The Last Colony
by John Scalzi
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Book Summary Information
Author: John ScalziEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-04-17
ISBN: 0765316978
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Tor Books
Book Reviews of The Last Colony
Book Review: "This planet smells like an armpit."
Summary: 4 Stars
As a sci-fi novelist, John Scalzi has come a long way in a very short time. No, he doesn't yet have a lot of novels under his belt, having just had his debut book OLD MAN'S WAR published in 2005. But he's already amassed serious cred and clout and an enviable fan following. Personally I count Scalzi as an author just one tier below Bujold, Cherryh, and Weber. But he's climbing fast. The man just keeps on churning out the good books. Case in point: With the very good THE LAST COLONY, John Scalzi closes out his excellent trilogy begun with Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades and reacquaints us with that old fogey John Perry and his arse-kicking ex-Special Forces sweetheart Jane Sagan.
The setting: THE LAST COLONY returns us to a far future in which intelligent alien races are many, habitable planets are few, and competition for colonization is fierce and downright ugly. So when humanity throws in its two cents, well, extraterrestrial noses (or whatever) get bent out of shape and things get fractious.
Plot SPOILERS begin.
The plot: Years ago John Perry and Jane Sagan gave up their super-augmented bodies and retired from the CDF (Colony Defense Forces). Their consciousness having been transferred to more human forms, they've since gotten married, adopted the daughter of a treasonous genius scientist, and have settled on the backwater planet of Huckleberry. It's a humdrum farming existence which would last for 8 peaceful, contented years. This ends when John and Jane are asked by the CDF to act as leaders of the colonization of the planet Roanoke (history buffs will know that naming a venture like this "Roanoke" isn't exactly good karma).
John and Jane don't say no, and soon they find themselves travelling in a colony ship with their teenaged daughter Zoe, her two Obin minders, and a seed population of twenty-five hundred colonists hailing from ten long-established human worlds. But things shockingy go wrong when the colony ship is sabotaged and ends up orbiting an unfamiliar and hostile planet. Wait - it gets worse. It's not enough that the lost colony is now forced to eke out a desperate survival on a strange planet, having to make do with primitive equipment and with the colonists suddenly being hunted by frightening monsters. It's not enough that the colony then finds itself the object of an all-out manhunt (colony hunt?) by the Conclave, a powerful consortium of alien worlds which had banned colonizing by non-members. On top of that, the Perrys are further rocked by the realization that the Roanoke colony may actually be nothing more than a soon-to-be-discarded pawn in some long range scheme of the Colonial Defense Forces.
Scalzi weaves in a lot of dirty, holier-than-thou politics and worldview manipulation in this series, and he makes it all compelling and key to the story arc. The CDF - in its worthwhile goal of furthering humanity to the stars - has overreached itself. It dawns on John and Jane that their worst enemies just might be lurking from somewhere on their side. And when John Perry finally has had enough of being manipulated and effed with and decides to do something about the dirty laundry, well, what he comes up with is a thing of beauty.
SPOILERS end.
John Scalzi has stated that, while he may return to this particular universe, this is the last he'll write of John Perry and Jane Sagan. If that's true (and you never know), then it's a very good send-off indeed. THE LAST COLONY isn't as action-packed as OLD MAN'S WAR and THE GHOST BRIGADES, but it's thought-provoking and thrilling and it draws you in. And, when called for, it's certainly action-packed enough. A familiarity with the two prior books isn't necessary as Scalzi does a good job of filling in the blanks for new readers. But if you've read the other books, this one will resonate even more.
The thing about this book (and this trilogy, really) is that, underneath all the hard hitting special effects and gut-churning action and well-fleshed-out world building, it's still all about the characters. THE LAST COLONY may take place in the far future and involve sundry alien races and jaw-dropping technological advances, but Scalzi populates this universe with characters who are recognizable and all too human. And complex. In the beginning of the book, I made ready assumptions regarding Perry's very political chief rival, and that character arc didn't at all go the way I expected. Same goes for the leader of the alien Conclave. And so it goes with other characters. The awesome Jane Sagan, who appears in all three books, is a fascinating character, a clone forever questioning her humanity even as she kicks righteous booty. Zoe, John and Jane's fiercely loyal adopted teen, is simply marvelous. The snarky Savitri, John and Jane's right hand woman, also got to me. As for John Perry, I loved him in OLD MAN'S WAR and he doesn't let me down here. A superb protagonist in possession of insight, a dry wit, a moral compass, and a great humanity. If I were caught up in the dire crappola in which the Roanoke colonists found themselves, I would want someone like Perry to call the shots. And someone like Jane Sagan to back him up.
If you happen to enjoy these three books and if you aren't aware of this yet, you might want to also look up The Sagan Diary, a novella which is sort of a cousin to this trilogy. Although, truth to tell, THE SAGAN DIARY isn't as much a novella as it is a series of diary entries written by Jane Sagan as she makes personal observations regarding war, humanity, love, etc. It's interesting stuff. Another book to look forward to is the upcoming Zoe's Tale (I'm assuming this one's about Zoe Perry). Lastly, the only disgruntlement worth mentioning about THE LAST COLONY is that Scalzi seems to have forgetten (or forsaken?) the original and quite scary Roanoke natives. What happened to them?
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