HBalikov's Reviews > The Consuming Fire

For most of you this isn’t your first Scalzi read. For the rest of you, it better not be because this is book #2 in the series.

Those of us who know Scalzi appreciate his sense of humor, his imaginative plotting and his adept dialogue. What I hadn’t appreciated until this book was how nuanced his sense of evil was. So, this is a dark comedy about the veniality of those in power.

For most of this book we are on the home world of the Holy Empire of Interdependent States and Mercantile Guilds ruled by the Wu family through Emperox Grayland II who is also head of the Church of the Interdependency. Those familiar with book #1, The Collapsing Empire, know that physical change has come unbidden to the Empire with the predicted (but not believed) collapse of the “Flow,” which is the equivalent of a wormhole conduit between stars. Scalzi keeps this very much in the “now” while stirring into his pot measures of politics, religion, history and science.

Some of the things that I enjoyed: the whole government and guilds structure; the idea of the collapse of the Flow and its consequences; the ability to consult with past leaders*; and the idea that humans have had to expand but have not been able to find many suitable planets so they have had to construct giant orbiting dwellings.

There is nothing that you are called upon to figure out. It’s more of a: "Fasten your seatbelts; it's going to be a bumpy (ride)." And, if you can ride it out you are in for some excellent amusement even if you conclude that it is: “…full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” In that case, the only thing you may have lost is a little time. For me, it was a good trade that had me chuckling at: “What fools these mortals be.”

*I think that I want to say more about this but I am going to save it for a “comment.”

Postscript: On further consideration, I feel that readers need to determine how sensitive they are to certain words. This comes from reading "No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters" by Ursula K. Le Guin. In her collection of blogs, I came across this:
"I keep reading books and seeing movies where nobody can fucking say anything except fuck, unless they say shit. I mean they don’t seem to have any adjective to describe fucking except fucking even when they’re fucking fucking. And shit is what they say when they’re fucked. When shit happens, they say shit, or oh shit, or oh shit we’re fucked. The imagination involved is staggering. I mean, literally. There was one novel I read where the novelist didn’t only make all the fucking characters say fuck and shit all the time but she got into the fucking act herself, for shit sake. So it was full of deeply moving shit like “The sunset was just too fucking beautiful to fucking believe.”

Though I believe there is a definite shared value between Le Guin and Scalzi, The Consuming Fire is notable for its repeated (and to my sensibility) humorous use of the word. It appears within the first thirty words of the prologue and certain paragraphs can be almost cacophonous, if it were not for the humor that underlies it. Alright, here’s an example for those willing to read further:

“…but the problem with that was, for a rich person, Kiva was spectacularly unmotivated by money. She liked money and she liked that she had money, and she was aware that a life lived without money would well and truly suck…she never thought about money….Instead, Kiva had two primary pursuits: Fucking, which she was enthusiastic about nearly (but not entirely) to the point of indiscrimination; and running things, which she enjoyed and which as it was turning out she wasn’t all that bad at….For now, anyway. Until either the Nohamapetans grabbed it back from her, or all the Flow streams collapsed and they were all fucked anyway. Exciting fucking times, Kiva thought to herself.”

and....
"So why do you work for evil fucks?" Kiva asked Fundapellonan later, as they were lying in Kiva's bed after some better-than-average sex.
Fundapellonan looked over at Kiva, annoyed. "The House of Nohamapetan is not evil."
"Sounds like someone needs a refresher course on certain recent events."
"Fine," Fundapellonan said. "Some members of the House...may be evil."
"Fratricide. Murder. Attempted assassination. Embezzlement. Questionable taste in men. That's just one of those motherfuckers.
"Are evil. Well, were, evil."
"Still evil, just dead."
"But I didn't even work for her."
"You worked for her mom. Where do you think she got it?"
"But I don't even technically work for her. I work for the house."
"Which is run by the countess, your boss, and her family. You're splitting hairs here pretty fucking fine."
"I'm a lawyer; that's my actual job...."