Review: There is not one character to like
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 26, 2013
I almost gave this 2 stars.  It's nice that Christopher decided to allow us to see the fall of Earth and how the empire really collapsed in his Empire Corps universe, but he forgot one thing.Most readers want to read about characters they can like.That didn't come out here.  The intrigue and backstabbing of the imperial palace and the "Grant Senators" lacked the ability to make this story interesting.  There are some attempts to make characters interesting so that the reader might want to find out what happens to them, but the characters are sidelined by the need for the plot to advance toward an ending that all readers know is inevitable.I think reading this story was when I started to notice just how poor Christopher is as fleshing out characters.  I felt that these characters were pulled from central casting and that their motivations were both too obvious, and not nuanced enough.  I can picture an actor reading this script while playing one of the villains, looking at the director and shouting.  "What is my motivation, this scene makes no sense."  It does make sense if you understand that they have to act that way in order to help drive the story to its conclusion, but it doesn't really make for a good read.