Book Review: The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi

The Consuming Fire is the second book in The Interdependency series and the sequel to John Scalzi's The Collapsing Empire and continues the story were it left off. I found the first book quite good so once this one came out I made a point to grab it and check it out. My impressions of this sequel are somewhat different from the first, as I'll detail in my review below. So, without further ado, read on to check out my spoiler-free review.

Overall Impression
While The Collapsing Empire was a brisk story that nevertheless managed to introduce the main aspects of the world, The Consuming Fire is more of a slow burner, taking a long time to even begin the story. With many of the same characters as before, the main points for The Consuming Fire is the progression of the main story and the introduction of further complexities to the universe Scalzi has created.

Plot
As previously mentioned, this book is a bit of a slow burner. I felt I was about 30% into the book before I started seeing what it was about and by 50% was fully engaged. While I appreciate a recap of the setting and what happened prior, it was a bit too long and involved for my tastes. Nevertheless, once you pass this hurdle, the rest of the book is smooth sailing with some interesting developments that further expand the setting and a bit of cut-throat politics to liven up the situation.

Characters
Many of the same characters we met before are present in this book. This includes the emperox Cardenia, the scientist Marce, and nobles from various houses like Nohamapetan and Lagos. There is a lot of tension in the political front as the emperox is regarded as young and inexperienced, something that drives some of the conflict with both exhilarating and exasperating conclusions. As before, the characters are fairly straightforward in that you can tell who the good guys are, though the bad guys having a bit more shades to them.

Setting / World Building
As in the prior novel, this book is set in the Interdependency- a stellar empire connected by the mysterious phenomena known as the Flow. The prior book introduced us to the idea that the Flow can collapse and this book moves us into the consequences of that happening as we start seeing it happen. There is a blend of politics, religion, propaganda, and technology that serves to enhance our understanding of how the Interdependency works. This book has some very interesting revelations that I won't spoil here, but these are the main reason why I wasn't disappointed by the slow start.

Final Thoughts
Overall, this is a nice, short book that further continues the story of The Interdependency. In my opinion, it's not as good as its predecessor though it has its redeeming moments. I wish the characters or the plot were a bit more complex, but at least the setting gives me many things to think about. Even though it started slow, it certainly picked up pace in the later half of the book and ended with some epic scenes.