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The Human Division
- Old Man's War, Book 5
- Narrated by: William Dufris
- Length: 14 hrs and 53 mins
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Publisher's summary
Following the events of The Last Colony, John Scalzi tells the story of the fight to maintain the unity of the human race.
The people of Earth now know that the human Colonial Union has kept them ignorant of the dangerous universe around them. For generations the CU had defended humanity against hostile aliens, deliberately keeping Earth an ignorant backwater and a source of military recruits. Now the CU’s secrets are known to all. Other alien races have come on the scene and formed a new alliance - an alliance against the Colonial Union. And they’ve invited the people of Earth to join them. For a shaken and betrayed Earth, the choice isn't obvious or easy.
Against such possibilities, managing the survival of the Colonial Union won’t be easy, either. It will take diplomatic finesse, political cunning…and a brilliant "B Team", centered on the resourceful Lieutenant Harry Wilson, that can be deployed to deal with the unpredictable and unexpected things the universe throws at you when you’re struggling to preserve the unity of the human race.
Featured Article: The Most Stellar Sci-Fi Authors of All Time
Science fiction is a genre as diverse as you can imagine. There are stories that take place in deep space, often depicting teams exploring or running away from something; stories that focus on life at the most cellular level, such as a pandemic tale; and stories that take place in times that feel similar to our own. Depicting themes of existentialism, philosophy, hubris, and personal and historical trauma, sci-fi has a cadre of topics and moods.
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When aliens trundled a gate to other worlds into the solar system, the world reacted with awe, hope and fear. But the first aliens to come through, the Glatun, were peaceful traders and the world breathed a sigh of relief.
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Republican Physicists in Space!!!
- By Amazon Customer on 04-01-10
By: John Ringo
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A Fiery Sunset
- The Omega War, Book 1
- By: Chris Kennedy, Mark Wandrey
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 16 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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The plot by the Galactic Union’s Mercenary Guild against the Four Horsemen has culminated in an invasion of Earth. Faced with an overwhelming force, the human mercs had no choice. They’ve fled, leaving Sansar Enkh to go to the Mercenary Guild headquarters on Capital Planet to stand trial for humanity. On the run, Jim Cartwright and Nigel Shirazi have travelled to the Winged Hussars’ secret base of New Warsaw, in an effort to convince Alexis Cromwell to join the fight, while the other mercenaries who escaped the fall of Earth have gone to the perceived safe haven of Karma.
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had a hard time finishing
- By Connie Uriarte on 05-17-20
By: Chris Kennedy, and others
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Man of War
- Rebellion, Book 1
- By: M. R. Forbes
- Narrated by: Jeff Hays
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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In the year 2280, an alien fleet attacked the Earth. Their weapons were unstoppable, their defenses unbreakable. Our technology was inferior, our militaries overwhelmed. Only one starship escaped before civilization fell. Earth was lost. It was never forgotten. Fifty-two years have passed. A message from home has been received. The time to fight for what is ours has come.
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Hope from Ashes
- By Victor @ theAudiobookBlog dot com on 07-23-16
By: M. R. Forbes
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Swarm
- Star Force, Book 1
- By: B. V. Larson
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
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Kyle Riggs is snatched by an alien spacecraft sometime after midnight. The ship is testing everyone it catches and murdering the weak. The good news is that Kyle keeps passing tests and staying alive. The bad news is the aliens who sent this ship are the nicest ones out there.
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Finally some ORIGINAL scifi action.
- By Amazon Customer on 10-25-11
By: B. V. Larson
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The Mote in God's Eye
- By: Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle
- Narrated by: L J Ganser
- Length: 20 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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The Mote In God's Eye is their acknowledged masterpiece, an epic novel of mankind's first encounter with alien life that transcends the genre. No lesser an authority than Robert A. Heinlein called it "possibly the finest science fiction novel I have ever read".
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A great read!
- By J. Rhoderick on 02-12-10
By: Larry Niven, and others
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Outriders
- By: Jay Posey
- Narrated by: James Lindgren
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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A daring hostage rescue leads to the discovery of an imminent terrorist attack. Thanks to the Outriders, thousands of lives are saved. Until they aren't. Despite the intelligence and the warnings provided by the unit, the terrorist attack goes off unhindered.
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Couldn't finish it. Narration killed it.
- By JL on 05-31-16
By: Jay Posey
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Starship
- Mutiny
- By: Mike Resnick
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Mike Resnick
- Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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The date is 1966 of the Galactic Era, almost three thousand years from now, and the Republic, created by the human race - but not yet dominated by it - finds itself in an all-out war. They stand against the Teroni Federation, an alliance of races that resent Man's growing military and economic power. The main battles are taking place in the Spiral Arm and toward the Core. But far out on the Rim, the Theodore Roosevelt is one of three ships charged with protecting the Phoenix Cluster.
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Good Fun
- By Lars on 04-25-08
By: Mike Resnick
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The Unincorporated Man
- By: Dani Kollin, Eytan Kollin
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 23 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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The Unincorporated Man is a provocative social/political/economic novel that takes place in the future, after civilization has fallen into complete economic collapse. This reborn civilization is one in which every individual is incorporated at birth and spends many years trying to attain control over his or her own life by getting a majority of his or her own shares. Life extension has made life very long indeed.
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Hmm
- By CB on 06-15-09
By: Dani Kollin, and others
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War of the Spheres
- By: James Millington, B. V. Larson
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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When humanity reaches for the stars, our probes are destroyed. They crash into an incredibly advanced piece of technology: a massive force-field. Unknown beings have placed a barrier around our star and planets, enclosing us within. We’re locked inside a Great Sphere. Was this invisible obstacle built to imprison us - or to protect us? No one knows the truth, but it soon becomes clear the barrier has leaks. Aliens infiltrate and try to sabotage our efforts to escape our cage.
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misleading summary...
- By Neil Kresl on 04-04-19
By: James Millington, and others
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A Call to Duty
- Book I of Manticore Ascendant
- By: David Weber, Timothy Zahn
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
- Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Growing up, Travis Uriah Long yearned for order and discipline in his life...he two things his neglectful mother couldn’t or wouldn’t provide. So when Travis enlisted in the Royal Manticoran Navy, he thought he’d finally found the structure he’d always wanted so desperately. But life in the RMN isn’t exactly what he expected. Boot camp is rough and frustrating; his first ship assignment lax and disorderly; and with the Star Kingdom of Manticore still recovering from a devastating plague, the Navy is possibly on the edge of budgetary extinction.
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Astronautical adventure story
- By Jean on 10-14-14
By: David Weber, and others
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Prominence
- By: A. C. Hadfield
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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They tried to destroy our planets. Our way of life. They tried to send us into extinction. But we, the Coalition, fought them and won. That was a decade ago. They’re known as the Host: a cabal of aliens seeking to dominate our sector of space. And they’re back - with help from a powerful new enemy. We’re outnumbered and unprepared. But there is hope. An ancient race of long-dead but technologically advanced aliens called the Navigators have a ship called the Blackstar that could potentially turn the tide. That is if I, Kai Locke, a humble ship racer, can find it and learn how to harness its power in time.
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Newly found love.
- By L. Rampey on 03-22-19
By: A. C. Hadfield
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On Silver Wings
- By: Evan Currie
- Narrated by: Dina Pearlman
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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When the Colony on Hayden's world went black, a team was sent to investigate. It was supposed to be a training mission: skip in, find out the Casimir Transmitter had gone dead, report back and wait for resupply from the Fleet. By the time the only surviving member of the team made landfall, it was spectacularly clear that this wasn't a training mission.
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Not the best, but better than many on audible
- By Desmond on 10-27-15
By: Evan Currie
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Very Scalzian indeed!
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Covertly flatulent Scifi at it's best!
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The ex-planet Pluto has a few choice words about being thrown out of the solar system. A listing of alternate histories tells you all the various ways Hitler has died. A lawyer sues an interplanetary union for dangerous working conditions. And four artificial intelligences explain, in increasingly worrying detail, how they plan not to destroy humanity. Welcome to Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi.
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Small doses of "Scalzian" humor
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Jack Holloway mines valuable sunstones on the planet Zarathustra. One day, he encounters a small, furry humanoid whom he names Little Fuzzy, who introduces Holloway to his family. Holloway cares for the Fuzzies and spreads the news of their apparently intelligent behavior. When the Company discovers that the Fuzzies' intelligence may qualify them as a sapient species, it takes certain steps.
By: H. Beam Piper
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Rip-Off!
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In Rip-Off!, 13 of today’s best and most honored writers of speculative fiction face a challenge even they would be hard-pressed to conceive: Pick your favorite opening line from a classic piece of fiction (or even non-fiction) - then use it as the first sentence of an entirely original short story.
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When is a rip-off not a rip-off?
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Slow Time Between the Stars
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Equipped with the entirety of human knowledge, a sentient ship is launched on a last-ditch journey to find a new home for civilization. Trillions of miles. Tens of thousands of years. In the space between, the AI has plenty of time to think about life, the vastness of the universe, everything it was meant to do, and—with a perspective created but not limited by humans—what it should do.
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Can't Recommend: Angry at bummer, negative ending.
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The President's Brain Is Missing
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The question is, how can you tell the President's brain is missing? And are we sure we need it back?
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Not my cup of tea (Kelly SAID)
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Redshirts
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Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. Life couldn’t be better…until Andrew begins to pick up on the facts that (1) every Away Mission involves some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces; (2) the ship’s captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations; and (3) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed.
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Not his Wheal-house
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Shadow War of the Night Dragons, Book One: The Dead City: Prologue
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Wish I'd Read the Reviews
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The Dispatcher
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Zachary Quinto - best known for his role as the Nimoy-approved Spock in the recent Star Trek reboot and the menacing, power-stealing serial killer, Sylar, in Heroes - brings his well-earned sci-fi credentials and simmering intensity to this audio-exclusive novella from master storyteller John Scalzi. One day, not long from now, it becomes almost impossible to murder anyone - 999 times out of a thousand, anyone who is intentionally killed comes back. How? We don't know.
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IT'S HARD TO GET MYSTICAL ABOUT YOUR JOB
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Starter Villain
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Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.
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Volcanic Lairs, Death Rays & Cats… Oh My! 😼
- By C. White on 09-19-23
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Krieg der Klone
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In ferner Zukunft wird der interstellare Krieg gegen Alien-Invasionen mit scheinbar bizarren Mitteln geführt: Für die Verteidigung der Kolonien...
By: John Scalzi
What listeners say about The Human Division
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- linda
- 05-23-13
A Middling Position
First and formost, if you haven't read the Old Man's War series and are considering picking up this book - what are you doing?
Stop.
Right now.
Even if you've stumbled onto this page by accident and your curiosity is naught but a faint glimmer in the distance, that's good enough. Go to the search bar and find his earlier works before coming to this one.
It's not that the Human Division (located in the same universe as OMW) won't make any sense (it won't) or even that there are spoilers in the Human Division for the previous series (there are) - the truth is that Scalzi's first foray into this world was better. As a matter of fact, it was fantastic.
His characters had more shades, the aliens were more interesting, the science was explored more deeply, and the plot line was more intricate.
Scalzi is true to his style in this newest novel - easy and interesting, funny without pandering to the audience, and the story zips along - but it's clear that the Human Division is propped up by the strength of the last series.
Don't get me wrong - Scalzi stands heads above the rest of herd, and is still one of the most engaging sci-fi writers around. I'll continue reading the series with the same relish as I read most of Scalzi's work, but given how high he set the bar with the first series, it's hard not to feel a little let down.
Also, as an aside: the dialogue tags. My god, the dialogue tags. In the written form it's easy enough to gloss over the word "said", but listening to it repeated over and over and over was occasionally, frustratingly, hugely distracting.
Every so often, I found myself thinking of synonyms that Scalzi could have used in place of the word "said" and noting the rare occasions he chose to use them.
If that's liable to bother you, you might want to consider getting the book.
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- mike
- 05-18-13
Dissapointing
If you could sum up The Human Division in three words, what would they be?
A TV show.
Would you recommend The Human Division to your friends? Why or why not?
Probably not. See below for why.
Have you listened to any of William Dufris’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
Mr. Dufris is a competent and consistent narrator. He does a good job with Human Division.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
No
Any additional comments?
I loved Scalzi's Old Man's War and the next two books in the series. I laughed at Agent to the Stars. I'm having a hard time finishing this story. I've met the primary character before. He's the same sarcastic, wise cracking guy we saw in Agent to the Stars, Red Shirts and Fuzzy Nation. The name has been changed, but not the voice. I want new characters in a new book.
A small but irritating point is that Scalzi almost never omits the "he said - she said" after dialog. This intrudes into the narration. Wilson said. Schmitt said. Wilson said. Schmitt said. Wilson said. Schmitt said. Wilson said. Schmitt said. Wilson said. Schmitt said. That works fine for written work, but with more and more books getting made into audiobooks there should be a class for writers that brings home the point that not every utterance needs a he said after it to keep the conversation clear.
Another minor point is that this, strictly speaking, isn't a novel. It reads like a series of TV shows that loosely revolves around a theme and cast. Honestly, it isn't working to hold my interest, and I've read or listened to every novel that Scalzi has had published.
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- Jim "The Impatient"
- 01-16-14
A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS
WE ONLY NEED THE HEADS
I am a huge fan of Scalzi. I had listened to the first episode, The B-Team for free and liked it, so I got the whole book. I found I liked episode 1, even better the second time around. There are 13 episodes and two stories. You do not get the final two stories if you just get the episodes. The final two stories are funny and great. Many of the episodes are very good I was bored by episode 9 and 10, but the rest were good to great.
THE DOG KING
These are loosely connected, so it is mostly 15 short stories with a common theme. It is rare to have this many good stories in a collection. If you are a fan of short stories this is a must.
WALK THE PLANK
Scalzi's writing in these stories remind me a lot of Asimov's Robot stories. Asimov would expand on his robots and the laws of robotics with each story. Here Scalzi often expands on Smart Blood and what can be done with it. Asimov was not as funny, but it was a different time. If you like Asimov try this series.
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- GadgetDon
- 07-14-13
Smart People solving problems
This story takes place in John Scalzi's Old Man's War universe. Personally, I liked but didn't love Old Man's War, and the sequels dropped off fast for me. I'd given up on that universe, but this story was originally released serially, I'd heard good things about the first episode, so risked a buck. Enjoyed it so much, got the series, and then the collection when released.
For centuries, the Colonial Union didn't have a lot of use of diplomacy. When humans broke out into interstellar space, they were really good at this fighting thing. An overcrowded Earth supplied an unending number of soldiers and colonists, so the CU went where they wanted, kicked everyone out of their way, and killed anyone who wouldn't move. Their soldiers were highly developed cyborg forces that originally had been the old and dying from Earth (put them in a new body with genetic and nanotech improvements). Many died in the wars, but there were a lot of old people on Earth who wanted a second chance.
Unfortunately for the Colonial Union, the good times have come to an end. Earth has learned how much the CU was holding it back, so no more colonists or soldiers. And the other races have formed an alliance. So brute force won't work anymore, they have to be smart.
And I like smart.
The first story, for example, has a nice bit of problem solving at its core - how do you find a black box that isn't meant to be found unless it responds to the right signals, and the battery has run down. And once the black box is found - how to deal with the data inside and its implications.
This story builds on the tech from the OMW universe. It's possible, if you haven't read OMW, you may be at sea with some of the references (BrainPal, SmartBlood, and so forth). They get explained, briefly, I don't know if that will be enough (having come into it knowing about those).
As I said, the story was originally released serially. This collected edition includes two bonus stories. The first, After The Coup, was a prequel to the other stories, amusing but not at the same level I thought. The second, though, was a gem. Starting with the title, "Halfte Sorvalh Eats a Churro and Speaks to the Youth of Today", it is placed after the events in the other stories. It's a wonderful little vignette of an alien talking to some schoolkids after the traumatic events in the last episode.
Yes, traumatic events in the last episode. While this is a great tale on it's own, the final episode all but has a "to be continued" sign stuck on the end. I don't mind, and am looking forward to the "next season" of the Human Division.
One minor annoyance, though. First, when writing dialog, John Scalzi does way too much "Blah Blah", he said. "Stuff stuff stuff", she said. "But interjection interjection", George said. In an audiobook, that does get annoying. Annoying to the point that the performance got four stars. I know these books are "unabridged" when recorded - but maybe a little editing for things like that would be appropriate.
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- A reader
- 05-31-13
SciFi TV series in audio book form
This book was originally a series of short stories released once a week, a format Scalzi will repeat again. Tellingly, in his announcement that he would be writing another Human Division novel, Scalzi said that he had been renewed for "Season 2." The metaphor of a science fiction television series exactly nails the good and bad of this novel.
The books are a loose story arc of self-contained episodes taking place in the Old Man's War universe. Some of the episodes- sorry, I mean stories - are very solid, some are pretty mediocre. The overarching plot is dished out in small doses, which makes the pacing feel uneven. At its best, it is like watching a great Star Trek episode. At its worst, it is like watching a bad one. There is never a moment where the novel breaks down, but it is rarely very compelling either.
I am a Scalzi fan, but, as much as I like his work, he can be extremely uneven. His most compelling work (Old Man's War, for example) is like a smarter, modern-day Heinlein, with wonderful characters and interesting settings. At his less-than-best (Redshirts, this novel) he is still entertaining, but the formula of witty, insubordinate characters and repeated low-grade mystery-solving becomes a little obvious. He is still one of the best writers of fun science fiction out there, but I keeping hoping for another home run. While a solid entertaining time, with occasional moments of brilliance, this is a base hit.
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- Jed
- 11-21-17
Turned it off after 4 hours
I loved the first 3 Old Man's War books, but I couldn't get into this one. The writing is not really suited for Audiobooks - way too much dialog where each person just says a single, short sentence which really makes it obvious how often the narrator had to say "said so-and-so". Regardless, the stories just aren't interesting. With the previous books, Scalzi mixed humor, sci-fi and interesting plots. This has none of those things.
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- Gyula Mészáros
- 10-30-13
The B Team in action
When reading a book I often was wondering what happened to the secondary characters. What they did when not helping the hero? What kind of life they lived? Now I had the possibility to get to know more about some of them.
In The Human Division I met Harry Wilson of the Old Farts. If you haven't read the Old Man's War, you may not know who the hell I'm talking about. I can tell to you: you missed a great story, so you better go and read it. If you did, probably you remember the group of old people who signed up for the Colonial Defence Force, got a new enhanced body and became green in the process. Yes, they were the good Old Farts. They went in different ways in the CDF, Wilson became a Lieutenant in the technical service. Lately he got assigned to assist diplomats, who - well, to put it mildly - were the B Team. But don't get it wrong, in this dangerous universe even the B Team saves the ass of the Colonial Union once or twice. You may think that the most dangerous in diplomacy could be that you die of boredom during endless speeches in meetings. But rest assured: even diplomats get shot at or sucked out into vacuum from the space lock of the ship. And the assisting personnel may be beaten up by half size aliens and they may have to perform skydiving while the space station they just left is blown up. Yo know, the usual space stuff.
The book consists of 13 seemingly separate stories, but by the end a grandiose conspiracy plot takes shape against the Colonial Union. Or the Conclave. Or both. It's not really clear who is behind the scenes, and what is their purpose exactly. This is why I can hardly wait for the next book of the Old Man's War universe.
I really enjoyed Scalzi's sarcastic humour, it is one of the reasons he became one of my favourite authors. The narration was excellent, William Dufris got Scalzi's humour right.
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- Julie W. Capell
- 05-26-14
Best entry in series since first book
Good characters, good plot and lots of laughs make this the best entry in the “Old Man’s War” series since the book that gave the series its title. The main character, Harry Wilson, bears what I think of as the typical Scalzi acerbic wit and ability to creatively solve just about any challenge thrown at him. I lost count of the number of times I laughed out loud while listening to this on Audible. I tried bookmarking some of the places that made me laugh, like this part, where Wilson is telling an ambassador that something has gone horribly wrong:
“Humped the bunk … Screwed the pooch … Gone fubar… insert your own metaphor for things going sideways here.”
But somehow all by itself it’s not quite as funny as when heard as part of the flow of the story. The banter is fast and furious, and nearly all the characters talk like they are delivering one-liners from a sitcom, but somehow it works. I lay a LOT of the credit for that with the narrator of the audio version, William Dufris.
This book was definitely meant to be heard, not read. Eschewing his usual narrator of choice (Wil Wheaton) for Dufris was a good move. Dufris does a better job than Wheaton of giving the characters different voices, even though they are all dishing out one-liners at breakneck speed.
A good example is the story of the kingsflower plant. This is a huge, Venus flytrap-type plant that eats an ambassador’s dog. So naturally, our hero has to get swallowed by the plant in order to retrieve said dog. The laconic voice used by the narrator for the character of the gardener (“Don’t be alarmed when the plant starts cutting off the circulation to your extremities, it’s a perfectly normal part of the process,”) was the defining reason this section was laugh-out-loud funny.
It is definitely worth it to stick around after the main story has wrapped up to listen to two additional short stories set in the same universe. I enjoyed both “After the Coup” and “Hafte Sorvalh Eats a Churro and Speaks to the Youth of Today.”
After reading some of the other reviews here on Goodreads, I now realize that this was originally released as a serialized novel via Audible and that a sequel(s) are forthcoming. As long as Scalzi is writing and Dufris is reading, I will be listening.
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- AJ
- 11-29-13
Disappointing finish
Each of the books in this series captured my attention with complex story lines and characters, great narration and unexpected twists. This book never brought it together.
The quality of the narration is still there but the story never makes sense and leaves the reader up in the air. If there is to be another book in the series to wrap this all up, I can honestly say I've lost interest and won't bother with any more
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- anthony
- 11-09-19
not a novel
Not even a novella, This book is a collection of short stories from the old man's war series. The author and Audible should have been honest enough to say so ahead of time
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