danaisreading 's review for:

Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi

3.0

adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Weakest of the series, as it's a retelling of events in The Last Colony, but from 16-year-old Zoë's point of view (minor nitpick - why is the character name spelled as Zoë throughout the book, but the book title spells it as Zoe?). Scalzi provided an explanation in the Acknowledgements for why he felt this book was necessary, but even that seems more defensive than anything else.

Still, the second half of the book is better than the first. This is because it diverges from the storyline in TLC to follow how/why Zoë does what she does. In TLC, these things are done offpage with no exposition other than hand-waving, so this is helpful to the overall story arc. Maybe this could have been included in TLC itself. Or maybe the story could have started on the colony itself

at or just before the point where the colonists meet the "werewolves"

, and continued on past the events in TLC.  We already know Zoë and her friends from the previous book, so the meet-cute on Phoenix Station and setting up their friendships were slightly unnecessary.