mdpenguin 's review for:

The Human Division by John Scalzi

3.5

adventurous funny tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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This was a pretty decent set of stories that moved a plot-line re: the relationships between Earth, the Colonial Union, and the Conclave forward. None of the stories were great but none of them were bad, either, with most of them ranging around 3.5 to 4 stars. Not all of them suited Scalzi's writing style, but even those were at least interesting. The intrigue was intriguing and the action was exciting, though there wasn't terribly much of it. The humor sometimes fell flat, though, but it usually worked. I think that the biggest shortcoming was that some of the characters were rather one-dimensional, particularly Wilson and Schmidt, who feature in the largest portion of the stories. And Wilson is a bit too competent to be given a silly, nearly carefree bungler's personality (or vice versa). Overall, though, I think that the collection of stories works well.