A review by jgolomb
After the Coup by John Scalzi

4.0

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun Short Story from Terrific Author, July 30, 2010

This review is from: After the Coup: A Tor.Com Original (Kindle Edition)
"After the Coup" is a short story set in the same world as John Scalzi's "Old Man's War", and its' sequels "Ghost Brigade", "Last Colony" and "Zoe's Tale". While the focus is on one of Scalzi's minor characters from the first two books, this is really just a fun snippet of interplanetary diplomatic relations resolved by good old-fashioned alien vs. human hand-to-hand combat.

Scalzi always writes amazing character dialogue and fully half of this 20-page story is a simple discussion. In the conversation, Scalzi's able to subtly but clearly set exposition, motivation and the structure for the story itself. And he does it with his usual humor, which typically draws out a couple of laugh-out-louds.

The battle scene is creative, sharply written, and comes to a satisfactory conclusion.

I highly recommend this book. And what's to stop you? It's only a dollar.