The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi

First of the Hugo-nominated novels I've read this year! It feels very odd to have read a book in the year after its release. It's not my usual M.O., and that takes some getting used to. I'm very accustomed to being late to the party, but now I'm, not early, but here at a reasonable time. I do have to pick up the pace, though - there are a lot more Hugo-nominated books and novellas to read!

Since it's the first, I don't know where it ranks among the others yet, but I do have to say that it was a thoroughly enjoyable read. I  generally like Scalzi's work, so that's not particularly surprising, but as the first book in a series, this does a really good job of setting up the universe and the pressing problem all the characters have, and leaves off at a good tipping point, where things just got more difficult.

That's a completely uninformative general impression, so let's see if I can do better. The human empire that spans star systems is made possible by the Flow, more or less highways that allow ships to break the speed limit of light. They've been in place for thousands of years, and so has the dynasty that has ruled humanity in a rough mercantilist/religious/political consolidation of power. People mostly live on stations orbiting planets. Earth is long ago lost, and there are few other planets whose surfaces are amicable to living outside, rather than in orbit or far underground.

Most of the Flow leads through the Hub, where the emperox has their throne. But despite the seeming stability, a scientist on End, a world at the butt-end of nowhere, has been studying it and is sure that the Flow is about to collapse, severing all the worlds from each other, destroying power structures, and, over the long run, dooming the vast majority of the habitats to death.

We follow a number of characters through this - Cardenia, a daughter of the previous emperox who was born out of the line of succession, but suddenly becomes the most powerful person in human space when her half-brother and the presumed heir dies suddenly, shortly before her elderly father does. Marce, the son of the scientist on End, sent to make it to the emperox to report before the Flow from End closes forever. (Notable, not the Flow to End, not yet.) Kiva, the daughter of a powerful shipping family, delightfully profane in her language, and out to screw her family's rivals - the ruthless and unscrupulous Nohamapetans, the eldest son of whom the new emperox is being heavily pressured to marry. And also screw whichever people cross paths with her and are willing to tumble into bed.

So here we have a situation that could doom everyone, but some people don't want to see it. Others are perfectly fine with seeing it, so long as they profit. There is a competing theory about what is happening to the Flow going around, with intricate consequences. Finding a balance between altruism and practicality is difficult, particularly when you have a lot of people who don't mind seeing everyone else die, so long as they get theirs. (Which shows a particular but realistic lack of imagination.)

Scalzi juggles all these plotlines deftly, and of course, because it's him, reading it is relatively quick and quite delightful. The story bounces along, and he refrains from giving a slam dunk smack-down to the baddies at the end (I do enjoy those, but it's good to take a bit of a break from them.)  It's far more ambiguous an ending than many of his books, and I am looking forward to reading more in this universe. Since it's the first book I read out of the Hugo-nominated novels this year, I don't know where it'll place in my ballot, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book.