The Last Emperox completes The Interdependency trilogy – a sprawling space opera that examines the political and scientific ramifications when the ‘flow stream’ that connects the various hubs of humanity across the universe start to fail.
Book 1 introduced us to the fledgling Emperox Grayland II of the noble Wu family, who has the misfortune of taking the title over right as The Interdependency begins to unravel. We also met: the flow scientist, Marce, who comes bearing the bad news about the collapsing flow stream; the foul mouthed Kiva, noble woman and merchant house representative; and the Nohamapetans, an ambitious noble family hell-bent on taking over the title of emperox from the Wu family.
In Book 2, we traced the Nohamapetans as they schemed and attempted to capitalise on the flow stream collapse (and fail), Grayland and Marce fall fiercely in love, and Kiva rise in the ranks of political power. We also discovered a whole colony of humans, long since abandoned from a collapsed flow stream, and learned more about the technology that could allow a consciousness to be uploaded and ‘live on’ forever.
Book 3, The Last Emperox, sets about quickly trying to answer the question of whether, and how, the disastrous collapse of the flow stream can be overcome. I had criticised Book 2 for its absence of stakes/world building, and stated in my review that I hoped Book 3 would ground the story better. Unfortunately, that did not eventuate, and instead served up more of the same: evil Nohamapetan shenanigans, Kiva swearing and being generally awesome, and the smitten Grayland and Marce being adorable. At this point, I have invested many hours in these audio books, marinating in Wil Wheaton’s excellent narration and the lives of this small cast of characters. But I continued to wish for more world-building and clearer stakes.
The book did somewhat resolve the issue of the collapsing flow streams, and serve up a warm plate of justice to the awful Nohamapetan clan. But the ‘twist’ ending was clearly telegraphed and a bit of a sore point for me. I also didn’t find the choices made by the characters in the closing chapters to be realistic.
It’s tricky to review the third book in a trilogy – at this point, there is a lot of assumed knowledge required to really provide a fulsome critique. I will give Scalzi this: I was very invested in his memorable characters. I particularly appreciated the effort he made to provide insights into how they think about themselves, and their role in the world. Even the villains were given clear and careful motivations, and I enjoyed these parts of the final book immensely.
Overall, though, and being true to the Cannonball star rating system, this gets a solid 2 out of 5 nefarious music boxes: ‘an okay book’. I enjoyed the series very much overall, and would recommend it. I just wish it went a little broader and deeper at times.
