The Collapsing Empire

Faster than light time travel being impossible, humans now travel through the universe using the Flow, a sort-of space current flowing between worlds. Without the Flow, the worlds would be isolated from each other, much like Earth was lost many years ago. The Interdependency was established as the government, and the emperox rules peacefully over all worlds. However, as Cardenia Wu-Patrick takes over as the new emperox from her dying father, she learns what Marce Claremont and his father, the Count of Claremont, have been researching for years at the behest of the old emperox - the Flow is failing. The Nohamapetan clan seems to have learned this as well and are scrambling to take advantage.

I love everything I've read by John Scalzi, and this book is no exception. He builds very inventive worlds and creates intriguing characters. His books are eminently readable; I feel as though I am flowing effortlessly along with the story. Scalzi's writing is better with each book that I read. After finishing The Collapsing Empire, I immediately purchased the second book of the series, The Consuming Fire. The book is packed with strong female characters. My only criticism is that I felt the book ended somewhat abruptly, but I would guess that the sequel will be tied closely to the ending.

The Collapsing Empire was nominated for the 2018 Hugo and won the 2018 Locus SF award. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves SciFi, especially space opera.