Beyond Reality discussion

Have you finished reading The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi? Let us know what you thought about it.

Spoilers OK here!

It seems like there are only a few ways to react to an existential emergency:
* Pretend it's not happening, and carry on as usual
* Vociferously deny the science/facts
* Figure out how to profit from it
* Actually try to mitigate it

It seems depressingly familiar. Yet this novel manages to cover all the bases with interesting characters, politics, and skullduggery. And still we have hope. Can't wait for the third book!

I liked how Cardenia is doing a great job of assuming the Emperox position; she's made a few missteps, but is largely anticipating her enemies and coming out on top. And I was encouraged by the resourcefulness of the colonies in the lost system.

I am not at all sure how she recognized the king from outside the Interdependency, though...

10/10
Scalzi can certainly write a bang-up story! As Chris said, interesting characters, politics, and skullduggery; I would add great dialogue, the right dose of humor and romance, and a complex plot that unfolds layer by layer.

This book, even more than the first in the series, highlights the importance of knowing and understanding one’s history, whether that is one’s personal history (and the personal histories of other crucial players around one) or history in a wider context. While one must be fully in the present and keep moving forward to the future, a solid base is the foundation on which the present stands and the future is built.

So glad our group chose this series to read & discuss!

5 stars. I would have been happy if all this book had was more of the nastily interesting political maneuvering of its predecessor. The wonderfully fascinating world-building of the pre-Interdependency days was icing on the cake. The prose was precise and the characters were well-developed. I couldn’t ask for more.

I liked this book a bit more than the first one. I enjoyed seeing Cardenia and the Countess try to get one step ahead of the other. The Countess was surprisingly stealthy at engineering things to go her way.
My favorite part though was Marce and Hatide discovering alien life near the planet Dalasysla. I love first encounter stories!
However, I wasn't a big fan of all the sex. Most every character had fun, playful sex with someone. It just seemed excessive to me.

Once I got over my reading inertia and picked this up, I read it in two days! I liked it better than the first one. I love a good political intrigue and found it immensely satisfying when Cardenia/Grayland arrested everyone for treason in one fell swoop at the end.

I did not see it coming that the Interdependency systems had purposefully cut themselves off from Earth way back when.

Chris, I assumed that she recognized that Tomas had been a king because no one else would have the technology to preserve themselves like that. That’s how I interpreted it, anyway. I might be wrong!

Looking forward to book 3!

I finished reading book 2 at the beginning of February, but I forgot to post. Once again, I really enjoyed Scalzi characters and wit. I guess I have a soft spot for sarcastic authors and/or characters because there is plenty of that in Scalzi's works. I especially liked the bit of self-referential humor that Scalzi included towards the end too. A nice bit of fourth-wall breaking right there.