The Back Channel

By: John Scalzi

Narrated by: William Dufris

Length: 47 mins

Publisher's Summary

The Conclave is a confederation of 400 alien races - many of whom would like to see the Colonial Union - and the humans inside of it - blasted to extinction. To avoid a conflict that neither side can afford, Conclave leader General Tarsem Gau appoints Hafte Sorvalh to resolve an emerging diplomatic crisis with the humans, before the only acceptable solution is war.

"The Back Channel" is a tale from John Scalzi's The Human Division, a series of self-contained but interrelated short stories set in the Old Man's War universe.

Listen to the complete edition of The Human Division, the fifth full-length book by John Scalzi in the Old Man's War universe.

©2012 John Scalzi (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

too many downloads

story is generally interesting. having to download individual chapters is annoying. the audible reader makes it tough to figure out which is next if you download them all at once.

1 person found this helpful

The Conclave Side in this Episode

In this episode you listen to the Conclave and what decision they are going to take... I'm not liking the length of each episode , i believe it would have been better if they are a bit longer.
But here you get to know some technologies and the human division getting bigger and bigger.

Lets see what the next episodes will bring.

2 people found this helpful

See Review for "The B-Team"

See Review for "The B-Team" this is Episode 6 (minimum 15 words in a Review)

Good but not his best

The Human Division is another chapter in the saga of Old Man's War, which is a hit and miss series. This one is somewhere in the middle. Good humor, middling characters, overall engaging writing, and convoluted plot.

I'm giving it a rock-bottom overall score due to the fact that this is not the version you should get. Pick up the final full book, not these expensive piece meal episodes.

Listen to them all!

I enjoyed the series more as I went through each episode. At first I struggled because it seemed like random stories set in this universe. But as it continued and I realized it was interwoven story lines I enjoyed them more. The main characters were enjoyable. It's pretty traditional sci fi fare but still worth the read.

There's Hope!

Good read with steady building intrigue! Interesting how the author broke up the story, but hey, I brought it! You?

A little detour from the B-Team

(Continuing my running editorial from Eps 1-5.)

I'm still hanging on. But I do still miss the character development that a novel has more "room" to do than in a short story serial. This one continues the plot line ("the plot is thickening," as they say) but I find myself not caring as much for some of the characters introduced in this series than I did for those I "grew up" with in the Old Man's War series.

Anyway, I'm invested: On to Episode 7.

1 person found this helpful

Not a good standalone story

This is Episode 6 of the Human Division series. Scalzi has apparently divided what could have been one book into multiple separate episodes. I don't understand that logic, as the episodes don't stand alone unless you're a fan of a very short plot with a flimsy leave-you-wondering type of ending. Hopefully the weak connection between the episodes will build with each coming episode and culminate in an interesting finale.

VERY GOOD!

As short stories go, This is a very good one. So far this seems to be a great saga.

1 person found this helpful

Aliens, Churros, and Exploding Goats

Another episode away from the B-Team, but by the end, I was okay with it. This story focuses on Hafte Sorvalh of the Conclave, and it was fun to see her shine - particularly when she heads to the racist wildcat colony and explodes goats. I'd buy her a churro too.

William Dufris must've had fun with this one, reading aliens and doing crazy racist bits. I think this episode was one I wouldn't have enjoyed as much if I had read, so hat's off again to Dufris!

1 person found this helpful

Great short story

This is a great short story, in a collection of intertwined short stories.

I will look for more title by this author.

Excellent!

The best chapter so far! When I started hearing "The Human Division" I was not convinced. Now I can't stop... ;-))