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The Last Colony
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[BOTM] - SERIES PICK - The Last Colony
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I have read this series and IMHO I thought that The Last Colony was amazing with a really cool finish. Some of the best sci fi ever written I reckon. The Human Division follows on really nicely too, but I've not really liked any of Scalzi's other recent stuff, Redshirts in particular.
Les wrote: "...but I've not really liked any of Scalzi's other recent stuff, Redshirts in particular. ..."I've read some of Scalzi's earlier works, but haven't had time to explore his later works. [*adds another book to l-o-n-g TBR list :-)...*]
If you enjoy this one (and I did), be sure to also read Zoe's Tale which is a re-telling of the same events that happen in the Last Colony but from Zoe's perspective.
Yes, Zoe's Tale is very good. I initially avoided it as I was told it was more of a YA novel. It sort of is, but gives a nice new perspective to the story. I really liked her interactions with the two-headed minder creature.
I just discovered the 1st book and I love it. I am about half way through. So very excited for the rest of the series.
I see Old Man's War is going to be made into a TV show with the slightly misleading name "The Ghost Brigades". Sounds sexier apparently.http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2014...
Yes that is my comment. I follow SF Signal a lot, it's a good site.
Oh hey, thanks for the heads up Les! Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope they do Scalzi justice with good production values which includes forking out enough money to get good actors to sign on. Hopefully the title will bring a few.
I wasn't able to read Ghost Brigade last month but I started listening to the audio recording of TLC. My first comment is 'Who in their right mind would name any colony Roanoke?' That's up there with naming your new motorboat Titanic. So far, I have particularly enjoyed the description of the CU's staged system for colonizing new planets. I got a kick out of the cavalier attitude towards the 2,500 colonists who take point in the process:
"Twenty-five hundred colonists are numerous enough to start the process of making a world a human world. They are few enough that if they fail the CU can shed a tear and move on. It’s an interesting thing to be both critical and expendable to humanity’s effort to populate the stars."
The Human Division is a further extension of this story. I bought and read it in it's weekly 'episodic' format on Kindle and enjoyed it, but I do think that it would be better read as a complete book. There are also some other stories in the Old Man's War universe, including Questions for a Soldier which is an interview with John Perry that s quite neat.This series is among the best sci-fi ever written IMHO, for a number of reasons. Scalzi really is a true master of the genre. I just hope he doesn't lose his way. His later stuff isn't anywhere near the same. Fuzzy Nation was okay (a reboot of an old novel), Redshirts was no good and I'm not all that enthused by the sound of the upcoming Lock In. We'll see, but I sure hope we see so much more good science fiction from him.
I'm not saying that it won't be a well-written novel, Redshirts was well-written but a stupid concept (only my opinion, of course). A near-future novel about a global pandemic? Yawn. Hey, it may be full of fresh new ideas for which Scalzi is well-known, but it screams of a "dystopian" tale to appeal to the masses. Not my cup of tea at all. I sure as anything hope there's no "zombies" running around 'cos I can't stand that rubbish, and it's such a worn out trope these days. Zombies around every corner. As I say, only my opinion, but I'm right...LOL
There's also The Sagan Diary that "looks at the worlds of the Hugo-nominated Old Man's War and its sequel The Ghost Brigades from the point of view of Lieutenant Jane Sagan, who in a series of diary entries gives her views on some of the events included in the series...and sheds new light into some previously unexplored corners".https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...
Sounds fascinating. Keen to see what people think of it. Might even read it myself!
I just finished it and really enjoyed it. It's a pity that Scalzi doesn't appear to be continuing with this series.
A bit late to the party here, but I just finished, and I liked it quite a bit. Some comments:Does Trujillo's character development feel a bit abrupt for anyone else? In the beginning he's a power-hungry jerk, and then in Chapter 7 (halfway through) he declines John's offer to lead the colony. This was odd, as well: why did John even offer? I know he was stressed and tired, but this doesn't seem to me to be sufficient reason.
In Chapter 8, why was Gau surprised and what made him start to pray?
What was the deal with the sapient aliens on Roanoke? Why was this plotline ignored in the later parts of the book? I was dissatisfied that there was no development/resolution here.
Did it bother anyone else that Szilard claims that Jane is 100% human? Is this true? If so, the science is glossed over and seems to me far-fetched, especially with the BrainPal. If not, well, this is totally in line with the CU/SF's modus operandi.
I've always wondered about the sapient aliens.
"Retired from his fighting days, John Perry is now village ombudsman for a human colony on distant Huckleberry. With his wife, former Special Forces warrior Jane Sagan, he farms several acres, adjudicates local disputes, and enjoys watching his adopted daughter grow up.
That is, until his and Jane's past reaches out to bring them back into the game--as leaders of a new human colony, to be peopled by settlers from all the major human worlds, for a deep political purpose that will put Perry and Sagan back in the thick of interstellar politics, betrayal, and war..."
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