A review by infinispace
Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi

2.0

Scalzi's Old Man's War (great) series probably should have ended with Ghost Brigades (good), and certainly with The Last Colony (so-so). As the works within the series clearly declined over time, Zoe's Tale is the inevitable cash in novel. It's just a re-telling of The Last Colony from the point of view of an annoying and pretentious teenage girl...yes, the protagonist (Zoe) is immensely unlikable. 90% of the story is told through character dialogue. There's nothing more boring than reading page after page of characters describing loosely what happens to them via endless "he said" and "she said" types of passages as opposed to inserting action and descriptive narrative. Using dialogue to almost exclusively tell a story is lazy storytelling and world building. And writing a book that just re-tells a story from a different perspective (without being IMMENSELY compelling) is what I call a cash in. Orson Scott Card has been guilty of doing this for years with his endless Ender's Game books.

Unfortunately Zoe's Tale cured me of Scalzi's writing. There are far more compelling books and authors coming out on a regular basis for me to waste my time and money (and who's time and money isn't precious these days). He struck a cord with Old Man's War, but sadly I'm afraid he may be a one trick pony.

I'm utterly aghast that this book was nominated for a Hugo award, even though it's the equivalent of the Golden Globes. It just smacks of fanboism to nominate such a dismal book because it was written by an author you happen to like from previous works. Shame on you Worldcon attendees.