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9/28/2017
The socio-political framework of the Interdependency has some parallels to Herbert's future civilization as outlined in Dune insofar as how the house and guild system is portrayed. But the spice is replaced in this book with the Flow -- an interdimensional astrophysical phenomena that allows for FTL travel. Like the spice in Dune, whoever controls the Flow will control the universe. What makes The Collapsing Empire distinct is that the Flow wil soon be gone, stranding the various pockets of humanity and leaving them all totally isolated from one another.
Scalzi somehow makes all of the behind the scenes political machinations, deceit, etc. not so boring and hard to slog through, like it is with so many other authors. Good world-building and characterization, as per usual with him. Not his best work, but still entertaining and I look forward to future installments.