Saturday, April 22, 2017

Injustice Book Review: Spinal Tap Edition

Cower not, fierce reader! Today I'm going to approach our text a little differently than normal. For those perhaps unaware, or just wanting to refresh their knowledge of what this review will entail, I present this scene of cinematic history:


You might ask yourself, "What on Earth did our host read to prompt such reviews?" The answer is simple. I took one for the cause of Injustice, for I knew I must give a fair try to one of the most SocJus authors there is: John Scalzi and his book, The Collapsing Empire. First, the fun reviews, then something a  bit more serious.

The Collapsing Empire: The Collapsing Career

The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi is a morass of retarded sexual obsession and sycophantic virtue signalling, matched only by the lack of anything resembling a compelling story.

The Collapsing Empire: As a substitute for firewood, it is functional but overpriced. I recommend continuing the use of L. Ron Hubbard novels until such time as the price has imploded.


It's good to know that Wil Wheaton is the reader for this. The pairing makes a perfect addition to the Guantanamo Bay prisoners' soundtrack.

Tor has a copyeditor. Who knew? Not Sanderson readers.

Now, more seriously.

If this book were half as good as the SocJus forces state, I would not have needed most of a week to get through 300 some pages. From the Scooby Doo opening to the lazy finish, this book is dissatisfying, and quite often painful. The ships are given creepy song based names. The major nobility of this space opera are merely virtue signalling to Brianna Wu and N K Jemisin, with large amounts of sexual obsession. The "cathedral" in this thing claiming to be a book has no loft for musicians, as though it were designed by someone who had never stepped into a church with an organ loft, and the accompanying balcony for musicians. This author also denies the existence of truth, and the draw of religion being repentance.(He claims people want to be coddled spiritually rather than called to repent. See mainline Protestantism for refutation.)

There's a narrator infodump; by that I mean the narrator actively inserts itself to provide the information. Never have I beheld such poorly written and ham-handed delivery of complex information supposedly crucial to the plot.Unfortunately, I can count  the times this book made me laugh: 1.  While Tor proved quite definitively that they have a working copyeditor(I didn't find any misspellings or homophone errors), John Scalzi has yet to prove to me he can write out of a paper bag.  For the laugh, I generously grant this book 2 of 10 fell deeds.

When you play Social Justice, the world loses.

1 comment:

  1. Brilliant and on point! Scalzi is such a joke, I sometimes wonder if he does it on purpose. But don't blame him, blame the snowflakes who gave him an Hugo for Redshirts. I mean, seriously?

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