Excerpt: Science fiction readers are among the people most likely to underestimate the true scale of space. We are so accustomed to faster-than-light drives, wormholes and jump gates that we forget how impossably vast the distances between stars really are. But once a writer decides how long it takes to cross those distances, every other aspect of the story changes—from politics and trade to war, culture and the kinds of stories that can be told at all.
Galactic empires are everywhere in science fiction—ruling star systems with absolute power, ripe for rebellion or decay. I’ve written a few myself… and torn them down just as quickly. But why do we keep returning to this political model, especially when it’s always doomed to fall? From Dune to Foundation, and even John Scalzi’s surprisingly heartfelt Collapsing Empire, we seem obsessed with watching these mighty regimes unravel. I’ve got theories. But I’m also genuinely curious what draws readers back to the throneworld.
