The Consuming Fire was published by Tor Books in 2018, continuing the Interdependency trilogy. The Flow collapse predicted in the first volume has begun: one route has already closed, stranding a colony. Emperox Cardenia must convince the guild houses — whose wealth depends on existing trade routes — to prepare for a catastrophe that threatens their business models.
The political satire sharpens: Scalzi draws explicit parallels between the Interdependency’s response to the Flow collapse and humanity’s response to climate change. Those who profit from the existing system deny the crisis, fund disinformation, and plot coups rather than accept the need for systemic transformation. The merchants who control shipping do not want to hear that their shipping routes will vanish; the aristocrats who hold monopolies on specific goods do not want to hear that autarky is the future.
The novel also expands the universe’s scope: the discovery of a possible new Flow stream to End — the only human world that could sustain its population independently — introduces a glimmer of hope, but reaching it requires political will that the Interdependency’s corrupt institutions seem incapable of generating.
Collecting The Consuming Fire
First edition (Tor Books, New York, 2018): Hardcover with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $15–$40
- Signed copies: $30–$60