Book Review - Zoe's Tale, by John Scalzi

John Scalzi personally coerced me into taking an autographed copy of this book from him, under threat of being hunted down by Wil Wheaton. No, seriously, that's a true story. I’m glad he did; even though this probably wasn’t the best starting point for the Old Man’s War series, it’s a tight and fun read that promises even better stuff from his other books.

Zoe’s Tale is a retelling of the previous Old Man’s War book, The Last Colony, from the perspective of teenager Zoe Boutin-Perry. A small group of pioneers are chosen to establish a new colony on a fringe world, with Zoe’s parents plucked from a quiet agrarian community and chosen to lead the expedition. Things go awry from the very beginning, though, when the world they arrive at is revealed to be a different world than the one they were supposed to settle. The colonization mission is revealed to be a ploy, culminating in a confrontation with a vast, heterogeneous armada that seems dedicated to preventing human colonization of the galaxy. Zoe is unfortunately caught in the middle of this intergalactic chess game, along with the people she cares about. However, her unique status as a demigod/treaty provision for the fearsome Obin race allows her to do something about it, if she can summon the courage to do so.

It became clear to me fairly early on that I would have liked this book a lot more if I had read The Last Colony beforehand. This book seems to place a lot of emphasis on filling holes and explaining plot points in that book, and there are a lot of deleted and extended scenes meant for readers that are already familiar with the series. That makes Zoe’s Tale a great companion book, but for a first-time reader like me, it didn’t quite hit the mark. I read somewhere that this book goes a long way in fleshing Zoe out so that she doesn’t seem like a deus ex machina in the previous book, but unfortunately, all that extra focus makes a lot of the rest of the story seem a little too convenient. The bad guys are mysterious, ill-defined, and ultimately irrelevant. The introduction of a crucial alien character near the climax, while heavily foreshadowed, feels a lot like a deus ex machina, itself. Worst of all, there is a lot of world-building done in the beginning, and most of it is promptly ignored once Zoe’s story gets going (since the ideal reader of this book already knows that stuff), which makes for some baffling inconsistencies.

While that sounds harsh, it doesn’t necessarily make for a bad standalone book. Zoe is a great character, and exhibits the right mix of teenage insecurity and adult intelligence. The book is a nicely paced, genuinely exciting space opera, which is all I really wanted from it. Since the book is narrated in the first person by a teenaged protagonist, there is a dry humor and whimsical flightiness injected into the proceedings that nicely complements the serious nature of the plot, making it a true “alternate perspective” tale. Even though I wasn’t on board the whole time with the setting and how the story progressed, things move at a nice clip and are punctuated by some extraordinarily well-written scenes, particularly near the end.

I left the book with a definite feeling of regret that I didn’t read the original Old Man’s War books before trying this one. Even so, the characters and lore are affecting enough that I’m eager to jump into Scalzi’s other books. I wouldn’t recommend using this one as an entry point, like I did, but I’d definitely recommend it to sci-fi fans that are already familiar with Scalzi's work.

Verdict: 3 / 5