I always find John Scalzi's novels very easy to read and this one was no exception. That said, it really does have a strong sense of setting up the characters and events for the next installment.

This is not necessarily a problem in itself, but these characters didn't strike me as having a great deal of depth and, consequently, I struggled to care abut anything that happened to them.

The Collapsing Empire is okay, but I don't see myself to read the rest of the series.