Zoe's Tale

Zoe's Tale is a retelling of the events featured in "Lost Colony" from the perspective of the teenage girl, Zoe. It fills in gaps that were glossed over or full of deus-ex in "Lost Colony," and does so in a believable and entertaining fashion.

I had a hard time imagining settings and aliens. Scalzi hardly describes the aliens (and even human characters) in the book (I pictured General Gau as a noble talking Kangaroo), and I had trouble picturing events while reading.

Gretchen brings the sense of sarcasm I felt was missing from the last book back in spades, and the sheer character and sense of boundless family rescue the novel from the lacking descriptiveness.

Zoe has a strong, noble character, and I cared about her a whole lot more after finishing this book than I did after "Lost Colony." A worthy addition the 'Scalzi section' of your bookshelf, but don't expect new events. What this novels really gives is heart-warming perspective.

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!

"Zoe's Tale" is basically the same story as "The Last Colony" told as a first-person narrative by a teenage girl. As a fiftysomething guy (albeit with a teenage daughter) this is not the perspective I look for in any story, and it did not really work for me. This piece might work for someone who wants to relive his or her teenage years.

That having been said, author Scalzi is a good writer, and the "Old Man's Universe" is fascinating. I do have a nit, however, that applies to both "Zoe's Tale" and "The Last Colony." That is my belief that the Conclave, who are generally the bad guys of both books, is simply not plausible. Put simply, I am not buying the notion that one fellow, General Gau, manages to unite "hundreds" of races (which have been at each other's throats for millenia) and have these disparate races colonize worlds together. All science fiction requires something of a suspension of one's critical facilities (the sandworms of Dune are not plausible either, but we all still loved Dune) but this "Conclave" premise just seemed downright asinine to me. By the way, another premise I don't buy is that almost all the Colonial Union colonists are from South Asia. Scalzi reiterates this many times, and yet somehow all of his characters have names like Jane, Gretchen, and other European names, and all act exactly like Americans.

All that having been said, "Zoe's Tale," in common with Scalzi's other "Old Man War" novels, is a fast read, but in my opinion most of his fans (other than the teenage contingent) will find it to be the weakest of the four (I am not counting "Sagan's Diary" which is not really a novel.) I give it an extra star because I like Scalzi's writing, but many readers will consider this one to be a two-star novel.

An insightful tale that fill's in many of the blanks fo the previous books. It further explains the Obin's total devoition to Zoe and the price they are willing to pay the Consu for information. A nicely done addendum to the series.

Another excellent addition to the story begun with "Old Man's War." Looking at the same story from a different perspective (Zoe's) makes the tale complete. I only hope that we see more from Mr. Scalzi on this tale... and by the way - any movies deals out there? This would make a superb cinematic event(s)! Thank you for reviving my love of SF... good stuff sir.