The Collapsing Empire

Our universe is ruled by physics and faster than light travel is not possible -- until the discovery of The Flow, an extra-dimensional field we can access at certain points in space-time that transport us to other worlds, around other stars.

Humanity flows away from Earth, into space, and in time forgets our home world and creates a new empire, the Interdependency, whose ethos requires that no one human outpost can survive without the others. It’s a hedge against interstellar war -- and a system of control for the rulers of the empire.

The Flow is eternal -- but it is not static. Just as a river changes course, The Flow changes as well, cutting off worlds from the rest of humanity. When it’s discovered that The Flow is moving, possibly cutting off all human worlds from faster than light travel forever, three individuals -- a scientist, a starship captain and the Empress of the Interdependency -- are in a race against time to discover what, if anything, can be salvaged from an interstellar empire on the brink of collapse.

“John Scalzi is the most entertaining, accessible writer working in SF today.” –Joe Hill

"If anyone stands at the core of the American science fiction tradition at the moment, it is Scalzi."
—The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Third Edition

JOHN SCALZI is the author of several SF novels including the bestselling Old Man's War sequence, comprising Old Man's War, The Ghost Brigades, The Last Colony (a New York Times bestseller), Zoe's Tale, and The Human Division. His other novels include the New York Times bestsellers Fuzzy Nation and Redshirts; the latter novel won science fiction's Hugo Award in 2013. He also won a Hugo Award for Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded, a collection of essays from his popular blog The Whatever (whatever.scalzi.com). He lives in Ohio with his wife and daughter. http://whatever.scalzi.com/