Customer Reviews

The Last Colony [LAST COLONY] [Mass Market Paperback]

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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Over the past few years I've enjoyed reading Mr. Scalzi's work. Old Man's War blew me away like few have. I followed that up with the Ghost Brigade and then Android's Dream. After a slight wait I decided to pick up The Last Colony and continue my saga down Mr. Scalzi's work.

The Last Colony continues John Perry and Jane Sagan saga from Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigade. Now "retired" from military service and living on a small colony, they're approached to become the leaders for a new colonial mission for the Colonial Union. As with what seems to be all of Mr. Scalzi's books there's an interesting twist in that the colonist are from different parts of the Colonial Union (Mr. Scalzi explains that new colony's are usually set up by the more established Colonial Union members), including a sect that's very reminiscent of the Mennonites or Pennsylvania Dutch (very interesting given how advanced Mr. Scalzi has painted the Colonial Union in the past). Upon establishing the Colony (of Roanoke) John Perry's directed to hide it from the Conclave by disabling any advanced technology and to survive on late 1800's/early 1900's technology.

While this is the third in the John Perry series, nothing has been lost. The characters are like old friends; John Perry is once more our main character and as always he brings a common mans understanding of situations with an interesting ability to find a different perspective from those around him. While Jane and Zoe are here, they're really almost tertiary characters. John is the focus with General Gao and the Colonial Union (in its various forms) struggling for best supporting character. The action is at a slow steady rumble between setting up a colony and reacting to changes in the environment and the plans of all parties. This is a solid 4 star book (very close to a 4.5 for me) to be enjoyed on a nice night when you can enjoy John moving from situation to situation until he's no longer the one reacting but instead establishing the tempo. A very enjoyable sequel.

I read Old Man's war , followed by Ghost Brigade followed by The Last Colony. When I read Old man's war I found it very slow going at first but it did pick up pace and I finished it thinking I must read the sequel. The sequel (Ghost Brigade) I had a hard time putting down and really enjoyed. The Last Colony I found slow and boring from start to finish. I skimmed pages and pages of what were just boring dialogue. I realise this is purely subjective and I am just telling you how I found this book and its relationship to its predecessors. I commented to my spouse that I felt I was having to slog my way through this book and she laughed saying - yes - having paid for it one feels one ought to read it. That about summed it up for me. I wanted more green men , more space ships , more interesting technology and a lot less less tedious day to day dialogue between colonists. Thank you for listening.