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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
This by its nature, was an odd sort of book. That being said, I liked it a lot! It’s greater than the sum of its parts.
Great as usual, John Scalzi. This one while in the Old Man's War universe is more of a collection of short stories with an overarching storyline than a novel. As they were originally released separately as e-books, this pretty much sums it up. However there is one flaw, mostly from design. A major plot point isn't wrapped up at all. Which is both good and bad. Bad because as a reader I like closure. Bad because it means MORE stories/novels. Scalzi you magnificent bastard, I want more. NOW.
Mr Scalzi attempted a new format of releasing 13 episodes as mini-ebooks; similar to the old method of serializing a story in newspapers or magazines (everything that is old is new again). A format option popular with self-published authors. After the episodes were all released, his publisher put together the whole thing in book format, adding two extras.
I did not read this during the episodic releases, and discovered the hard-copy book did not work very well as a straight read-thru. The characters lives had ebbs and swells that needed a break every three or four episodes. After getting about half-way through the book, I needed to set it aside for a week. Since my work was asking for 60 to 80-hour weeks during the time I was reading this book, it actually functioned well. Every Saturday I would set aside time to read three more episodes.
The writing is typical, brilliant Scalizi - a combination of humor and observations that are just too much fun. He continues to create a new character voice for each book. I love that his characters are unique - Zoe's Tale had a teenage girl voice; The Human Division had a combination - each episode had a different POV (point of view) of diplomatic approaches. As such the diplomatic-POV did not have the pure snark factor of his first book of the universe (Old Man's War).
I should note the uniqueness of the universe is beginning to wane simply because of familiarity of the World - now in book five - but the universe hasn't reached comfortable glove status. So, in places, this book felt ... awkward... like a teenager - no longer a cute, shiny baby to ooh&aah over, but not fully mature like a George R. Dickson Dorsai! universe story.
This story is essential to the ongoing Old Man's War Universe. It clearly sets up the conspiracy for the next story.
Worth the read, just do it in chunks for maximum enjoyment - the way it was originally published on the Internet.
I did not read this during the episodic releases, and discovered the hard-copy book did not work very well as a straight read-thru. The characters lives had ebbs and swells that needed a break every three or four episodes. After getting about half-way through the book, I needed to set it aside for a week. Since my work was asking for 60 to 80-hour weeks during the time I was reading this book, it actually functioned well. Every Saturday I would set aside time to read three more episodes.
The writing is typical, brilliant Scalizi - a combination of humor and observations that are just too much fun. He continues to create a new character voice for each book. I love that his characters are unique - Zoe's Tale had a teenage girl voice; The Human Division had a combination - each episode had a different POV (point of view) of diplomatic approaches. As such the diplomatic-POV did not have the pure snark factor of his first book of the universe (Old Man's War).
I should note the uniqueness of the universe is beginning to wane simply because of familiarity of the World - now in book five - but the universe hasn't reached comfortable glove status. So, in places, this book felt ... awkward... like a teenager - no longer a cute, shiny baby to ooh&aah over, but not fully mature like a George R. Dickson Dorsai! universe story.
This story is essential to the ongoing Old Man's War Universe. It clearly sets up the conspiracy for the next story.
Worth the read, just do it in chunks for maximum enjoyment - the way it was originally published on the Internet.
Scalzi is good. He tells stories that I don't want to end. That is the case with The Human Division. I have read several of John Scalzi's books and it just occurred to me while reading The Human Division how much of his work is dialog driven. There were entire stories in this where everything was delivered to you through the conversations of the characters. That seems to be very difficult to do, yet Scalzi does it with ease. If you are a fan of The Old Man's War, you have to read this.
This was good just not great. It was good to see Wilson again. I like the addition of the other characters. Despite the ending, this feels like a complete story. I bought it as serials last year, read it in sequence this year. The ending begs a sequel. We readers demand answers. We know what and why; we need who.
An OK return to the Old Man's War universe. Some new likable characters, but also missing the old. A little disjointed with the short story narrative style.
Oh man, I wonder if he is still up at night chortling over that title? I might be. Not only does it fit the book perfectly it’s… eh, I dunno what the term is any more? “Double entendre” always sounds sexual to me…OK…googled… I guess that’s kind of what it is. Anyway, it’s clever. Perhaps too clever.
I guess this was originally published in chunks on the web or some modern magic? Part of that return to serialized fiction I’ve heard so much about… (which is a kind of interesting loop in itself…) MORE DOTS… whatever…
Anyway. The whole of the thing is clever and fits quite well together – except for one chapter about a captured soldier escaping which worked on its own but didn’t (I don’t think) feature any of the characters from the other sequences.
However. The ending was kind of just… I mean, nothing was really resolved. At least in the sense that the over-arching plot that was used to string all the stories together certainly didn’t. It’s fine if you’re leaving something open for a sequel, but it didn’t really feel that way – even though I’m sure there will be one eventually. To be fair, Scalzi has ended at least a couple other books in this series in that way, but this one felt like the worst of the bunch in that aspect.
THREE STARS
Minus at least a half for the ending.
I guess this was originally published in chunks on the web or some modern magic? Part of that return to serialized fiction I’ve heard so much about… (which is a kind of interesting loop in itself…) MORE DOTS… whatever…
Anyway. The whole of the thing is clever and fits quite well together – except for one chapter about a captured soldier escaping which worked on its own but didn’t (I don’t think) feature any of the characters from the other sequences.
However. The ending was kind of just… I mean, nothing was really resolved. At least in the sense that the over-arching plot that was used to string all the stories together certainly didn’t. It’s fine if you’re leaving something open for a sequel, but it didn’t really feel that way – even though I’m sure there will be one eventually. To be fair, Scalzi has ended at least a couple other books in this series in that way, but this one felt like the worst of the bunch in that aspect.
THREE STARS
Minus at least a half for the ending.
This is 13 short stories set in the Old Man's War universe that collectively form a narrative arc centered around the series recurring characters Wilson and Schmidt.
Scalzi handles the "episodic" format well. He gives each story a unique tone and mixes humor, awe, cleverness, and badassery. It doesn't feel like TV show episodes or like a serialized novel, but a collection.
I found the strongest short stories to be the ones that aren't about the recurring characters. Unfortunately that includes the opening story, which assumes you already know and care about them. I was mostly confused during the first story because despite having read most of this series, that reading was spread over a lot of time and the characters are all so similar to each other that I had a hard time just keeping track of what was happening and who was who.
I skimmed one of the middle chapters about a family holiday, and wish I'd skimmed the shock-jock story (which was well done, but means reading an entire chapter from an irritating character's point of view, including their rants).
Scalzi handles the "episodic" format well. He gives each story a unique tone and mixes humor, awe, cleverness, and badassery. It doesn't feel like TV show episodes or like a serialized novel, but a collection.
I found the strongest short stories to be the ones that aren't about the recurring characters. Unfortunately that includes the opening story, which assumes you already know and care about them. I was mostly confused during the first story because despite having read most of this series, that reading was spread over a lot of time and the characters are all so similar to each other that I had a hard time just keeping track of what was happening and who was who.
I skimmed one of the middle chapters about a family holiday, and wish I'd skimmed the shock-jock story (which was well done, but means reading an entire chapter from an irritating character's point of view, including their rants).
After the terrible Zoe's Tale, I thought the next one has to be better. On the one side, it is, this book is much better than ZT. On the other hand, it is a bunch of half connected stories that more or less occur during a long act after the Perry event. Some of them are good, some feel like a filler. Overall they feel like a spin-off that could be titled "The crazy adventures of Lieutenant Wilson and friends". They are good if you have nothing else to read, but that's just it.