The Last Colony: Old Man's War, Book 3

Everybody seems to be writing series these days. It's a marketing thing I'm told.Scalzi is one is one of the best at it that I've seen since the 1950s and1960s (when I was a less sophisticated reader).His story and series arcs are coherent, plausible and intriguing with realistic, empathic characters. His thematic arcs teach very positive human values about family, loyalty, love, self-sacrifice and the power of individuals to change history.He avoids the trap of demonizing enemys. Most importantly he shows the the power of the merciful side of the warriors Ethos to end wars and avoid genocide. I believe that he rightfully ascribes that ethos to totally alien military leaders.In all Scalzi gives us a delightful space opera-ish tale that deftly critiques common human failures, the realistic limitations of the 'assumed' omniscience of powerful people, and the ability of 'ordinary' people, who dare to act, to avert apparently inevitable disaster.I highly recommend, and look forward to his future work.

It got off to a slow start, but Scalzi's humor kept me interested. I enjoyed the plot and the characters. I couldn't put it down and raced the clock each night to finish a chapter before bed.Since it's told from the first person POV of the protagonist, we miss out on what other characters are up to. So maybe "Zoe's Tale" wasn't an afterthought but intentional.The name of the colony is Roanoke. It's been over 400 years since the original colony of Roanoke was lost. I don't know how far in the future the novel takes place (I suspect about a century), but I found it surprising that no characters raised a red flag over the name until about 70 pages in. Surely if enough of us still remember the original Roanoke now another 100 years won't see it completely drop out of our collective consciousness. I get it though. Scalzi dangled that tid bit for us readers, not the characters.Despite that nitpick, I enjoyed the book.

Nice pivot in this third book away from the mostly military point of view, and toward the life of colonists. Of course, with John Perry and Jane Sagan, there are military intrigues and strategy to divine, but seeing them both settled and happy (about eight years out of the CDF) is a nice change of pace and gives them both fuller life. The book itself moves quickly, with some familiar characters returning and new characters (and species) introduced, more layers of the workings of the galaxy uncovered, and momentous decisions to be made. The book ends with some aspects enjoying closure, but a major cliffhanger (in the best sense). Curious where the series will end up, but Scalzi always makes the reader's journey enjoyable.

Seriously underwhelmed by a book I had such high hopes for!This is essentially the Old Man's War version of the third Matrix movie. Namely, the first book was amazing, and a game changer.It had it's inspirations, in this case the famed Robert Heinlein, but it was original and exciting enough to make it almost too short.The second book in the series, not unlike the second Matrix movie, brought up a few clever elements, but mainly tread water.This third installment, "The Last Colony" was supposed to end the series but kind of fizzled instead of exploded.The author has since extended the series into 6 books, but I'm not real anxious to read them.

Last Colony by John Scalzi is the third book in the Old Man’s War series. John Perry, the protagonist from Old Man’s War, has retired from the Colonial Defense Forces to the colony planet of Huckleberry. Jane Sagan joins him. She is another former member of the CDF and the clone of his deceased wife. They have taken in the orphan Zoe Boutin Perry as their daughter. It’s a good life. John is a farmer and an ombudsman, while Jane is a constable. Their former commander, General Rybibki, asks them to help settle a new colony on the planet named Roanoke. What they find at Roanoke is not what they expected. Can John protect the colony, or will the colony perish leading to the extermination of humanity?Last Colony by John Scalzi is a great sequel to Old Man’s War. It was fun to see John Perry and his family again. John faces an impossible position and escapes a dire fate again. Scalzi is the master of idea and dialogue. A quick read, I wanted more. He sets up the next novel in the series at the end of this novel. I am looking forward to reading book four of the series, Zoe’s Tale.

What a deep literary dive from Scalzi’s Ghost Brigades. The writing is just terrible in comparison with a mediocre story (which is why I gave it two stars instead of one). The worst aspect is his insistence on explaining every reference, from Roanoke to the gender question of the Obin. Scalzi has such a low opinion of his readership that he feels the necessity to explain even the simplest allusions and puns. He still has not fixed the problem of his 90 year old protagonist not acting or talking like an old man, instead making him seem more like a middle aged man (see Scalzi’s age).It is unfortunate because underneath the failure of the author is a potentially great story, but he disrespects his readership by assuming a complete lack of intelligenceFor shame.

I found Old Man's War in a used book store and decided to give it a look. Really liked it and wanted more so I bought Special Forces Brigade. It was not a sequel, but a different story in the same universe. I liked it but was disappointed it didn't continue the Old Man's story. Then I bought this book and slogged through most of it just to read the terrific ending. I don't like that in a book. Pages of dialogue and simple story that suggest excitement without delivering any. There were so many opportunities to spice it up with amazing discoveries and exciting experiences but I didn't find them until the end.

The Last Colony is the third book in a (currently) six book series with a few novella's thrown in. If you haven't heard of them before, please start with Old Man's War, the first in the series as it's an ongoing story line and you won't understand a lot of what is going on without them.So with that disclaimer pout of the way! I really enjoyed the first two books in the series and the third book, was equally engrossing. I sped through it in two days. If you liked the first two novels, you'll like this is the short version.To the slightly longer version! The Last colony focuses on The Old Man's War protagonist John Perry again. Thanks to the results of The Ghost Brigade he has managed to leave the military and settle down with his new wife Jane Sagan and their adopted daughter Zoe. Everything is peaceful despite the universe's conflicts but unfortunately that won't last as John, Jane and Zoe are hand picked to lead a new colony. It's a special circumstance and they need them as neutral leaders yet with military and administrative skills to deal with what's ahead. However the Colonial Defense Force aren't telling them everything and the situation is far worse then they realize....The thing I really like about the series so far is each book has been pretty different yet still obviously set in the same universe. It starts off a little slower than the previous books but I greatly enjoyed the more political and survivalist set up it builds and I think it ties up a lot of events pretty nicely overall. The characters are all still really great (I especially like Jane) and some interesting new ones are introduced. The writing style continues to be easy to read with great pacing so I never felt bored or confused about what was going on.Overall, another great book in the series. Recommended.+ Interesting story setting.+ Great characters.+ Easy to read with great pacing.

The concepts and idea are getting really tired here. The author really drags on describing how our heroes have settled down into small time life for almost a quarter of the book. The next half is spent prolonging the agony to describe how the colony preparations take place and the colony finally gets started - with the twist in the tail which I won’t reveal here but it’s implausible simply because the colonists would likely rebel any government that treated them the way the Colonial Union treats these guys.The final denouement is laughable. [spoiler alert] The Colonial Union blows up a spaceship from every planet in the Conclave and ... there’s no repercussions because of some really rather spurious thinking / plot twist. It just doesn’t pass the smell test - either the action itself or the reaction. I know it’s silly of me to think sci-fi needs to be plausible, sort of by definition, but I do prefer it when I can believe the plot line.

As I read the first few pages of the story, I began to think I would not like it. I stuck with it and I'm so pleased that I did. It just suddenly took off as the reader goes to colonise another planet with our wonderful characters. The humans are under instruction from the Colonial Union, but they are colonising in secret because there is a conglomeration of other races known as the Conclave. They have forbidden any form of colonisation unless the species are in the Conclave's conglomeration - a union of species. Humans don't seem too keen on this.The story makes for a wonderful bag of political intrigue, super enhanced space troopers, and battle action. The dialogue and the characters are first class. One situation after another keeps the reader gripped as the explosive situation develops from one circumstance to another. This was book three in a series. I only realised this after I had read the book, but it stands well on its own. I will read others in the series after this. The Last Days of Thunder Child: Victorian Britain in chaos!The Last Days of Thunder Child: Victorian Britain in chaos!

John Scalzi has a talent for getting his protagonists into impossible situations ....... This is the final book in his Old Man's War series, and while it stands alone, you will have much more fun by starting at the beginning and following these characters along their journey. The characters are quirky, the dialogue good humoured the plotting skilled. A thoroughly enjoyable and very satisfying conclusion, if it is, to a series.This novel is set on an isolated colony and charts the attempts by the colonists to tame their environment while also having to deal with an invasion by an alien species and their own politically different viewpoints. If you like a yarn that is tense, complex and a mix of political manoeuvring and military action then this is for you.

Scalzi story telling is none to any of the big names, his books are fresh and very entertaining.The twists never fails to surprise me.When I finish one of his novels I just can't wait to immerse myself in the next one.If you love easy reading sci-fi, intelligent and well written Scalzi is your man.