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The Collapsing Empire (EBook, 2017, Tor Books) 4 stars

The first novel of a new space-opera sequence set in an all-new universe by the …

Review of 'The Collapsing Empire (The Interdependency Book 1)' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

I stopped reading at about 70%. I like John Scalzi and there's a lot to like about this book, especially the dialogue full of snark. But I found it really light-on in descriptive passages. I dont need wordy tracts of description but I do need more than the bare minimum of world building required to service the plot (and to be able to picture characters, locations and technology). This feeling of 'lack' built throughout the read but I finally decided to give up when one scene presented the old chestnut of 'evil person shoots other person then wipes gun clean and presses it into the hand of unconscious dupe'. That really threw me out of the narrative not only because of the cliche, but even in today's society, let alone a future one, such a ploy is doomed to failure.