Zoe's Tale

Old Man's War, Book 4

By: John Scalzi

Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert

Length: 10 hrs

Publisher's summary

How do you tell your part in the biggest tale in history?

I ask because it's what I have to do. I'm Zoe Boutin Perry: A colonist stranded on a deadly pioneer world. Holy icon to a race of aliens. A player (and a pawn) in a interstellar chess match to save humanity, or to see it fall. Witness to history. Friend. Daughter. Human. Seventeen years old.

Everyone on Earth knows the tale I am part of. But you don't know my tale: How I did what I did—how I did what I had to do—not just to stay alive but to keep you alive, too. All of you. I'm going to tell it to you now, the only way I know how: not straight but true, the whole thing, to try make you feel what I felt: the joy and terror and uncertainty, panic and wonder, despair and hope. Everything that happened, bringing us to Earth, and Earth out of its captivity. All through my eyes.

It's a story you know. But you don't know it all.

©2008 John Scalzi (P)2008 Macmillan Audio

Great Story but bad pronunciation consistancy.

Great story but the pronunciation of alien Races and character names were not consistent with the previous books. It was kinda frustrating trying to translate the names in my head constantly.

Incredible writing

It's extremely impressive that Scalzi can write a book covering the same story as the previous book, but make it just as interesting by shifting the perspective.

Zoe's tale was great. And the narrator was great too. only thing making me give 4 stars instead of 5 is pronunciation consistency, which is a pet peeve of mine.

Across books, production should do more work to ensure pronunciation is consistent.

A few examples:
the Rraey
Whaid
Ombudsman

The two most glaring though we're General Gau (she pronounces as "Go") and the character's own last name Boutin. It seems like more care should have been taken to ensure there weren't differences for such frequent and important words.

Again, I know it's a very minor complaint. But it can be jarring when going from the previous book to this one.

Very Different

Scalzi normally strikes me like the Die Hard or Mission Impossible movie. Not this time. This time the story is filled with interesting even compelling insights on being a person and how people live and love together. Thank you—I am glad I heard this story and hope to hear more from Zoe.

Surprised by insightful use of perspective

I enjoyed but versions if this same narrative framework. I look forward to read more from the author.

Not What I Expected

What made the experience of listening to Zoe's Tale the most enjoyable?

I did not think I would be interested in a teenage girl's point of view. It was very interesting. I am surprised it worked so well.

Which scene was your favorite?

When she saved the general from Assasination.

nice to see her perspective

it was nice to get the background events that only zoe knew about. it added a lot to the story, a lot that was fairly vital. I liked learning about the Oban, and the behind the scenes negotiations. enjoyed it a lot.

Glad I listened

At first I was disappointed that I would just be hearing a retelling of the previous book. But this book added a lot of missing plot points. I am glad I listened.

Made the shortlist of great books that made me cry

This book was weird because it covered the same timeline as the last Old Man's War book, just from another character's perspective. I've never seen a book so that that wasn't done with interleaved chapters. It might not always work, but it did this time.
The lady reading it used different pronunciation from the last books for some of the alien species, and that was a little twitchy for me. However, it didn't kill the story.
I found a copy of the Belong poem from this book and emailed it to my husband. We both sobbed. It was wonderful.

Love the book; frustrated by the performance

How did the narrator detract from the book?

What I am about to say is nit picky but here it goes. I have listen to the previous books in this series and had become a custom to the pronunciations of the Rraey, Eneshan, and Zoe Boutin. Each time the narrator spoke the words with a different pronunciation I was knock out of the story and my brain sought out the "correct pronunciations". I know how petty this sound and I apologize. I just wounded what goes through the processors head when he/she produces a beloved series. You would have thought they might want to check the pronunciation of the previous narrator.

had me laughing, had me crying

The VO performance changes a lot of pronunciations from the main series, but is solid. The text is wonderful and memorable. This is now my favorite in the series for bringing everything together from a new perspective.