The Consuming Fire

Book 2 of the Interdependency trilogy

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This is a campy space opera, complete with plotting royalty, spectacular murders, unexpected plot detours, mob mentality, an impeding catastrophe that nobody wants to believe in, and a few unlikely sexual hookups.

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This prompted Kiva to look for Marce Claremont, whom Kiva was almost certain the emperox was now banging, and good for her. Kiva had liked Marce, who had been a solid if not especially imaginative lover and a decent human being in a universe that didn’t put a premium on that.

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That made him probably a good match for the emperox, who also appeared fundamentally decent and was probably also a solid if not adventurous bang. Not everyone could be an adventurous bang. Not everyone needed to be an adventurous bang.

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In this second of the three book series, in the midst of a colossal plan to unseat the emperox, some important characters go on a journey we think will be a quick jaunt to an empty system for some information. What they find there opens up the story in a way we were not expecting and the emperox gets access to information that will help her deal with the fomenting coup.

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Mr. Scalzi’s writing is fun to read, it goes quickly, his characters have distinct voices, he’s not afraid to make sharp turns, plot-wise, and he is a master at naming people, spaceships and planets.

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Some of the ships in this book are called The Princess Is in Another Castle, You Can Blame It All on Me, That’s a Phenomenal View, and We Never Agreed to This.

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Her second thought, which she vocalized, was, “Oh, shit.” Whether one is theoretically expecting to get a toothbrush (or whatever) through the ribs, when the sharpened object is honing in on you, carried by someone who looks like her job on the outside was strangling livestock, it’s all right to let out a little profanity.

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This is a fun read. I enjoyed it a lot.