Consuming Fire is the second instalment in Scalzi’s Interdependency series. The collapse of the ‘Flow’ that enables interstellar travel between the dispersed elements of the Interdependency has begun and the race to figure out a way to survive that collapse has also begun but, with much opposition from the great families who don’t want to see the status quo upset, it’s not going fast enough. And some of those great families want to remove the Emperox and replace her with someone more amenable and easier to manipulate.
Scalzi is a very experienced and competent wordsmith and his prose is almost always fluid, dynamic and believable but his stories can be a little uneven; the start of the Old Man’s War series was excellent but by the end it was limping along, the writing still good but the ideas less so. This feels similar; the first book was an excellent introduction to a new and interesting universe whilst this one seemed to limp along ideas-wise. Very little was resolved during the book, the one significant piece of action feeling more like a digression. There were all sorts of interesting elements that never seemed to be followed up. Maybe Scalzi will return to them in future volumes but, for me, it left this book feeling like it didn’t really go anywhere until the final denouement which flashed through the most momentous events of the book in a few pages.
The Consuming Fire is a fairly easy, fast read but ultimately an unsatisfactory one. I will be continuing with the series as the main story arc is an interesting one and I’m looking forward to seeing where Scalzi is going to take it. I’m just hoping he’s not going to spin it out for all it’s worth.
3/5 stars
Scalzi is a very experienced and competent wordsmith and his prose is almost always fluid, dynamic and believable but his stories can be a little uneven; the start of the Old Man’s War series was excellent but by the end it was limping along, the writing still good but the ideas less so. This feels similar; the first book was an excellent introduction to a new and interesting universe whilst this one seemed to limp along ideas-wise. Very little was resolved during the book, the one significant piece of action feeling more like a digression. There were all sorts of interesting elements that never seemed to be followed up. Maybe Scalzi will return to them in future volumes but, for me, it left this book feeling like it didn’t really go anywhere until the final denouement which flashed through the most momentous events of the book in a few pages.
The Consuming Fire is a fairly easy, fast read but ultimately an unsatisfactory one. I will be continuing with the series as the main story arc is an interesting one and I’m looking forward to seeing where Scalzi is going to take it. I’m just hoping he’s not going to spin it out for all it’s worth.
3/5 stars
