The End of All Things

Old Man's War, Book 6

By: John Scalzi

Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert, William Dufris, John Scalzi

Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

Hugo Award-winning author John Scalzi returns to his best-selling Old Man's War universe with The End of All Things, the direct sequel to 2013's The Human Division.

Humans expanded into space...only to find a universe populated with multiple alien species bent on their destruction. Thus was the Colonial Union formed, to help protect us from a hostile universe. The Colonial Union used the Earth and its excess population for colonists and soldiers. It was a good arrangement...for the Colonial Union. Then the Earth said: no more.

Now the Colonial Union is living on borrowed time - a couple of decades at most before the ranks of the Colonial Defense Forces are depleted and the struggling human colonies are vulnerable to the alien species who have been waiting for the first sign of weakness to drive humanity to ruin. And there's another problem: a group, lurking in the darkness of space, playing human and alien against each other - and against their own kind - for their own unknown reasons.

In this collapsing universe, CDF Lieutenant Harry Wilson and the Colonial Union diplomats he works with race against the clock to discover who is behind attacks on the Union and on alien races, to seek peace with a suspicious, angry Earth, and to keep humanity's union intact...or else risk oblivion and extinction - and the end of all things.

©2015 John Scalzi (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Tavia Gilbert and William Dufris are disarmingly genial as they trade off narrating chapters. Gilbert, in particular, manages to convey a bird-like alien perfectly in her section, and Dufris is fully believable even as a disembodied brain in control of a spaceship." ( AudioFile)

Tavia Gilbert clearly doesnt read the book first.

Tavia Gilbert messes up words, mispronounced words and even character names. A great example is when she says that someone should receive a CONDEMNATION for bravery. The story itself is engaging, but Ms Gilbert's performance is frequently distractingly bad. It's unfortunate that some of this wasnt caught in editing and redone.

Not quite as good as the others

A little disorganized I thought, but still a good book. William Dufris is an outstanding narrator. I was not as impressed by Tavia Gilbert.

A continuation of the old man's war series .

This is a must read of the old man's war series . I highly recommend it .

Good Old Man's War story, narrator change problem

Would you listen to The End of All Things again? Why?

Yes. It is a very good installment for the Old Man's War series. The only thing that threw me off a was Tavia Gilbert's portrait of male characters (specially Harry Wilson). Her female characters were good enough.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The End of All Things?

All the first part (The Life of the Mind). Rafe Daguin is an excelente character the part from his point of view is awesome.

What aspect of the narrators’s performance would you have changed?

Tavia Gilbert's portrait or male characters isn't good at all. Her female characters are good. You could not differentiate her male characters and she simply removed all personality from Harry Wilson, one of the best characters from the last 2 books, turning him into a stereotypical, dry and unlikeable character.

Any additional comments?

Even though Tavia`s narration created an unrecognizable Harry Wilson (she only narrates on part of the book), the book itself is very good and worth the read (or listen), but beware you do need to have read the 5 previous books to properly enjoy this one. I can`t wait for the next installment in the series.

Not nearly as good as the first.

The first section of the book is pretty good, then the 2nd section is not good, it eats mind-numbing, lots of she said & he said and they said which I dislike immensely. The second second brings in a female narrator which makes it hard to keep in mind that most of the characters she's reading are male, she does not change her voice like other narrators. If the narrator isn't going to get into the reading then how can I?!
I do not recommend this book and I'm actually disappointed that I will now be in search for another series.

disappointed overall

As ends go this one was a fizzle. I don't know what I expected, but this wasn't it.

great book. half great narration

william dufris narration was great as usual. tavia gilbert narration almost ruined the book for me so badly that i was really thinking about refunding the book halfway through. luckily she only narrated 1/3 of the book.

thanks John

Scalzi never fails to amaze and enthrall his audience with his beautiful vision of humanity's exciting and dangerous future. This is a brilliant ender to the incredible "Old Man's War" series.

Takes some getting used to, but good

The reviews had me worried, but I did like it.

I started listening to this book right after listening to the human division. I often need some time to get used to changes, and the narration of William Dufris sounded different enough that I wondered if it was still him. And then halfway through the book they switched narrators again. I had to stop listening for a while. Still, in both cases I got used to the changes and still enjoyed the way the story played out.

It's darker than the previous books. I kind of miss how lighthearted the dark material was described in the first book. Some of that is still around, but it's a bit edgier.

great characters and storyline

Scalzi writes dialog like a conversation with a friend in a universe of fantastic characters and gripping plots. This book is a great exclamation mark at the end of the old man's war novels.