Book Review of ZOE'S TALE by John Scalzi

ZOE’S TALE (Old Man’s War #4) by John Scalzi  (Tor Books, August 2008) Hardcover, 335 pages. Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel 2009; Locus Award Nominee for Best Young Adult Book 2009. 

Synopsis on the Goodreads website . . . . .

How do you tell your part in the biggest tale in history?

I ask because it's what I have to do. I'm Zoe Boutin Perry: A colonist stranded on a deadly pioneer world. Holy icon to a race of aliens. A player (and a pawn) in a interstellar chess match to save humanity, or to see it fall. Witness to history. Friend. Daughter. Human. Seventeen years old.

Everyone on Earth knows the tale I am part of. But you don't know my tale: How I did what I did — how I did what I had to do — not just to stay alive but to keep you alive, too. All of you. I'm going to tell it to you now, the only way I know how: not straight but true, the whole thing, to try make you feel what I felt: the joy and terror and uncertainty, panic and wonder, despair and hope. Everything that happened, bringing us to Earth, and Earth out of its captivity. All through my eyes.

It's a story you know. But you don't know it all.

 My Four & One-Half Star Review on the Goodreads website . . . . .

     The novels of John Scalzi that are set in outer space have always reminded me of Robert A. Heinlein in the best possible ways. There's a thrill of discovery I experienced while first reading Heinlein in high school that I seldom experience when reading modern science fiction, but I felt that while reading ZOE'S TALE.

     While this novel is part of Scalzi's Old Man's War universe and is the fourth book in that series I had only read the first book (OLD MAN'S WAR). I was able to pick up the storyline without much effort, so this works as a jumping-on point for curious readers. In fact the climatic events in ZOE'S TALE were revealed in the earlier novels, but presented here in more detail and from a teenager's point of view. I found the final chapters to be the absolute best scenes in this very good novel; and I'm glad I didn't have that prior knowledge of how they would turn out. 

     Scalzi has managed to write a young adult novel and blend it together with interstellar war, military science fiction, alien characterization, planetary colonization, politics, and coming-of-age. 

     I stopped short of rating this Five Stars as I was not completely captivated until mid-way or later in the story. To be honest, this was a 4.5 star read. If you haven't experienced the worlds of Scalzi, what's stopping you? Recommended.