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The Last Colony (Old Man's War #3)

by John Scalzi (Goodreads Author)

4.02 · Rating Details · 31,163 Ratings · 1,492 Reviews

Retired from his fighting days, John Perry is now village ombudsman for a human colony on distant Huckleberry. With his wife, former Special Forces warrior Jane Sagan, he farms several acres, adjudicates local disputes, and enjoys watching his adopted daughter grow up.

That is, until his and Jane's past reaches out to bring them back into the game--as leaders of a new human ...more

Hardcover, 320 pages

Published April 17th 2007 by Tor Books (first published 2007)

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Jun 12, 2015 mark monday rated it liked it

Shelves: futuristik

stupid fucking humans, you are the worst! always getting shit wrong and not caring!

John Scalzi sort of agrees but sort of doesn't. he's a humanist who loves the individual as well as a scornful critic who slams systems, systematized secrecy, imperialism, and the use of conflict as a way to achieve goals. so he gets to have his cake and eat it too. his love of people is on display as ever, and although his characters often lack depth and aren't particularly interesting, they are still warmly char stupid fucking humans, you are the worst! always getting shit wrong and not caring!

John Scalzi sort of agrees but sort of doesn't. he's a humanist who loves the individual as well as a scornful critic who slams systems, systematized secrecy, imperialism, and the use of conflict as a way to achieve goals. so he gets to have his cake and eat it too. his love of people is on display as ever, and although his characters often lack depth and aren't particularly interesting, they are still warmly characterized and pleasant to be around. sympathetic characters because Scalzi is a sympathetic sort of author. but he also finally gets to openly slam the Colonial Union and their war-mongering, secretive, tunnel-visioned ways. this is the third book in the series and the preceding books almost function as a wind-up to what turns out to be a mean right hook. stupid fucking Colonial Union, they've been long overdue for a knock-out.

as usual the writing is pleasant and also generic. I did notice an increasing tendency to make things a bit too much on the nose, if that makes sense. there's the name of the colony itself, "Roanoke", which of course has all sorts of resonance. but at least Scalzi acknowledges that. what's rather aggravating is the on-the-nose quality of the dialogue. it's always snappy and sarcastic and everyone responds with perfect timing; it's like a sitcom minus the laugh track. the end result is that it comes across as a bit plastic and characters sound a lot like each other.

still, that's a minor complaint. overall this novel is fast-paced fun, full of adventure and politics and battles and aliens. because Scalzi is more interested in the human condition than anything else, his aliens often act just like humans. that can be annoying, but fortunately in this one he has a couple that don't: Hickory and Dickory. they were also pretty fun and I'm looking forward to getting to know them better in the follow-up novel.

oh the synopsis, in my rush to get out of here I almost forgot: characters from prior novels lead a group of colonists to a new planet. the book is all about the layers upon layers of intrigue that surround this colony. ...more

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Apr 30, 2011 Kemper rated it liked it

Shelves: sci-fi, war, aliens, 2011

I’m no expert at colonizing newly discovered worlds, but I gotta think that naming your new planet ‘Roanoke’ and your settlement town ‘Croatoan’ is just asking to be pimp slapped by fate. Why not just christen a ship ‘Titantic’ or call that new nuclear plant ’Chernobyl’? What’s the worst that could happen?

The third installment of this series finds John Perry and his wife Jane retired from the Colonial Defense Force and living quietly on a colonized planet with their daughter. The CDF approaches ...more

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Sep 20, 2015 Terence rated it liked it

After retiring from the Colonial Defense Force, John Perry and Jane Sagan started a new life on the Human colony Huckleberry. The two of them live with their adopted daughter Zoë, work local jobs, and have a farm. All of that changes when they are approached to be the leaders of a new human colony which will be colonized by people from other human colonies. There is more to this arrangement than they were told and the family finds itself once again forced to fight to survive.

John Scalzi shows an ...more

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Mar 13, 2011 Dan Schwent rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sf, 2010, the-scalz

John Perry and Jane Sagan have left the CDF and have been living with Zoe on a colony called Huckleberry until they're uprooted and sent to start a new colony, Roanoke. Only the CDF isn't telling them the whole truth and the Conclave is on the prowl for rogue colonies. Can Perry and his family save Roanoke without being traitors to the Colonial Union?

Wow. I loved this book almost as much as I loved the first in the series, Old Man's War. John Perry is back and in fine form. Scalzi crammed a lot ...more

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Sep 24, 2014 Bookwraiths rated it liked it

Shelves: scifi, library

Originally reviewed at Bookwraiths Reviews

I have to admit I was a bit excited to finally get to read The Last Colony. Old Man’s War was a great scifi novel and The Ghost Brigades was only a notch below it, in my opinion, so when I opened this one up, I had really high expectations – expectations that were not met by this novel, unfortunately. Oh, it was still an enjoyable read, just not the military extravaganza I was expecting.

The Last Colony opens with John Perry and his wife, Jane, living a ...more

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Jan 03, 2016 Michael rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, science-fiction, aliens, space-opera

This review from October was wrongly placed with the entre piece of the serialized book:

This was a well-paced, fun space opera in the same universe as Scalzi’s series starting with “The Old Man’s War”. The confederation of human planets known as Colonial Union was formed in response to alien civilizations out to exterminate our species, and in response to their success hundreds of alien species have formed their own confederation, the Conclave. The resulting peace from strength has become shaky This review from October was wrongly placed with the entre piece of the serialized book:

This was a well-paced, fun space opera in the same universe as Scalzi’s series starting with “The Old Man’s War”. The confederation of human planets known as Colonial Union was formed in response to alien civilizations out to exterminate our species, and in response to their success hundreds of alien species have formed their own confederation, the Conclave. The resulting peace from strength has become shaky as the Union has been so brutal in maintaining allegiance and control that Earth has dropped out, removing a big source of their resources and soldiers. A recent attack by the Union on Conclave forces was restrained from becoming all-out war only by the wisdom of their leader, General Gau, who now can barely keep the alien confederation together.

The plot here concerns a fiendish plan by an alien and human renegades called Equilibrium to get rid of both the Colonial Union and the Conclave by fomenting a war between them. There are significant military actions in the story, but most of the tale is taken up with intelligence work and political maneuvering. The narrative is presented in four cohesive sections told in first person by different players in the drama. At the ground level, we start with the accounts of a male commercial space pilot whose ship is hijacked and now is enslaved as a “brain in a box”, with his only means of living mediated through a virtual reality interface. His hate for the human traitor behind his capture and murder of his crew, a th Union’s Secretary of State drives him to brilliant heroic action. Another section is told from the perspective a female assault trooper with the Colonial Defense Force engaged in quelling rebellions seeking independence from the Union. She begins to question why they keep putting out fires but do not address the root causes. At a higher level, we get the perspectives of a Colonial Union State Department spy and of an alien which is second in command of the Conclave. They end up partnering with diplomats from the Earth and the Union to pull off an intricate trap for the shadowy Equilibrium forces, outfoxing both their secret supporters in Conclave legislature and others who just want all humans wiped out.

The high stakes for the human species adds to the thrills for this story. The weaving of multiple threads and complex strategies lift the novel a bit above the pulp level. Characters are sketchy but vividly rendered with special quirks and a lot of ironic humor. The aliens fail to appear different from humans in their motivations and thinking, and any biological differences are not explored but merely tossed off in a virtually comic fashion. This conforms to a long tradition in space opera, where space is just a playground for human drama (some of the best, like the works of Bujold and David Weber dispense with aliens altogether). What lifts this from 3 to 4 stars for me is the dynamic presentation of the tale, the caper-like feel to the schemes employed by its lovable heroes, and its marshalling of interesting technologies by “showing not telling.” ...more

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Nov 23, 2013 seak rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2013

I think Scalzi's a fun author to read, one you can always go back to knowing you'll have an entertaining read. He's got smart characters you can root for, fast-paced plots, and you always know you won't have to think too hard. I love to be challenged in my reading, but I don't want to be challenged with every single book I read. Thus, authors like John Scalzi make for the perfect break in your intellectual readings.

The Last Colony is the final Old Man's War universe novel with John Perry and Jan ...more

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Oct 19, 2013 Tom Merritt rated it it was amazing

There's an easy brilliance to the OMW series that I think shines at its best in Last Colony. At any moment you may feel like you're reading a light novel with snappy dialog and a straightforward plot. The phrase 'beach reading' May even flit through your mind. But the. You'll realize that these characters are green super soldiers, alien generals with eye stalks and emotionless guardians of a teenage girl. Then it strikes you that the themes aren't just love and family and such but also war and o ...more

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Aug 17, 2015 The Shayne-Train rated it it was amazing

Wowzers. Just....plain....wowzers.

description

This was such a perfect end to the trilogy. We go back to the first-person narrative of Major John Perry, formerly a reborn-supersoldier, now a husband and father and space-colonist.

Plenty of good kill-all-da-alienz stuff, but also a lot of good making-your-way-in-the-world-today-takes-everything-you-got stuff too. Oh, and some DOWN-WITH-THE-MAN stuff. Can't forget that.

Goodreads tells me there are more books in the series. I find that odd, because it felt like ...more

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Jan 14, 2015 Mpauli rated it it was amazing

Shelves: genre_sf, setting_distant-planets, rating_5-stars, orga_read-in-2015

Overall this was a fantastic read and a lot of fun. Seeing the story again told from John Perry's point of view was a blast and the combination of humor, plot, twists, characters and action worked really well for me.
The ony complaint I have is that for the plot to really work at two points people who should have know better make actually some stupid decisions. I think if everyone had really acted like I would assume leaders of large political groups would act, then the story couldn't have played ...more

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Jan 08, 2016 Kaethe rated it it was amazing

Shelves: humor, fiction, adventure, feminism, first-contact, colonization, social-issues, skepticism, format-ebooks, glbtq, p-o-c, scifi, friendship, politics, beloved

2012 January

At the end of the book Scalzi says he isn't going to write any more about these characters. So even though I'm midway in Zoe's Tale, I'm having a sad. It's smart science fiction, interesting characters, intriguing problems with colonization, and Sagan and Perry are so good at working things through. I would happily read many more stories about them. Great scifi, and, for those of us who enjoy twists, plenty of them. Really, Old Man's War is an unusually strong series. There must be f ...more

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Oct 06, 2008 Sandi rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008, sci-fi, hugo-nominees-2008

The more of John Scalzi’s work I read, the more I like his writing. Set in the same universe as “Old Man’s War”, the 2008 Hugo nominated novel, “The Last Colony” does not disappoint. Scalzi has a gift for writing science fiction that fires the imagination and remains completely believable. He doesn’t fill his novels with a bunch of boring exposition. Any technology that needs explanation is explained in a comprehensible manner, not with a lot of jargon. In many ways, his novels hearken back to t The more of John Scalzi’s work I read, the more I like his writing. Set in the same universe as “Old Man’s War”, the 2008 Hugo nominated novel, “The Last Colony” does not disappoint. Scalzi has a gift for writing science fiction that fires the imagination and remains completely believable. He doesn’t fill his novels with a bunch of boring exposition. Any technology that needs explanation is explained in a comprehensible manner, not with a lot of jargon. In many ways, his novels hearken back to the days of Asimov, Clarke and Bradbury. They are fun and easy to read, but they are also full of big ideas.

“The Last Colony” features John Perry and Jane Sagan from “Old Man’s War” and their adopted daughter, Zoë, who was introduced briefly in “The Ghost Brigades”. While all of Scalzi’s books are fine to read as stand-alone novels, one should probably at least read “Old Man’s War”, if not “The Ghost Brigades” before diving into “The Last Colony”. Mind you, “The Last Colony” will still be comprehensible to readers who haven’t read the previous two; but the background in the predecessors will make “The Last Colony” a richer experience.

“The Last Colony” is an incredibly fun read. It has more twists and turns than a rollercoaster. Every time the protagonist and the reader figure something out, there’s something else they didn’t know about that changes the whole thing. The ending is the biggest twist of all, but it fits logically with the rest of the story.

I have to say that, unlike its predecessors, “The Last Colony” left me wanting more. Scalzi introduces an intelligent alien species on the newly colonized planet, but never goes back to them. I want to know more. I want to know what happens to the Roanoke colonists after the story end. I would love to see a book about Manfred Trujillo and one about the Mennonite colonists. There’s just so much more to the Roanoke colony than the book gives us. It’s not that I think “The Last Colony” should have been longer. It is the perfect length, and I like that it limits its scope to the story at hand. Scalzi doesn’t muck things up by including a bunch of confusing subplots. The stories I want to see told are best left for other books and I happy that they’re not here.

...more

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Feb 06, 2016 Milda Page Runner rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, humor

2.5*
Some spoilers in here, read at your own peril.

The good:
John Perry - I loved his voice, his humour, the way he has with the people around him.
Colonizing new planet - the adventures and difficulties that came with uncharted territory.
The ending - Scalzi seems to deliver happy optimistic endings every time and I love it.
The bad:
Too much politics
CU acting like complete morons. I can accept one person doing stupid mistake but organisation that successfully led humanity for few hundred years colle ...more

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Aug 05, 2015 Ivan rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fi

Book started off slowly.Initially It's mostly about misadventures of cutoff colony but somewhere around half of the book there is a point where "shit gets real" and book reverts to that fast paced space opera we all know and love.

First half: 3 stars.Slow but necessary.

Second half: 5 stars.Best part of the series, when things got going I couldn't put it down.

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May 04, 2015 Stuart rated it liked it

Shelves: galaxy-spanning, alien-contact, military-sf

The Last Colony is the third installment of the Old Man’s War series by John Scalzi, and will probably be my last visit to Scalzi world. I really enjoyed Old Man’s War, as it had the perfect blend of a sympathetic and wise-cracking main character, intriguing concept (recruiting 75 year olds with the promise of powerful new military bodies to fight aliens threatening humanity), basic training with the new bodies, first combat, and an exciting finale.

However, with each successive book I’m learning The Last Colony is the third installment of the Old Man’s War series by John Scalzi, and will probably be my last visit to Scalzi world. I really enjoyed Old Man’s War, as it had the perfect blend of a sympathetic and wise-cracking main character, intriguing concept (recruiting 75 year olds with the promise of powerful new military bodies to fight aliens threatening humanity), basic training with the new bodies, first combat, and an exciting finale.

However, with each successive book I’m learning just how weak Scalzi’s descriptive powers are, and while he certainly has a breezy narrative style and refreshing sense of humor, it is starting to wear thin on me since the stories lack the fresh ideas and precise pacing of the initial book. This problem was especially apparent in Redshirts, which had a great idea (what if you found yourself as one of those unfortunate redshirt-wearing ensigns destined for a horrible death in Star Trek) but got tiresome towards the end.

This time John Perry and Jane Sagan have retired to an ostensibly uneventful life on the colony Huckleberry as an ombudsman and head of security. Guess what, aparrently the Colonial Defense Forces are not done with them, or their adopted daughter Zoe Boutin. They get dragged into being in charge of a new colony made up of 10 planet’s representatives, which is like being a kindergarten cop. Then the CDF plays a switcheroo on the colonists, and they become pawns in a chess match between the CDF and the alien Conclave on a world called Roanoke.

It’s not worth detailing the remaining plot details, but suffice to say that Scalzi has to pull out increasingly unlikely scenarios from his hat to keep the action centered on this family. Is it really plausible that an entire Conclave of 412 hostile alien races cannot get their act together to beat into submission a single colony of 2,500 settlers who are basically unarmed civilians? And does it really make sense that the alien Obin would commit their race to protecting the daughter of the human traitor who granted them consciousness? Not to mention the dubious plot device of passing on military-grade combat strength and skills to someone by slipping something into their food? I wasn’t buying that one.

To sum up, John Scalzi has a pretty reliable formula for churning out entertaining military SF, and he tries to vary it from book to book, but I don't think I can gain anything further by reading more of his output, with so many other books clamoring to be read. Not to worry though, I’m sure he’ll do just fine without me. ...more

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Jul 15, 2008 Jason Pettus rated it liked it

(My full review of this book is much longer than Goodreads' word-count limitations. Find the entire essay at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

Regular readers will know that I've found myself in a special situation this month, because of accidentally getting my hands on a total of eight out of the twelve science-fiction novels nominated this year for either the Hugo or Philip K Dick award; today's review is the sixth of that series*, with the rest of them found ...more

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Oct 23, 2014 Jim rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi, 2fiction, 3series, 1paper

An excellent end to the trilogy starting with "Old Man's War" & continued in "The Ghost Brigades". The first mainly follows Perry, the second Sagan & this one, the third, both. The style is reminiscent of Heinlein's best, before he got weird in the 70's, & without all the philosophizing. Just an excellent story in an interesting universe.

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Jul 22, 2009 Stephen rated it really liked it

Shelves: sf-space-opera, award-nominee-hugo, award-nominee-locus, multiple-award-nominee, ebooks, signed-first-or-limited-edition, audiobook

4.0 to 4.5 stars. Another excellent installment of this very good space opera series by John Scalzi. Well thought out plot, great characters and outstanding world-building.

Nominee: Hugo Award Best Novel (2008)
Nominee: Locus Award Best SF Novel (2008)

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Jun 04, 2013 Fred Hughes rated it really liked it

John Scalzi continues in his Old Man’s War series with The Last Colony.

Our main characters are John Perry (ex Colonial Defense Forces soldier) , Jane Sagan (ex Colonial Defense Soldier) and their adopted daughter Zoe (whose real Dad tried to kill humanity).

John and Jane have been chosen to lead 2500 citizens to form a colony on the planet Roanoke. It is uninhabited and with a little work can support humans.

But the universe is a tough place and habitable planets are in demand by many different ...more

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Jun 21, 2009 Kelly rated it really liked it

The Last Colony starts out a little slow, what saved it for me was Scalzi's writing, particularly his humor which buoyed me along until the action started. Typically, the action wasn't far behind and of a different nature than you're lead to believe from the book description. There is the usual dirty dealing from the Colonial Union vs. Interstellar machinations, this time in the form of the Conclave.

What I particularly enjoyed was how John Perry was consistently pissed off enough to implement hi ...more

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Jan 22, 2014 Alex Ristea rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: library, mmpb, series, science-fiction

Mr. Scalzi, you inspire me to read more science fiction.

Now, I'm not so well-read in sci-fi, so you'll pardon me for saying that this is a damn cool take on space colonization! Many things were learned—and more importantly—my imagination was piqued.

I think the tighter first person POV was an improvement over the previous novel, and we traded action for politics, which was a nice change of pace.

Do you have any recommendations for other books I should try?

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Oct 30, 2015 James rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, old-mans-war, i-own-ebook

The third and final book in the Old Man's War trilogy (that was until Scalzi's publisher offered him a nice bag of money to write the fourth and fifth books). With this third novel Scalzi opts for a change of pace. Instead of the Colonial Defence Force, of Old Man's War, or the Special Forces, of The Ghost Brigade, our eighty-eight year old hero John Perry (ex-CDF and now transplanted back into a much younger looking human body) and Jane Sagan (his former dead wife whose DNA was used as the basi The third and final book in the Old Man's War trilogy (that was until Scalzi's publisher offered him a nice bag of money to write the fourth and fifth books). With this third novel Scalzi opts for a change of pace. Instead of the Colonial Defence Force, of Old Man's War, or the Special Forces, of The Ghost Brigade, our eighty-eight year old hero John Perry (ex-CDF and now transplanted back into a much younger looking human body) and Jane Sagan (his former dead wife whose DNA was used as the basis for a child super-soldier who has been transplanted into an older looking human body) who, back together as husband and wife, have adopted the daughter of the crazy baddie, Charles Boutin, from the The Ghost Brigades (who also just happens to be revered as a near-god by an alien species) and are now living out their retirement on a colony called Huckleberry. Perry is the colony ombudsman – sorting out disputes and liaising with the Colonial Union; Sagan is the police force; and Zoë, their daughter, spends her time being shadowed by two Obin who she's named Hickory and Dickory – they don't seem to mind.

Of course, it doesn't stay this way for long. Even before the end of chapter one Scalzi has thrown some green CDF soldiers back into the mix and Perry and Sagan are being asked to lead up a whole new type of colony. One made from a cross-section of representatives of other colonies rather than people directly from Earth. This new colony is to be called Roanoke. Which if you have any idea of the history of American colonisation (or even if you've just seen a few episodes of the TV series Sleepy Hollow) will immediately start setting off alarm bells. It's like calling your ship Titanic. Of course it all goes wrong, and all the colonists disappear. But the colonists are just pawns in a battle between the CDF and the Conclave: a collective of alien species who've agreed to band together and mandate (and enforce) a no new colonies directive. As the human race isn't part of this group (heck the Colonial Union have kept it secret from them all) it's trying to colonise on the sly. Leaving Perry, Sagan and the colonists at the sharp end of things with barely any idea what they've been dropped into.

It's good to get to the end of a trilogy and actually have an author tie up all those loose ends and hints that he's been leaving all over the place. We get to find out all about the Conclave, we get to meet a Gameran (called Stross no less), and of course, being stuck in the middle, Perry and Sagan have to kick human and alien butt to bring them all a little closer to their senses. Having called this the end of the series though, Scalzi wrote another version of this story from Zoë's point of view two years later, and an experiment in serial fiction in the same universe in 2013. Obviously they've both been added to my to-read lists... ...more

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Jun 08, 2012 Dorothea rated it did not like it · review of another edition

I found The Last Colony really disappointing compared to Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades. Here's why:

1. The first two books got a lot of their structure from the military training that their protagonists, John Perry and Jared Dirac. The process of learning new skills and ways of thinking also made Perry and Dirac interesting characters. The Last Colony doesn't have any training; Perry is the protagonist again and he does have to adapt to a new career as the administrator of a new colony, bu ...more

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Sep 01, 2012 David Sven rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

In The Last Colony we are reunited with John Perry and Jane Sagan from the previous books. In return for Jane’s silence regarding the events of book 2, Jane and John have their consciousness transferred back into human bodies to start a new married life on one of the colonies, on the planet Huckleberry. That would be the one with the moons called Sawyer and Becky. Apparently the original colonists had a Twain fetish. Anyway, they adopt Zoe, Charles Boutin’s daughter from book 2, and the story pi In The Last Colony we are reunited with John Perry and Jane Sagan from the previous books. In return for Jane’s silence regarding the events of book 2, Jane and John have their consciousness transferred back into human bodies to start a new married life on one of the colonies, on the planet Huckleberry. That would be the one with the moons called Sawyer and Becky. Apparently the original colonists had a Twain fetish. Anyway, they adopt Zoe, Charles Boutin’s daughter from book 2, and the story picks up some eight years later.

It all sounds like Utopian bliss, and so it is at the start, but we didn’t turn the front cover to go tiptoeing through the tulips. We want to go blow stuff up. So it’s not long before our two ex soldiers get a visit from their past, offering them a chance to found and administer a new experimental seed colony derived from 10 different planets in the Colonial Union. A CDF General showing up to offer a new holiday destination should have been enough warning that all is not going to be as it seems. And it isn’t and things turn south from unknown dangers on the new planet’s surface to the threat of humanity’s extinction.

This book goes a lot more into the politics of the Colonial Union and its enemies. We learn more about The Conclave which we were introduced to as an emerging threat in book 2. We also learn more about the relationship between various human factions like The Special Forces, Regular CDF, and The Department of Colonisation.
One of the more interesting relationships in the book I thought was between Zoe and the Obin race. The Obin we know from the previous book are the alien race who had intelligence imposed on them by the Consu but were left without consciousness. In return for peace, The Colonial Union agree to complete Charles Boutin’s revolutionary work on Obin consciousness and the Obin are fitted with consciousness implants that they can turn on and off. Zoe is virtually worshipped by an entire alien culture as the daughter of the man who worked to bring consciousness to the Obin. She is assigned two permanent Obin bodyguards, Hickory and Dickory, who’s mandate is to both protect Zoe as well as record her life for posterity so all the Obin can share in the wonder of Zoe. Being a teenager, the Obin Goddess naturally has boy troubles which Hickory and Dickory offer to solve in some visceral fashion. They are still learning how to joke, so no, I don’t think they were practicing humour.

I was a little disappointed that the Consu were not explored further in this book. This was supposed to be the last book in the series so I feel that there were ideas in book one that just weren’t followed through as much as I would have liked. Another book did end up following titled Zoe's Tale so I look forward to reading that next and who knows, maybe the Consu will feature more. I expect the Obin will be developed further so I look forward to seeing how that develops.

4 stars
...more

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Jan 22, 2013 Pedro António rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, 2013-read

(3.5 stars rounded down)

After thoroughly enjoying The Ghost Brigades I was really curious to see where Scalzi would take us next in this universe.

I really liked the idea of focusing on the intricacies of getting a colony running and think that was implemented mostly without flaws ((view spoiler)), but I don't feel that the book as a whole is as good as the previous two.
The second part of ...more

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Jun 04, 2008 Kristin rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, hugo-nominee

The Last Colony is book three in a series that follows John Perry and Jane Sagan, former Colonial Defence Forces, ret., and former Special Forces for the Colonial Union, ret. They have been living on a established colony world for several years and are now approached by CDF to be leaders of a new colonial expansion. After some consideration, they agree.

After the ship arrives in orbit around Roanoke, they realize something is not right. From there, events quickly spiral downhill as they find out ...more

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Oct 04, 2015 Tanner rated it really liked it

Once again John Scalzi continues to impress me with this series. It is set almost eight years into the future from the last time we heard from John Perry. Meaning that Mr. Perry is now 80 years old.

You follow three main characters once again. They are John, Jane, and Zoe. And there family dynamic was one of the things that made this book so enjoyable to me. Because this was the first time we got to see them all together.

This book is about taking a trip to the colony that they need to settle on ...more

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Aug 15, 2015 Krbo rated it really liked it

Povratak dide Perryja u akciju - je da ga vratiše u "obično" tijelo kao i gospođu no ne može imati mira mada se mislio skrasiti u miru nakon obavljene vojne službe.

Perry mu je očito omiljeni lik - čim ga je vratio Scalzi je opet uključio britki humor i živahne dijaloge.

Dosta bolji dojam od #2 - jaka četvorka i preporuka odlične zabave

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Apr 14, 2016 Panagiotis rated it liked it

Ο Σκάλζι συνεχίζει την διαστημικότατη, sci-fi σειρά του στον τρίτο τόμο. Για όσους δεν ξέρουν, ας κάνω μια επανάληψη: περιπέτεια, χιούμορ, απολαυστικές sci-fi ιδέες. Επιπλέον, διάλογοι χαριτωμένοι έως και διασκεδαστικοί, και χαρακτήρες που σκιαγραφούνται κυρίως μέσα από πράξεις και λόγια, παρά από την συνήθη, σε περιπέτειες, παρεμβατική και προσβλητική για τη νοημοσύνη του αναγνώστη, αμετροέπεια του συγγραφέα.

Στον τρίτο του τόμο ο Σκάλζι, έχει την μυθολογία του πια έτοιμη: sci-fi ιδέες, σύμπαν, Ο Σκάλζι συνεχίζει την διαστημικότατη, sci-fi σειρά του στον τρίτο τόμο. Για όσους δεν ξέρουν, ας κάνω μια επανάληψη: περιπέτεια, χιούμορ, απολαυστικές sci-fi ιδέες. Επιπλέον, διάλογοι χαριτωμένοι έως και διασκεδαστικοί, και χαρακτήρες που σκιαγραφούνται κυρίως μέσα από πράξεις και λόγια, παρά από την συνήθη, σε περιπέτειες, παρεμβατική και προσβλητική για τη νοημοσύνη του αναγνώστη, αμετροέπεια του συγγραφέα.

Στον τρίτο του τόμο ο Σκάλζι, έχει την μυθολογία του πια έτοιμη: sci-fi ιδέες, σύμπαν, χαρακτήρες, διαπλεκόμενα συμφέρονται είναι ένας καμβάς πάνω στον οποίο ξετυλίγει τον πιο περιπετειώδη από τους τρεις τόμους. Ο αναγνώστης θα βρει πάλι τον Τζον Πέρι του πρώτου τόμου. Έναν χαρακτήρα που πέραν του σαρκασμού του, είναι ο μέσος τύπος. Δεν είναι ο πιο ικανός, δεν είναι ο πιο δυνατός. Μα τελικά αυτός είναι ο αρχηγός της αποίκησης στον πλανήτη Ρόανοκ, αυτός έχει την ωραία, ματσό γκόμενα. Κερδίζει και τον αναγνώστη, αυτοσαρκάζεται, χρησιμοποιεί το μυαλό του. Κοινώς; Μπεστερ-ικός όσο δεν παίρνει. Μα η αγάπη του Σκάλζι για τον εξαιρετικό "μέντορά" του είναι έκδηλη, γνωστή τοις πάσι.

Το βιβλίο δεν είναι κακό. Απεναντίας, ως αυτόνομο βιβλίο, είναι ένα βιβλίο που ξεχωρίζει ανάμεσα σε περιπέτειες του σωρού που κατακλύζουν τον χώρο. Ωστόσο, ως μέρος μιας σειράς, ως διάδοχος δύο πάρα πολύ καλών βιβλίων, που αναζωογόνησαν το είδος, και δημιούργησαν απαιτήσεις και προσδοκίες - όχι, δεν στέκεται τόσο ψηλά. Διεκπεραιώνει τον στόχο του ως ένα καλογραμμένο, διασκεδαστικό βιβλίο. Ωστόσο, κάποια από τα ευρήματα του Σκάλζι που εξυπηρετούν τις ανατροπές του στα δικά μου μάτια φαντάζουν "λίγα". Ευτυχώς δεν είναι πολλές οι στιγμές ώστε να εκνευριστώ. Ωστόσο είναι αρκετό ώστε να το κατατάξω χαμηλότερα από τα άλλα δύο.

Κλείνοντας, να πω πως κάπου διάβασα πως ο Σκάλζι δεν καταπιάνεται με περιγραφές και επικεντρώνεται στους διαλόγους. Πράγμα, λέει, που έκανε τον εν λόγω αναγνώστη να μην έχει σαφή εικόνα του όλου. Ομολογώ πως δεν το είχα παρατηρήσει. Ίσως επειδή αποφεύγω συγγραφείς που βομβαρδίζουν με οπτικές αναπαραστάσεις. Ίσως επειδή έχω μάθει να διαβάζω έτσι. Όμως, έτσι είναι πράγματι. Οι περιγραφές είναι λίγες, οι διάλογοι αρκετοί, επιφορτισμένοι να μεταφέρουν μεγάλο μέρος των τεκταινόμενων. Και τα καταφέρνει πολύ καλά έτσι ο Σκάλζι. Show, dont tell; Αυτό. Και δεν είναι μόνο καλό αλλά επιπλέον κάνει την ανάγνωση των περιπετειών εύκολη και απολαυστική. ...more

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Apr 14, 2013 Jon added it · review of another edition

Recommended to Jon by: Sandi Kallas

Shelves: science-fiction, fiction, read-in-my-40s, hugo-nominee, loved-it

3.5 stars

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