The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi

The Interdependency Sequence Book #2

Introduction

This is a book review of the Consuming Fire by John Scalzi. Cardenia Wu-Patrick is the most recent Emperox of the Interdependency. She is coronated as Grayland II and her reign starts with a crisis. The star systems of the Interdependency are connected by the Flow and the Flow is changing. 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 – Background

Cardenia is concerned with the crisis of the projected collapse of the Flow connections to 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 Interdependency is headed by trading clans. Each clan owns a star system and has a monopoly on one product. The products are traded between clans and no colonies are independent. Cardenia’s clan is the Wu clan. The Wu clan created the Interdependency and every Emperox for the last thousand years has been a member of the Wu clan.

The secondary plot of the novel involves the Nohamapetan clan’s opposition to Cardenia’s rule. Nadashe Nohamapetan has been accused of the attempted assassination of Cardenia. Her mother, the Countess Nohamapetan tries to free her daughter. Cardenia lets the wheel of justice progress without interference. Cardenia put Kiva Lagos in charge of the Nohamapetan clan’s finances, which causes conflict with the Countess.

Summary – Main Plot

The main plot involves the projected collapse of the Flow. Flow physicist Count Claremont 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. When the first Flow collapses as predicted, the Interdependency is rocked with the ramifications. Flow physicist Hatide Roynold has different ideas than Marce about the Flow. She predicts that other Flows will open as others close. A flow opens to a lost colony in the Dalasysla system that has been isolated from the Interdependency for 800 years. Cardenia sends Marce and Hatide to investigate the lost colony. They want to discover what can happen to an isolated colony when the Flow collapses. What Marce finds in Dalasysla will change what the people of the Interdependency think about their past and their future.

Recommendation

The Consuming Fire is a quick reading action novel with a satisfying conclusion that answers questions but raises more questions. It’s a great follow up to The Collapsing Empire and shows enough about the conflicts in the Interdependency to set up a spectacular conclusion in Book 3 which is tentatively titled The Last Emperox due to be released in 2020. I liked the relationship between Cardenia and Marce the best. They make an engaging pair. I thought the best part was the revelations that Marce discovers in the Dalasysla system. It’s an excellent expansion of the story’s universe. I plan to read Book 3 as soon as it is published.

Links

This is the link to The Consuming Fire’s Goodreads page.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37534901-the-consuming-fire

This is a link to my book review of The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi, Book 1 of the Interdependency Sequence

The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi