 19th century ivory carving of a fat bird (Default)

[personal profile] sophia_sol 2020-09-04 09:26 pm (UTC)(link)
oh sorry, no, I did get your joke, and laughed when I read it, so the lack of tonal clarity is on my side I think! I was trying to mildly joke back about the pointlessness of saying Scalzi's replacing Heinlein while still acknowledging that I don't care about Heinlein even a little bit.

I'm glad my defection on this series makes you happy :) I think in the beginning I was just more hopeful that the books would go somewhere I would be interested in. But they kept just being more of the same.
Flat | Top-Level Comments Only