Sunday, March 6, 2016

Scalzi, John (The End of All Things)

This purports, and seems to follow through, on its claim that it is the final Old Man's War book. At least in the current spate of Colonial Forces - Conclave - Earth novels. I'm pleased with the ending; it is neither foregone nor depressing.

Which doesn't mean I'm pleased with all four novellas in this latest volume. (Novellas, short stories, you decide.) The first one felt like I'd read it all before - either by Scalzi or by someone with even more caché to his name - and I was, in fact, confused as to whether I'd read this book already. If I were Scalzi, that comment would give me pause. I mean, he did give us two renderings of the same Old Man's War story before (meaning he reaped money for both renderings) so you understand my confusion and my concern that this was happening yet again.

That particular story had a satisfying ending, but the noodling throughout was dull-o-rama. The rest of the stories were quite good, especially the last one. But, if you've never read a Scalzi book, you better know two things - they are chock full of a) sarcasm and b) political meanderings. In fact, don't get caught up in the sarcasm, because if you do, you'll lose track of where you are in the political meanderings and then, oh boy, you're in trouble.

Anyway, all told, this was enjoyable in a completely Scalzi way, and consequently I had a good time reading it (well, 80% of it).

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