The Shattering Peace

Old Man's War, Book 7

De: John Scalzi

Narrado por: Tavia Gilbert

After a decade, acclaimed science fiction master John Scalzi returns to the galaxy of the Old Man's War series with the long awaited seventh book, The Shattering Peace

THE PEACE IS SHATTERING

For a decade, peace has reigned in interstellar space. A tripartite agreement between the Colonial Union, the Earth, and the alien Conclave has kept the forces of war at bay, even when some would have preferred to return to the fighting and struggle of former times. For now, more sensible heads have prevailed – and have even championed unity.

But now, there is a new force that threatens the hard-maintained peace: The Consu, the most advanced intelligent species humans have ever met, are on the cusp of a species-defining civil war. This war is between Consu factions... but nothing the Consu ever do is just about them. The Colonial Union, the Earth and the Conclave have been unwillingly dragged into the conflict, in the most surprising of ways.

Gretchen Trujillo is a mid-level diplomat, working in an unimportant part of the Colonial Union bureaucracy. But when she is called to take part in a secret mission involving representatives from every powerful faction in space, what she finds there has the chance to redefine the destinies of humans and aliens alike... or destroy them forever.

©2025 John Scalzi (P)2025 Audible, Inc.

Some character voices are a bit silly.

Great continuation of a story. My only immediate dislike, which is a little too strong of a word to convey my actual degree of annoyance was the voice actor. Main voice and alien characters sounded fine but adult human male characters felt like the voice actor was a 10 year old boy trying to sound like their grizzled grandfather.

Reread the earlier books 1st!

There are many references to things that happened in the earlier books and while I remember really enjoying every one of them, they were written long enough ago that I really would’ve liked to revisit them before reading this last book. I think this book would’ve seemed twice as good if I had been current in my mind with the characters and backstory. As it was, I felt it was good but not great.

another excellent chapter

Old Man War is back baby! we are back after some years since the last chapter, with a side story from... let's just say folks we already have met. kinda. also, skipdrives.

The performance

Enjoyed the book. However would’ve appreciated a bit more consciousness focus. Nonetheless it was a great story

Can I give it a… 4.7, maybe a 4.8?

It’s good. Really good. It feels like the last couple of books like “The End of All Things” or maybe “The Human Division” than the first book or “The Ghost Brigades”. So, again, really good. It doesn’t have the impact of the first two books though. And while such a comparison may be unfair given how Scalzi has explored this universe, it still remains (IMO) that this book doesn’t quite meet that high standard. The level of intrigue is very good. Considering that I almost always figure out the intrigue-based surprises, that I was surprised by this ending is actually a compliment.

It was nice to see G_____ make a return though. As much of a badass as he/she was nearly 20yrs ago!