The Human Division

Old Man's War, Book 5

De: John Scalzi

Narrado por: William Dufris

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.

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

Not quite a novel, more than a set of stories

The Human Division is organized as a set of Episodes, each of them involving the B-team, a group of low level diplomats with their side-kick and Colonial Defense Forces (CDF) technical expert Harry Wilson, well known to readers of Scalzi's "Old Man's War" series. The B-team is really an A-team that has been recruited to solve unsolvable problems, but they do not know how well they are regarded by the powers that be. This makes for some fun moments and interesting twists as our diplomatic heroes attempt to keep the Colonial Union out of fights it can't possibly win against a conclave of hundreds of other races determined to keep humanity from spreading through the galaxy as quickly as it would like.

You don't have to have read the previous Harry Wilson books to enjoy this one because the episodes are very self-contained and self-explanatory. Indeed, the one flaw in this collection is the redundancy that comes from assembling stories each of which was written so that it could stand alone. That means that the same background material often gets repeated. You will, however, want to read whatever Scalzi writes next in this universe because the episodes end just as new threats and mysteries are revealed. I can't wait to find out where he takes us.

Reader William Dufris interprets Scalzi's sarcastic and amusing characters exactly as I would have imagined them, so kudos on the performance as well.

A good time listening to this book.

A little disjointed, but iI like this universe. Great job, I couldn't stop listening. I listen while I walk and I set new fitbit records.

A bunch of shorter stories strung together

I still really want to know what happens
next. It was nice to see the world from Harry's POV. Counting the days till my next credits.

4.5 A great collection of stories

I enjoyed this collection of stories and a tour of the colonial unions diplomatic corps. it was a refreshing change from the military heavy stories of the first three books. and the childishness if the fourth. scalzi did well to keep this universe alive and I'm glad he did. The narration was perfect. not a syllable out if place.

Fun follow-up to the old man's war saga

Enjoyable, but it lacked the charm of old man's war. It didn't grab me like OMW did, but it was still a solid story. I can't wait to listen to the next book.