Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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50 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A reiteration of The Last Colony, August 27, 2008
Let me first say that I think John Scalzi is a wonderful writer. I read Old Man's War when it first came out and enjoyed it very much. Earlier this month I noted he had penned a few sequels and I decided to give them a go. In preparation for doing so I actually re-read Old Man's War and, surprisingly, I enjoyed it even more the second time around. I can say unhesitatingly that I feel that Old Man's War, The Ghost Brigades, and the Last Colony are all wonderful five star reads that evoke the best from the golden age of science fiction and yet are distinctly modern in their presentation.
Scalzi writes in a deceptively easy and smooth style and you glide silkily from one page to the next. His writing is leavened with liberal humor and spiced with adrenalin-fueled action scenes making for a thoroughly enjoyable treat. Many people have compared him to Robert Heinlein...I would go even farther. Scalzi could easily be Heinlein's clone when it comes to writing. Their styles are that similar. This is a good thing though, a grand thing, and I am so pleased that Scalzi is writing the books he is.
But...I have to say I was disappointed with Zoe's Tale in several ways. This is entirely my fault as I was so very excited to get a fourth installment in this series that I did not bother to read the publisher's blurb on the Amazon page. The fact I didn't do so is actually a form of homage to Scalzi because I have already decided that anything he writes is worthy of reading so I didn't really feel like I had to check out the plot first. Zoe's Tale simply retells the story of The Last Colony from the perspective of Zoe, a young teenaged girl. Since I just read The Last Colony a few days ago, I already knew what was going to happen and so there was little ability to generate tension during the story. I still very much enjoyed the smooth, humorous writing but the story itself was a little bit like eating leftovers that you aren't really interested in. It's better than not eating, but it's simply not that thrilling.
I think Scalzi did a remarkably good job of capturing the perspective and outlook of a teenage girl in the novel, which as he explains in the afterword is something of a challenge for a middle-aged guy to pull off. Speaking as another middle-aged guy it seemed to me like he did a good job, but then again, what do I know? Yet, since I am a middle-aged guy I do generally prefer stories told from an older perspective than that of a teenager. I definitely preferred the protagonists of the first three books from a narrative point-of-view. Shifting from an adult perspective to a teenaged one, while well done, detracted a little from the book for me. It could be a plus for others, but I share this so others can make informed decisions.
I must say that overall I enjoyed the book, but I probably would have ordered something else if I'd known beforehand what this was going to be (again, completely my fault). So my advice is to understand what you are buying here before you do it. This is a good book, very enjoyable, and it does throw in a few scenes and explanations that were not in The Last Colony, including a bit more about the werewolves. On the whole though, there isn't much additional informaiton here and I would have preferred a brand new story over a rehashed one. So I'll give this one five stars for the enoyable writing style that will keep me coming back for more, but three stars for not really adding anything new to the series, and settle out at four stars.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the Best Books You Can Give Your Kids, September 24, 2008
In his fourth novel set in the world of OLD MAN'S WAR that jumpstarted John Scalzi's career in writing science fiction, the author doubles back for a second helping of story from his last novel, THE LAST COLONY. With a new voice, new events, and a batch of new stakes, Scalzi rekindles that reading experience to white-hot intensity.
The protagonist is a teenaged girl named Zoe who has an interesting background that has shaped not only her present, but her foreseeable future. She was a secondary character in THE GHOST BRIGADES and THE LAST COLONY, but now she's center stage. Although Scalzi's work has often been compared to Robert A. Heinlein's, with this new protagonist, those parallels have never been more sharply defined. I constantly felt as though I were twelve years old again, hunkered down with one of Heinlein's novels for juveniles.
Zoe is a marvelous character and leaps from the pages. As a kid, I knew girls like her. As an adult, I raised a daughter like her in so many ways. The fierce independence and need to shield her parents from her world (and to protect her privacy) was endearing.
Scalzi's voice in the first-person narrative is pitch-perfect. If I hadn't known the writer was male, I wouldn't have believed it. The views and opinions Zoe and her best friend Gretchen shared were incredibly well done.
I enjoyed the portrayal of the scientific realm as well, especially the way that it was rendered through Zoe's eyes. Her chief concern was her PDA, and it was just as much a part of her as a modern teenager's cell phone: for calls, for pictures and videos, for texting, and for storing media. The other things (like the interplanetary ship) were primarily taken for granted since they were in the adult world.
Zoe's crush on Enzo was particularly good as well. I like the way the couples paired off, and the fact that their close relationships later caused problems for all of them when those friendships also became liabilities.
Readers of THE LAST COLONY are going to know most of the major arcs of the story and won't find any true surprises in this book regarding those. But to hear the story in Zoe's words, to find out all the behind-the-scenes action that was going on regarding Zoe and her alien protectors, to find out more about the "werewolves" in the forest's outside the colony's containment walls is a veritable feast made from leftovers. Sure, the story's been told before in some regards, but there's a reason twice-backed potatoes are popular too.
Not many writers can pull off a second visit to what is - essentially - the same story. Scalzi not only does pull this off, but he brings so much more out of the second trip in such a unique way that this trip through doesn't even feel like the same book. Even though so many of the characters and situations are familiar, I was swept away to another world seemingly made whole from the one I'd only thought I knew.
I enjoy Scalzi's writing. He's deceptively easy to read. His voice, whichever voice he's using, always rings true and pulls me through his novels. Zoe's voice was hauntingly familiar from the Heinlein juveniles, but Scalzi just has a much better hook on today's kids.
ZOE'S TALE is a perfect book to offer a young reader. Especially one that's wondering why you're reading Scalzi's books. A young reader doesn't have to read the preceding three books because this novel is self-contained. It's a great exposure to the Old Man's War books, and it might just have your kid raiding your book shelves or the local library for Scalzi's previous novels. If that happens, you're going to have competition for his next book!
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
For Sci-Fi Fans and Teen Girls, August 19, 2008
The hard core sci-fi cover might make you think otherwise, but Zoe's Tale is chiefly an empowering yet sweet coming of age story about 17 year old Zoe, both player and pawn in a complex interstellar battle between the Colonial Union (the human alliance) and the Conclave (an alliance of roughly 400 alien species). If you've read The Last Colony, I guess you probably know how it all turns out since this is apparently a novel with a parallel timeline told from a different perspective. If you haven't, no matter, as this exciting tale can stand on its own.
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). 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 (with whom she has a great sarcastic rapport) 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 it.
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.
See more of my reviews at presentinglenore.blogspot.com
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