So, I have I new space opera series on the way, which starts with The Collapsing Empire, a book which—as the title cleverly suggests—features an empire of planets and habitats, potentially on the verge of collapse.
Now, when I say that the series is “new,” I mean that it’s a story that hasn’t been told before, with characters you’ve never met. But as with so many creative works, The Collapsing Empire has some clear antecedents in literature, in books that inspired me while I was writing my book, and in authors I gleefully borrowed from in order to build out my own new universe.
Which books and authors? Here are five of them.
Dune, by Frank Herbert
Oh, sure, you try writing a science fiction novel about a culture centered on a mercantile nobility headed up by dynastic emperor and not bring Dune into it. See how far you get! Rather than trying to run away from it, I decided to embrace Dune as a creative inspiration for The Collapsing Empire—indeed, when I first started writing the book I tried writing with a sort of Herbert-esque tone. That… turned out not to be a great idea, although I certainly did learn some things about myself as a writer. The final version of Empire sounds like me, which is a good thing. But it was useful to see how Herbert handled many of the same themes I would attempt, both to see what I would do similarly, and what I would do differently.
Grass, by Sheri S. Tepper
I consider Tepper’s Grass to be a world (and universe) building feat equal to Dune and one of the great underrated science fiction novels of all time, and it’s got a great heroine in the figure of Marjorie Westriding Yraier, who goes up against an entrenched hierarchical society (more than one, in fact!) to both get to the bottom of a mystery plague, and to save her own family. It’s accurate to say that Marjorie is the spiritual godmother to one of the protagonists of The Collapsing Empire, as someone who is going to keep on pushing, not regardless of, but in spite of, the cost.
The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison
One of the main characters of The Collapsing Empire is an emperox (that’s a non-gender-specific word for the royal head of an empire) who comes to the office essentially by accident—much like the emperor of Katherine Addison’s wonderful, charming and deceptively gentle (in that it’s not really gentle at all) novel. Addison pulls off the task of having her emperor learn as he goes, despite so many who’d be happy to keep him tractable and in the dark (or “out of the way” if they can’t manage that). Basically, I cribbed a whole lot from Addison, and unashamedly, and I think if her Maia and my Cardenia ever met, they’d have a lot to talk about.
The Hydrogen Sonata, by Iain M. Banks
I note this book, because it’s the most recent Banks book I read, but honestly any of his Culture series would do here—his universe is so vast, capacious and smart that I can’t even be envious of his skill, I just sit back and enjoy it. The Interdependency of The Collapsing Empire could be something that is tucked into a backwater of the Culture (which I’m sure would see it as hopelessly quaint); nevertheless I took many many notes for my own system of planets and habitable structures from his books, and snuck in a small salute to Banks in the names of my ships.
Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi
What, that hack? Yes, yes, I know, but hear me out: When you’re a writer who already has a well-established space opera series, starting a new one is fraught with, if not actual danger, at least the worry that you’re going to repeat yourself in some obvious way that sucks the enjoyment out of the new universe for your readers. So one of the things I did before writing The Collapsing Empire was to read the Old Man’s War series again, to have it close enough in my brain that I could avoid replicating major themes and technology (well, to a point… I mean, I still have spaceships). As a result, I think Empire has a good balance of what readers like about me as a science fiction author, and the cool new stuff that will make them want to explore this new universe I’ve created for them. Am I right? We’ll see!
The Collapsing Empire is available from Tor Books.
Read the opening chapters of the novel, beginning here with the Prologue.
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, Zoe’s Tale, The Human Division, and The End of All Things. 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. He lives in Ohio with his wife and daughter.
I thought those ship names might be a tribute to Banks! Glad to know I was right.
Sheri Tepper has always been one of my favorite authors. I was beginning to think that I was the only person to read her books !!!!!!
Because I’m a fanboy, I can’t help but point out that Katherine Addison is a transparent pseudonym for Sarah Monette.
I think The Goblin Emperor could be used to get a sense of Cardenia’s first months as Emperox, which The Collapsing Empire mostly skips. It’s a good look at an Imperial system that might have problems but still mostly works, even when the monarch is mostly unprepared.
Just finished reading your book last night (darn it, Scalzi! You kept me up late past my bedtime). I thoroughly enjoyed it (though, darn it, Scalzi! I hate having to wait for the next one to see what happens).
Oh, I had thought that ’emperox’ would’ve been a version of ’empress’ that is a bit closer to the original Latin ‘imperatrix’ (which mean, well, ’empress’). Haven’t read the book yet, so maybe it would’ve been clear there :)
I really hate articles like this. Not because they aren’t interesting or I don’t enjoy a peek into the author’s creative process, but because all they seem to do is add more and more books to my “To Be Read” pile! Tepper’s Grass and the first book of Bank’s Culture series are now on my ereader, just waiting for me. ;)
I was definitely reminded of the Goblin Emperor in the parts with Cardenia. I haven’t read Banks though, so I didn’t pick up on the reference his books. Is that something he does with the ships in his series too?
@8: Yes, Banks loved off-the-wall ship names (he in turn was inspired by Mike Harrison’s The Centauri Device). If you haven’t read any Iain M. Banks, I can advise you to drop whatever it is you’re currently doing, go out and get some. Though Banks’s novels stand alone quite well, I recommend starting with the earlier books like The Player of Games as this reduces the risk of missing something major.
That’s funny. I’ve only read the prologue so far, and thought the name “Tell Me Another One” had a certain familiar flavor to it.
Grass is such a great novel and I’m always surprised at how many people have not read it, which is a real shame.
I haven’t read Old Man’s War or Collapsing Empire, but you just listed four amazing authors/books as inspiration, so I think that’s a good sign. :) Added to my TBR list!
Agree with @9: Player of Games is where to start with Banks and asap!
@3: I love me some Tepper! Grass is simply wonderful. And the rest of her work is full of surprises.
@@.-@: Yes, it’s a shame Monette had to get a pseudonym for Goblin Emperor. Melusine is so underappreciated.
I want to say, that I am LOVING the Wheaton narrated audiobook. Wheaton just rocks at this – i havent enjoyed a performance as much since he did Ready Player One. But apart from the narration, this book is fun. in a wierd way, things happen that are unpredictable only because you are predicting they wont be predictable, so when the predictable thing happens, you’re sop used to the thing being unpredictable that it catches yo by surprise. Also i am tired of the trope of heroes-repeatedly-fail-towards-success that you get in a lot of fiction nowadays (fantasy is guiltier than scifi in this regard). This book just tells the story it wants to without all that meta wrangling. Its refreshing and fun :)
You left off Asimov from your clear influences! after all, the action all centers on Terminus… and Trantor.
Halfway through book one, and yeah – I picked up on the ship-name salute.
Excellent.
Thumbs up for Grass. Good choice.
I loved Collapsing Empire. I wondered about the ship names. I’ve been meaning to read Banks, now it seems I’ll have to. I’m definitely going to listen to the audiobook of Collapsing Empire not only because I love Wheaton but I also want to hear how to pronounce some of the character names.
I kept thinking David Brin.
> I […] snuck in a small salute to Banks in the names of my ships.
I wouldn’t call it “sneaking it in” unless you mean past an editor that had never read a Culture book. It’s completely impossible to miss if one has. I love both of you guys, but Banks’ trademark ship names are so iconically brilliant that I really wish we could skip our usual inside references on this one and just admire them within the Culture books. I’ll make an exception for Elon Musk because the man is actually playing with friggin’ spaceships.