The Collapsing Empire is Here!
Posted on March 21, 2017 Posted by John Scalzi 49 Comments
Hey! It’s out! The Collapsing Empire, my twelfth novel, is here and available at your favorite bookstore and/or online retailer (in the US/Canada; in the UK it’s out in two days). It’s the first book in the new space opera series (called “The Interdependency”) and introduces some of my favorite characters ever in a universe I think you’re going to love.
The reviews have been pretty darn good, too:
“Fans of Game of Thrones and Dune will enjoy this bawdy, brutal, and brilliant political adventure” —Booklist
“Political plotting, plenty of snark, puzzle-solving, and a healthy dose of action…Scalzi continues to be almost insufferably good at his brand of fun but think-y sci-fi adventure.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Scalzi has constructed a thrilling novel so in tune with the flow of politics that it would feel relevant at almost any time.” — Entertainment Weekly
Pick it up at your local bookstore, or get it online here:
Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Google Play|iBooks|Indiebound|Kobo|Powell’s
You can also get signed copies!
It’s also out in audio, with narration by Wil Wheaton, from Audible.
Plus, I am on tour, starting today, beginning in Lexington, Ky. The full itinerary is here. Come see me! I’ll be reading new material plus other stuff, and as always will torture you with a song if someone brings a ukulele (and someone almost always does).
This book means a lot to me, folks. This is the first book in that 13-book contract I signed with Tor a couple of years back; this book is significant not only for itself, but for being a launch project that that particular long journey with my publisher. I wanted to start it off with something new and fun and good, and I really think I have. I can’t wait for you read it.
Still two days to wait for us normal mortals ;-).
Well my copy left Subterranean in WI a couple of days ago, headed to SC. It made it to PA, then inexplicably wound up in CA, where it still sits or so the updates seem to show. Maybe that Collapse is happening to the flow of mail? LOL
Well Amazon have kindly delivered mine to my Kindle.Next on my list to read after I’ve finished my just delivered (also) latest release from Marko Kloos.
Please write faster, this waiting between books is getting irritating.
Spouse just announced that the copy he pre-ordered should arrive today, and then said he’d let me have first dibs reading it – woo-hoo! I shall be busy for the next few days….
Safe travels on your tour, sir!
So how many people are accusing you of political commentary with the book title…? ;)
I’ll get mine in Chapel Hill on Thursday. Looking forward to your event!
Mine should be getting here in the next couple days. Though I need to finish my re-read of The Eleneium first. But still SO EXCITE!
My copy should be waiting for me when I get home tonight. Yay!
Will listening to it do? Audible delivered my audiobook in the wee hours of this morning. It will be my reason for slacking off for the next few days.
Just downloaded from audible. The ride to work will be too short today.
Mine will be in by the 23rd. I will see you at PenguiCon for a signature! I’ll be the nerd bearing a gift of frosting.
So… Do I read my Kindle copy? Or should I use my Amazon credit and hear it done by Hwil Hweaton?
So… Do I read my Kindle copy? Or should I use my Amazon credit and hear it done by Hwil Hweaton?
Yes.
I am number 30 on the waitlist for the ebook at my not so local library.
The book arrived and after I encased the cover in a broadart, I read one chapter. I am only going to read one chapter a day so that the book lasts more than one evening. Thank you John Scalzi. Have fun on your trips!
Note for UK readers:
I was able to pick up a copy in Waterstone’s this Sunday just gone, but I nearly didn’t find it, because apparently Tor UK are shit now and it went straight to mass-market paperback, so it blended almost invisibly with all the older Scalzi books on the shelf.
And for the man himself:
It was really good! I only wish it could have been longer. Kiva was fucking great: “I’m sorry, I got distracted thinking about sex.”
(Nitpick: it annoyed me that in one scene you had the air growing cooler once life support went off, since in reality spaceships are much harder to cool than they are to heat, due to vacuum being a really good insulator.)
Yay!
I can’t wait for this one. I have only read Redshirts by Scalzi but I remember reading the blurb for this book ages ago and thinking: YES. WANT.
Rebecca @ The Portsmouth Review
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I have it downloaded and will read very soon. Thanks again for the birthday present!
I pre-ordered it, so as soon as the delivery person hands it to me today, and I take it from its package, I’ll start reading. Oh boy oh boy oh boy!
Congratulations on your new release! It hit my Audible account this morning and I’m going to listen to it once I’m done with Handmaid’s Tale (which I hadn’t read since my early 20s and it’s scary how appropriate it is now. Read by Claire Danes, also, and she does a great job.)
Hey, congratulations! And good luck with the tour– hope it’s fun for you, too!
One Audible book, bought! Looking forward to it.
Got it! Read it! Cursing the heavens while I wait for the next book in the series to come out!
So you had your book narrated by a white man… Of course!
Nooked!
And another reminder that anyone who missed it can view my interview with John over at my channel SFF180, with special Scamperbeast guest appearance.
It ought to have a large “PART ONE” somewhere on the cover, because the story is nowhere near over.
Snark in a John Scalzi novel? Who’d have expected that?
But seriously, congratulations!
Bo Lindbergh makes an interesting point, but this is the first book of a series or sequence. What is a ‘story’ and when does it end? Mr. Scalzi has previously successfully constructed novels out of novellas, almost like a trilogy or series in reverse. And I recently reread some of my copy of Scott Westerfeld’s LEVIATHAN, a hardcover edition which gives no indication that it is the first book of a single story trilogy, like LORD OF THE RINGS.
I got my signed copy from Subterranean a couple of days ago. My hands, as usual, objected to holding it, so I waited for my e-copy to arrive this morning. Now, I just need to finish the review for the last book I read, and I’m going to dive in. I may get the audio book as well. I tried Amazon’s whisper-sync thing with Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology. That way, I could listen when my hands were busy, and read when they weren’t. It was an interesting experience.
A friend already received his copy, mine won’t show up until Thurs (boo!).
But, I’m looking forward to staying up all night reading it. :-)
I also was left wanting more, but unfortunately not in a good way. I’m interested to see where you take the characters and universe, but finished the book meaningfully disappointed in the lack of plot. Things happen to characters, decision is made to take action, and…author’s afterword!
It felt insubstantial. It felt like a longer-form version of a Human Division episode rather than a full novel. And I feel terrible saying that, since I know how much you pour into your writing and I’ve been a fan of your work since OMW. But since I’d like to be a happy reader for your next dozen books, that’s my feedback for whatever value it provides.
Excellent timing, as yesterday I had to drive to a meeting 2.5 hours away and back. That didn’t quite make it to the end of the audiobook, though, and I couldn’t wait to see what happened, so I finished up on my Kindle at home. End result: I still can’t wait to see what happens, but now I have to wait for the next book. Dangit!
John, see you at Book People in Austin, TX on Sunday.
LOVED the way you tossed off the final resolution of the initial mutiny. Really drove home the true nature of the empire. Kinda worried for some of the more naive characters now.
A title so timely to our collapsing America. One has to wonder how the politics of the day influences a writer. Can one still hope for a feel-good ending?
Great story! Got it yesterday afternoon and already done with it. Can’t wait for the next installment. So get back to work! :)
One quick question, though: in this our real 2017, unlike the one you were projecting last October, is it time for beans & rice & bunkers?
Got and finished my Kindle copy, looking forward to the rest of the series.
You done writing it yet ;)
Looking forward to it, John! And a good piece in LA times you mentioned a few days ago. Well put.
Okay I’m a little confused, I searched for the title on Amazon’s site and The Collapsing Empire comes up as the first result but the second result is a book that looks almost the same by Johan Kalsi? Is it an edition in a different language?
No, the “Kalsi” thing is just Vox Day fckery designed to undermine sales of the actual book by confusing people.
I don’t know what or when Vox Day is, an unofficial parody publishing holiday? I guess I need to get one of those calendars with an obscure holiday on every date. If a just released book already has a parody it must be hot! Will definitely be ordering the correct title now, thanks for the clarification.
I suspect a troll. In any event, Amazon has blocked the dipshit’s chicanery.
Oh, BTW, got it delivered to my kindle at 12:01, I’m enjoying it very much.
My pre-ordered copy hit my Kindle yesterday morning. I devoured it in two days, thoroughly enjoyed it, and now I have to be a grown-up and patiently wait for the next installment. We’ll pick up a hard copy as well, and will see you at Vroman’s next month!
@Luke – Consider yourself one singularly fortunate Earth dweller. Don’t even Google it. Seriously.
For the ebook, I must wait a week or two. For the audiobook, hey, I think I have those 5 free credits from Audible, so yay, I can hear his Wheaton-ness narrate a Scalzi tome. (I have not yet read any Scalzi except his Fuzzy Nation follow-up to H. Beam Piper. I do have another on my To Read Pile.)
But if Scalzi’s fiction is as good as his personal writing, dang, I’m in.
Also: Convergence by C.J. Cherryh is due to be released April 4th. My pre-order should be up then. Hmm, I should look for the audiobook, huh? — She also is writing (now) Alliance Rising, a two-volume novel set in her Alliance-Union universe. She’s said she’ll have an Alliance history piece available from Closed-Circle.net when Alliance Rising is published. Her blog today said she’s 90K words into the novel.
Uh oh….one of Vox’s minions didn’t like my comment on his review and has tracked me down in real life! Because I try so hard to hide.
Folks, let’s not go on about Beale’s nonsense here, please.