Book Review: The Last Emperox
Well, we’re here at last! The end of the Interdependency, the collapse of the empire. Let’s see how it all pans out.
In the wake of the Nohamepetan/Wu conspiracy’s failure, the Interdependency’s houses are more on edge with Grayland II than ever before. Grayland knows more assassination attempts are coming, that Nadashe Nohamepetan is still alive and angry, so she enlists the help of Kiva Lagos to expose them. But, fearing that one will eventually succeed, she makes her own contingency plans for the survival of the Interdependency’s people. Meanwhile, her boyfriend and scientist Marce Claremont continues to study the Flow with the help of Chenevert, desperate to find something that could help save this wayward branch of humanity.
Like both books before it, The Last Emperox is really focused on the politics of the end of the world. What happens when resources become scarce, when not everyone can survive? How do you overcome the selfishness of those in power, who would be satisfied only saving themselves? It’s a tough conundrum that Grayland II faces, and she’s got very few people willing to help. The core concept makes the book feel more timely than ever.
But then there’s Nadashe and her plotting. To be honest, you’d think she would have learned by now that Grayland II shouldn’t be messed with, but she’s going for best three out of five now, I suppose. It’s a little annoying, at times, and it’s downright scummy all the time. Nadashe promises her conspirators that she will help them save themselves, the rest of the Interdependency be damned, if they will help her unseat Grayland II — and of course, they all go for it.
From there, the action of the book picks up. This is not a guns and firefighting kind of story, and never really has been; it’s about manipulation, forensic accounting, and more subtle tools of statecraft. In that regard, the series is in fine form. And there was even one twist in particular that I did not anticipate, a revelation around Jiyi and the Memory Room that provides the key Grayland II needs in order to achieve her goals.
The characters here are largely the same as the ones we’ve seen in prior books, with a few new minor characters here and there. Most of them get interesting arcs in some fashion. Grayland II/Cardenia is still the heart of the book, the emperox trying to do the right thing but struggling with political enemies (and allies) who do not believe her capable. She finally, definitively proves them wrong here. Marce and Chenevert become friends and research partners as they search for more data on why and how the Flow is collapsing, and Cardenia and Marce experience some relationship hiccups. Kiva goes off on an unexpected adventure, directly in conflict with Nadashe, and gets the chance to shine with her quick wits.
I’ve mentioned before in my reviews of this series that Scalzi’s quick wit and writing style make the books fun and easy reads. That is no less true here, even with the themes and so many potential deaths hanging overhead. The opening passage with Ghreni on End is perhaps one of the funniest pieces of writing I’ve ever read (a section is excerpted below). Like its predecessors, this is a book you breeze through quickly.
I don’t want to say too much more, because I don’t want to spoil it. The ending is big and grand and confrontational, and it’s easy to see how the conclusions of each successive book have built up to this one. It’s also incredibly bittersweet — the right thing to do, the best way to handle the problem, but it leaves all our favorites in positions they didn’t expect and would rather not hold.
There’s hope for the future though, and that, in the end, is perhaps the book’s most important message. That even when the world is ending, there are still good people out there and they will save us all.
Grade: 4/5 stars
Memorable Quote
“Coming in third, at maybe 4.5 percent of Ghreni’s cognitive attention, was I think I need a new minister of defense. Inasmuch as Blaine Turnin’s body was now presenting a shape that could only be described as “deeply pretzeled,” this was probably correct and therefore did not warrant any further contemplation.
Which left the fourth thought, which, while claiming only the meager remainder of Ghreni’s attention and cognitive power, was nevertheless a thought that Ghreni had thought before, and had thought often—indeed had thought often enough that one could argue that in many ways it defined Ghreni Nohamapetan and made him the man he was today, which was, specifically, a man violently captive to forces both gravitational and centrifrugal. This thought was:
Why me?”
