Status Updates From The End of All Things (Old ...

I get that the book is more setting/plot driven than character driven, but even so, I don't think it's impossible to have both.

For 'Can Long Endure', very different vibe, military sci-fi, and while the writing is stock, it's effective in its delivery and its themes - the Colonial Union is falling apart, and like any flailing empire, it's effectively turning on its own people. I will say however that this far in, I'd be hard pressed to actually name a single character from this book, and harder pressed to give any defining traits.

End of one short story, start of the next. For 'This Hollow Union', can't say much I didn't already say in some capacity, and this is the second short story out of first two where a senior governmental official acts as a martyr, only this time it's a good thing apparently. It's fine, I guess, but like I said, for an alliance of various aliens, all these 'aliens' are functionally human.

...all merge into themselves, at least for me. The idea of an alliance of alien races that humanity is in opposition to has been done before, and frankly, done better, because you can namedrop all the names you want, it doesn't matter if these species lack any defining characteristics. If they talk like humans, and act like humans, then what's the point?

Read a lot, a lot of stuff happened for better or worse. "Control" feels like something from Star Trek, but hey, similar tropes. "Blue pill" is still a term in the far future. The book's handling of interstellar politics is okay, in that we have a setting where Earth, the Colonial Union, the Conclave, and various other powers are sparring with each other. On the other hand, the alien species of the Conclave...