Last Emperox by John Scalzi
Last Emperox by John Scalzi, The Interdependency Sequence Book #3
Introduction
In Last Emperox by John Scalzi. Cardenia Wu-Patrick is the current Emperox of the Interdependency. She is coronated as Grayland II and her reign starts with a crisis. The Flow connects the star systems of the Interdependency, and the Flow is collapsing. She faces a looming disaster when the dependent colonies of the Interdependency will become isolated. What can she do about the collapse of the Flow and can she get the ruling class to agree to her solutions?
Summary Part One
Last Emperox by John Scalzi has four main characters.
Cardenia wants a solution to the collapse of the Flow connections between the stars of her Empire. The Flow is a wormhole network that connects the different stars of the Interdependency. Humans can only live on the surface of the planet called End. All other colonies are space stations or enclosed stations on planetary bodies. The trading clans head the Interdependency. Each clan owns a star system and has a monopoly on one product. They trade the products between the clans, and no colonies are independent. Cardenia’s clan is the Wu clan holding the system of Hub. The Wu clan created the Interdependency and every Emperox for the last thousand years has been a member of the Wu clan.
The Nohamapetan clan opposes Cardenia’s rule. Nadashe Nohamapetan had been accused of the attempted assassination of Cardenia and was imprisoned for the crime. She escaped and is on the run. Nadashe wants to keep the status quo of the clan system. What that means is that the leaders of the clans will get transferred to the End system and the rest of the people will be left isolated in their home systems to perish.
Summary Part Two
Kiva Lagos oversees the Nohamapetan clan’s finances by Cardenia’s rluing, which causes conflict with the Nohamapetan clan. All Kiva wants is to lead the Lagos clan and to retire with her girlfriend, Senia Fundapellonan. But Cardenia wants Kiva to help her capture Nadashe while Nadasche wants Kiva to release the Nohamapetan fortune to her. They both thwart Kiva’s plans.
Flow physicist Count Claremont of the End system predicts the collapse of the Flow by his calculations. Flow Physicist Marce Claremont, his son, continues his father’s work and is Cardenia’s closest advisor and becomes her paramour. Marce wants to transfer all of humanity to the End system. He believes that the solution is somewhere in the data and he continues his search for the solution.
The fate of the people of the Interdependency rests on the actions of these four characters.
Recommendation
Last Emperox by John Scalzi is a great ending to the Interdependency trilogy. I did not want the ending to go the way it did, but it was the correct ending for the series. All the ideas begun in the first book led inevitably to the resolution in the third book. That makes the trilogy a successful series to me. On reflection, I like a story best that is true to its nature, and this story is true to its nature. The three books were consistent, funny, and interesting.
All together the three books total 948 pages. They could have published the trilogy as one long book but this isn’t epic fantasy so I appreciate getting a book every year. The characters come to a satisfying concluding arc. There could be other stories in this series, but probably not with these characters and their conflicts. I am looking forward to the author’s next series.
Links
This is the link to the Goodreads page for Last Emperox by John Scalzi.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38322550-the-last-emperox
This is a link to my book review of The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi, Book 2 of the Interdependency Sequence
This is a link to my book review of The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi, Book 1 of the Interdependency Sequence