Humanity, having lost the Earth, created a union of planets and space settlements, and this ensured its survival. But the laws of the Universe are unpredictable, and a new threat looms over humanity: the Flow, a special physical phenomenon thanks to which it is possible to travel into the depths of space, is beginning to collapse. This means that all established connections between inhabited worlds will be severed and civilization will collapse. But on the other hand, this is the only chance for the descendants of earthlings to get rid of the dependence of greedy trade guilds that care only about their own commercial interests... “The Collapse of the Empire” is the beginning of a new large-scale space opera from one of the brightest masters of world science fiction today.