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Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML: How do you tell your part in the biggest tale in history? I ask because it's what I have to do. I'm Zoe Boutin Perry: A colonist stranded on a deadly pioneer world. Holy icon to a race of aliens. A player (and a pawn) in a interstellar chess match to save humanity, or to see it fall. Witness to history. Friend. Daughter. Human. Seventeen years old. Everyone on Earth knows the tale I am part of. But you don't know my tale: How I did what I did�??how I did what I had to do�??not just to stay alive but to keep you alive, too. All of you. I'm going to tell it to you now, the only way I know how: not straight but true, the whole thing, to try make you feel what I felt: the joy and terror and uncertainty, panic and wonder, despair and hope. Everything that happened, bringing us to Earth, and Earth out of its captivity. All through my eyes. It's a story you know. But you don't know it all… (more)
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This book is a retelling of the timeline of The Last Colony from Zoe's perspective. Because she's a teenager, she isn't privy to everything the adults know and do - and, likewise, they don't know everything that happens to her - so Zoe's experience of that time is quite different from her parents'.
Scalzi writes the Old Man's War books so that each of them is a stand-alone as well as part of a cohesive story, and Zoe's Tale is no exception. And although I found it shelved in the adult science fiction section of the bookstore, this was intended to, and in my opinion does, bridge the divide between adult and YA. It is also hysterically funny throughout much of the book. Scalzi wrote Zoe as a brilliant, sarcastic, irreverent character who talks back to adults (human and alien alike) and uses her wits to save the day, yet still manages to act and sound like an believable teenager.
Zoe is a spunky teen, almost relentlessly so at times, but great fun. For those, like myself, who haven't read Scalzi's other novels, the war, the various worlds, and the alien races seem only lightly sketched. However, there are enough details to get the general idea, and the story is so focused on Zoe that I wouldn't really call this a shortcoming. Basically, the further from Zoe you consider, the less detailed the picture, but Zoe's interactions with the people in her immediate surroundings are richly drawn.
I can easily recommend this as a young adult novel, and as a lighter read for adults who can enjoy an interesting story centered on a group of teenage colonists.
So often, I hear others say that a book from further along in an established series is a good place to start. I usually think that's tripe, but it's true here. Even though ZOE'S TALE takes place pretty far along in the OLD MAN'S WAR
Which, by the way, is wonderful. I loved her voice. I can’t speak for the way Zoë sounds in the other books, but in this one she always comes across as being utterly herself. I really liked her snark and her honesty, and the back and forth between her and her friends really, really works. I believed in her completely. I did, however, question how aware she was of her teenage status. All the “never send an adult to do a teenager’s job” stuff got kind of old after a while. It felt rather forced.
As far as the plot goes... well, when I stopped to think about it, I did find that I wanted a little bit more, but I so rarely did so that it wasn’t much of an issue. Zoë’s world is easy to sink into. I wanted to spend more time with her and her friends, and I appreciated how Scalzi intertwined her life with the wider political stuff going on around her. I’m sure that I’ll appreciate it all the more when I read THE LAST COLONY and see all the political stuff Zoë – and, by extension, I – missed out on.
I often steer clear of science fiction as I find that most of the stuff I run across is very plot-over-character, but John Scalzi's got me thinking I should dip my toe in the water a bit more often. Zoe is unquestionably the focus here; I really felt for her, and even teared up a few times. I got a big kick out of the book, and recommend that you give it a go.
(A rather different version of this review first appeared on my blog, Stella Matutina, as an open letter to John Scalzi).
This book has all you would expect of a scifi novel, including a little green man in a flying saucer, a variety of alien species that range from giant insect-like creatures to werewolves, space jumps, star wars, and scary weapons. All of that seems believable. The only part I thought that strained credulity was the precocity, self-possession, and consistently amusing and adroit repartee from Zoe, and even from her friends: her equally endearingly sarcastic best friend Gretchen, her perfect boyfriend Enzo, and Gretchen’s bad-but-good-at-heart boyfriend Magdy. Sure, Zoe suffers some angst from time to time, but it’s angst over stuff like The Fate of the Universe, not over her face breaking out or worrying about sex or clothes or weight or what she wants to do when she grows up.
Zoe’s parents are more or less perfect too. Although they are not physically described, you can imagine that John looks like a younger Harrison Ford, and Jane is a devoted (but deadly if necessary) Uma Thurman. And Zoe? Think of Claire Danes in “My So-Called Life.”
Scalzi does actually throw in some material that could be construed as philosophical contemplations on God if one wanted to take a break from the witty banter and think of more serious matters. The Obin used to be animals that were given consciousness by a race called the Consu, who were into experimentation. Zoe’s father then gave the Obin individuality, through consciousness of themselves. With the father gone, Zoe became a goddess to the Obin. The Consu represented the unknowable God from whom the Obin really wanted answers: e.g., why were they given intelligence? what did the Consu want and expect from them? Etc. Zoe of course finds out the answers, during the process of Saving the Universe.
The author is clever, the book is fun, but if Zoe had a little less self-esteem, she would seem less alien to me than the Obin, who, in spite of looking like a cross between spiders and giraffes learn how to sing and make music like Indian sitars.
It's the teenage-girl viewpoint that gets this book labelled as "YA", I guess, so it amuses me that it's by far the longest book in the series. (To be fair, the language is toned down considerably from previous books, but that comes from being about a bunch of teenagers instead of adults and ex-soldiers.) Speaking as a middle-aged dude, I think Scalzi pulls of the "voice" of a teenage girl quite well. And indeed, it's being able to connect with the main character through her narrative that makes this book work—even more than in previous volumes. Presumably you know the plot of the story already, having previously read The Last Colony, so that plot takes much more of a background role in this book, while the story here focuses more on the characters and their relationships with each other. And it works, it really does. Even when I knew what was going to happen, Scalzi keeps things fresh by not rehashing territory covered in the previous book; choosing instead to show what transpired in-between key events, or what Zoe was up to "off-camera".
Now, if you haven't read TLC yet—or previous books, for that matter—I think Zoe's Tale will work for you. Scalzi puts in enough detail, I believe, for the reader to make sense of what's going on. But I'll go out on a limb and guarantee that you will get much more out of this book having already read that one. Likewise, I find myself appreciating TLC much more now that I've essentially read it again, but from another perspective and with some of the gaps filled in. The two books together make for a more fulfilling reading experience than either one of them by itself.
It's not a perfect book by any means, but it's nice to get to know a number of characters better that were more or less peripheral in TLC, and to have some plot-related things explained a little better. And apparently Scalzi is incapable of writing something that's not an absolute page-turner. [4 out of 5 stars]
About halfway through, I described this book to my
The plot didn't do a whole lot for me: I'd seen a decent chunk of it the first time around, and much of what I hadn't seen felt frustratingly cliched. Still, while this isn't going to change my opinion that The Ghost Brigades is Scalzi's best book to date, it was an entertainingly worthwhile piece of fluff.
It suffers from being a parallel tale. The parallel tale can be made to work well, but there's not much new here, and reading it directly after The Last Colony was almost tedious in places. A
Worst, though, is Zoe's voice. I'm a reader of his blog, so I'm aware that he's aware that hitting the teenage girl voice was struggle and that he took it as a challenge to himself. Unfortunately, I could feel that struggle through every inch of Zoe. She's simply a character who /tries/ too hard. She's too pithy, too witty, too brilliant, too unengaging. She has none of the pathos that often attracts me to YA books (one of my favorite genres). Her ups and downs and struggles (what there are of them - Zoe soars right past many an obstacle with a cursory brush to their obstacleness) failed to move me almost entirely, save for one notable exception.
I get what Scalzi was trying to do here - there are moments when this book hits the 'who you are' and 'what you are' points very nicely. I suspect it would resonate with teen girls who are encouraged rather than distracted by a heroine who's smarter and wise-cracking-er than the majority of actual teen girls. And I suppose that's really what YA fiction is all about.
I can't say I didn't enjoy this book - I did, while it was going. But Scalzi can and has done better, and the weight of the 'very little new territory' re-tell combined with the protagonist keeps me from doing much more than simply 'enjoying' it. From Scalzi, that's disappointing.
Repetitive? Maybe a little. But Scalzi tells a very different story this time.
I think the story telling on Zoe is more consistent, better paced, and has fewer holes than The Last Colony did. If I'd read this one first I might not think that though. It is certainly meant to be read in conjunction with The Last Colony. Certainly I can't say that it suffers from a predictable ending since the ending is a foregone conclusion. Should they be read in publication order? Probably. Certainly you could start with Zoe's Tale, but I think it assumes a lot of familiarity with the events of The Last Colony.
Having never read any of the other books in the series, this book can absolutely stand on its own. I couldn't put it down - I found myself laughing out loud, smiling, and eventually, holding back tears. It was a poignant
It reminded me quite a bit of The Giver in the smooth and even way the story unfolded, and in the very accessible manner in which it was told. I loved it.
However, it was a surprisingly moving version of the tale, especially in the way that Zoe's feelings were described, first in the discovery of her true love and then her feelings of loss after his death (on the other hand I'm even less a female teen than Mr Scalzi...) and it does add a few additional events that expand on the original story.
Highly recommended
Hearing how Zoe thinks and reacts to things is fascinating and even though we may know where things are going, Scalzi still manages to keep the story suspenseful and compelling. The big part of this is the voice of Zoe. Scalzi sets up the character's voice early and then steps back, allowing her to take over telling the story in such a way that it is fresh, compelling and a definite asset to the universe of Old Man's War. I know at the end of "The Last Colony," Scalzi said he was taking a break from the universe for a while, but after reading this, I'm glad he didn't. "Zoe's Tale" comes along just soon enough after "Last Colony" to allow readers to remember enough of the critical events and turning points from the story.
However, don't think that just because you haven't read "Last Colony" you can't or shouldn't read this one. Scalzi's strength is that you can read his novels in any order and while having some background will enhance some aspects of the novels, it's not required. Scalzi has created a series that is equally rewarding for new and old readers. If anything, the compelling nature of "Zoe's Tale" will have those who haven't read the previous installments heading to a bookstore or library to see what they've missed.
It functions extremely well as a companion novel; I don't know how well it would stand on its own, but other reviews indicate that it does that just fine.
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. Combine
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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Zoe's Tale is as good a place as any to start with Scalzi, and a good book in its own right.
Zoe, her adopted parents, her two alien bodyguards and about 2000 settlers from 10 different human colonies are sent off by the Colonial Union to colonize a new planet called Roanoke (and anyone who knows American history will appreciate the irony of the name). But as it turns out, the Colonial Union has plans that don’t have the best interests of the colonists at heart. But fortunately, Zoe is not the type of girl who goes down without fight, especially when the lives of her parents, her new best friend Gretchen and her new boyfriend Enzo’s lives are at stake.
I like sci-fi, but I’ve never been big on books where alien races make up a big part of the narrative because of all the exposition you normally have to slog through. Author John Scalzi is wise to keep this to a minimum and the aliens he does introduce even manage to be entertaining (picture big spider like creatures at a hoedown and try not to laugh). Don’t let the star trek like premise turn you off, because Zoe, an ordinary teenage girl asked to be extraordinary, is worth getting to know. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with her.
Although this isn’t a YA novel, Publisher Tor is actively courting the teen market. And with a heroine as appealing and strong as Zoe, I think they just might succeed.