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incarnationblues 's review for:
Zoe's Tale
by John Scalzi
So. I liked this book better than The Last Colony, so I have to rate it a little higher. But, at the same time, it's not really a 3.5 star book. Don't take that as knock against the writing, because the writing is fine - except for one spot, where it made no sense (the battle between the Obin and the Consu. I mean, I get what he was going for in the classic 80's movie montage sort of way, but I expect/want more - especially when that scene was more or less the entire "point" of the book - or at least central to the "point" of the book - in the sense of what it added to the universe).
The writing was fine... but I just don't get *why* this book exists. Sure, fans want more of the OMW universe. Fans might even want more stories about Zoe (which I'm fine with)... what I'm not sure is why we needed a re-telling of the previous book from another angle. Typically, that kind of thing strikes me as a mommy-p#rn writing trick (or whatever "new adult" is). If someone like Scalzi is doing it, I'm going to expect more. We get basically 2 extra "scenes" to The Last Colony. And that's it. You find out what Zoe was doing off in space that netted her the McGuffin, and you find out some other tiny bit about the other indigenous sentient species on the Last Colony's planet.
Both those things are fine and great, but I'd rather them as the opening to a work that actually carried the universe forward, instead of fleshed out things that, in my opinion, could have been fleshed out ALSO while moving the series forward. A couple flashbacks would have been swell... instead we get one long flashback.
This book had a lot going against it: it re-told a story I didn't love, from a point of view that I don't think added much, and it was told in first person (which I generally dislike) and from the point of view of a teenage girl (so I can't tell how well or not he did that, since I'm not a female nor do I have a teenage daughter). In spite of all that, it was still an entertaining read. Entertaining, but frustrating - because, like I said, I only really learned 1 or 2 new things about the universe.
THREE AND A THIRD STARS
Because I enjoyed it more than The Last Colony. I would read more stories about Zoe IF they moved the universe forward.
The writing was fine... but I just don't get *why* this book exists. Sure, fans want more of the OMW universe. Fans might even want more stories about Zoe (which I'm fine with)... what I'm not sure is why we needed a re-telling of the previous book from another angle. Typically, that kind of thing strikes me as a mommy-p#rn writing trick (or whatever "new adult" is). If someone like Scalzi is doing it, I'm going to expect more. We get basically 2 extra "scenes" to The Last Colony. And that's it. You find out what Zoe was doing off in space that netted her the McGuffin, and you find out some other tiny bit about the other indigenous sentient species on the Last Colony's planet.
Both those things are fine and great, but I'd rather them as the opening to a work that actually carried the universe forward, instead of fleshed out things that, in my opinion, could have been fleshed out ALSO while moving the series forward. A couple flashbacks would have been swell... instead we get one long flashback.
This book had a lot going against it: it re-told a story I didn't love, from a point of view that I don't think added much, and it was told in first person (which I generally dislike) and from the point of view of a teenage girl (so I can't tell how well or not he did that, since I'm not a female nor do I have a teenage daughter). In spite of all that, it was still an entertaining read. Entertaining, but frustrating - because, like I said, I only really learned 1 or 2 new things about the universe.
THREE AND A THIRD STARS
Because I enjoyed it more than The Last Colony. I would read more stories about Zoe IF they moved the universe forward.