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The author is just trying to milk the last few dollars from the universe he built, and is really not giving the readers their due. Even pedaling away at 90 rpm, this book was barely engaging enough to keep my attention.After reading The Last Colony, I felt that Scalzi didn't put the right level of effort into this series any more. I was a fan of the Old Man's War and even The Ghost Brigades, but the Last Colony wasn't military sci-fi anymore; it was a family tale with a space setting.Zoe's Tale is just The Last Colony retold from another perspective, with 5% new content added in the end.Although Scalzi in the afterword complains how hard this book was to write, I still feel that both TLC and ZT are rip-offs of an existing successful franchise. I'm stupid. Not for their money, and certainly not for their time. Being sleep-deprived with a 7-week old baby, I thought this book could be the right level. I was very disappointed with The Last Colony, but still decided to go ahead and buy Zoe's Tale. That was wrong, and I should have known better.Zoe's Tale contains so little action and is such a regurgitation of The Last Colony that I quickly resorted to reading it only on my exercise bike.
Nothing like Scalzi's other books and barely science fiction, more like Nancy Drew. If you must read this book find a library and skip the first 200 pages.
I'm happy to say that Mr. Certain aspects of other major players are given better backgrounds, most especially the Obin and Zoe's two Obin bodyguards, Hickory and Dickory, and a certain story `hole' in The Last Colony gets a better, fuller explanation. It is even more perilous for a middle-aged man to attempt to find the correct `voice' for a teenaged female, one that rings true and will appeal to younger readers, and still engage readers of much greater ages. But besides her, several of her close friends also come alive as real people, something that's a little rare in first-person perspective works. This is the fourth book set in the Old Man's War universe, but it's not a continuation of the story arcs he established in the first three, but rather a retelling of the events of the third book, The Last Colony, but told this time from a very different perspective, that of sixteen year old Zoe Boutin-Perry, daughter of a traitor, the object of a major treaty between the Colonial Union and the Obin, and adopted by John and Jane Perry.
All in all, a great accomplishment, one that should appeal to both teenagers and old codgers like me. It's just this strong emotional content that makes me think this book is better than The Last Colony, and on par with the first book of this series, Old Man's War. Gretchen, Magdy, and Enzo are very much real people, and even better, real teenagers. But beyond this, in this book he also grabs your jugular of emotional response, expertly playing you like a harp, and making you at time furious, sad, and very strongly up-lifted to the point of tears. She's not perfect, she makes mistakes, occasionally her sarcasm and biting comments might make you grimace, and there is an element of unthinking `me-ness' to her, an attitude that she's unique. It's witty, sarcastic, funny, thoughtful, and incredibly easy to read, a trait he shares with a writer he's often compared to, namely Robert Heinlein. Zoe herself is a full-bodied person, one you'd definitely like to meet, someone you come to care about a great deal over the course of this work. Scalzi's writing style has much to do with your enjoyment of this book.
Now doing something like this is fraught with peril, as readers of the earlier books will certainly know how everything ends, and will therefore have little sense of suspense throughout this work. These are nice touches that help hold your interest. ---Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat) Scalzi has very deftly has succeeded very, very well with both the characterization and being able to still hold at least this reader glued to the pages, even without the suspense. But in this case, she really is unique - not many girls can say that they are the goddess-object of an entire alien race.
There are a couple minor points that a new reader is unlikely to get - the roles of Phoenix and Earth, certain aspects of the CDF - but they're not significant distractions. This leads to some strained info dumping on occasion as the reader has to be caught up on the background plot to understand what's going on. Scalzi also manages to write himself into a corner later on, setting up a big fight scene that he can't write out - it would completely throw off the books pacing and is too large to manage - so he has to offhandedly dispatch it in 7 words.For all that this is a parallel to the third book in a series, it feels accessible as a standalone book; the plot dumping helps, but the book is mostly shaped well on its own. (I received a Zoe's Tale ARC through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program)Zoe Boutin Perry was never a significant character on her own merits in the previous John Scalzi book "The Last Colony" - a key to parts of the plot, but more important there for what she was than who she was. Zoe's Tale is as good a place as any to start with Scalzi, and a good book in its own right.**** As a result, Zoe may be Scalzi's best established character; the note-perfect sarcasm was a little overplayed (Scalzi is great at snark) but not by much. Combine that with her involvement in the one big plot gap of the book - where key events happened offscreen - and there's plenty of room for something like "Zoe's Tale", which covers roughly the same time period but from the perspective of Zoe rather than her parents.And Zoe's Tale it truly is - though the previous books in the Old Man's War series were primarily from first person perspective, they were not as focused on a single character. Plus, it allows him free reign with her primary conflict - growing as a person and facing the issue of who she is as a person versus her role as a icon to an alien species and part of a treaty between that species and humanity.The personal focus also causes a problem, however; it's not as easy to switch the grand events occurring during the novel.
I'd recommend this to teens and enthusiastic fans of the Old Man's War universe - it would stand alone nicely so would make a great gift to a teen who hadn't read the others yet. Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3POUDPOVWZNJG I loved Zoe's voice and connected with her immediately, but since this does cover the same ground as Last Colony it lost a bit of punch there.
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