The Consuming Fire

All my concerns from the first novel are addressed in Scalzi's second 'Interdependency' novel.

The politicking is a lot stronger, more detailed, and very clever. There's some nice action pieces, and the world is developed further.

Emperox Grayland II starts to uncover the history of her nation, and because she's not been raised by the familial dynasty, she has fresh eyes that helps her recognise patterns others might not otherwise see. She grows as a leader and a character, and whilst there are some leaps in logic, it makes sense how she'd get there, but because we have seen her journey I sometimes find that the character we see here doesn't connect strongly with the character we saw in the first novel. Still, the author leans into her nervous and emotional-focused inner monologue often enough to show us that she is the same person.

Scalzi adds a character from waaaay outta left field, and he's a great character that's fun, and in the audiobook I listened to Will Wheaton does a wonderfully terrible French accent. He's a great personality, and there's some shenanigans that make it clear that there's a "bigger picture" happening, we just aren't privy to it yet.

And, also, Keva. She's awesome. I'd read it just for Keva.