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Zoe's Tale
Old Man's War, Book 4
by John Scalzi
Tor, $8.99, 416pp
Published: April 2009

In the first book we learned that humans have spread all over the universe but rather than an idyllic galaxy-wide confederation of trade, it’s all they can do just to stay alive.  Turns out the humans have lots of competition for prime real estate.  The Colonial Defense Forces are the only thing standing between human colonies and all the alien-uglies trying to kill them to take away a planet.  What makes this story stand apart is a clever twist:  rather than recruiting from young people and destroying generations in sometimes hopeless battles; they recruit from seniors who have lived their full lives and are on the down-hill slide.  The recruitment is simple and irresistible:  on your 75th birthday, you can choose to join the CDF for a minimum two-year term of service, not to exceed ten years; and, in return, they will make you young again.  There are, of course, catches.  They will never return to Earth, they will never see friends or family again; and, no one on Earth has the slightest idea how the promise of youth is fulfilled. Oh, and they’ll probably die.

This story is basically the same story as book 3, “The Last Colony” but the events are seen through the eyes of Zoe, the adopted daughter of John Perry and Jane Sagan.  We get a bit more background information about the indigenous sentient beings on Roanoke.  And we learn more about Zoe’s relationship with the Obin. We find out why Zoe wasn’t with her boyfriend the night Roanoke was attacked. But the only really valuable insight was the story behind how Zoe returned to Roanoke with the sapper device from the Consu.  Otherwise, it was a pretty ho-hum story.  All of those things could have been included in “Last Colony” although I know from the author’s afterword that these hadn’t yet been written when he finished “Last Colony.”  It reads much like a YA novel and didn’t contribute anything but color and feel-goodness to the series. ~~ Catherine Book

For more titles by John Scalzi click here
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