Idgie loves a good Space Novel so much that she's giving her thoughts before the description for a change!
I love John Scalzi books. The reason? Simple - he keeps it real. You take some good old fashioned space sci -fi (my fave!), throw in human relations, politics, everyday events, aliens, spies and you have a great, readable and relate-able story. Not only that, but there's humor. All stories are better with a little humor thrown in. Episode Seven - with Tuffy the dog - priceless.
John has done a great job of reminding people why Sci-Fi is so popular. If done properly, you can imagine it's existence.... you can imagine the future. Not the unimaginable, but the complete opposite.
I compare him to another "real" sci-fi writer - Jack McDevitt. His Omega series was similar in it's "humanly realistic" readability.
I was so excited when I saw this serial story coming out - I immediately bought the first three installments before making myself stop and wait for the entire book. There's certainly no reason for you to do so, I just felt as a reviewer it's what I needed to do. I was so torn watching each week's installments coming out!
You will love the installments, and then if you follow through to the book you'll get extra bonus material making it well worth your wait.
Bonus - at the end of this post - there's some exciting news for us all!
_______________________________
The Human Division
Author: John Scalzi
Hardcover: 432 pages
Publisher: Tor Books; First Edition edition (May 14, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0765333511
ISBN-13: 978-0765333513
Book Description:
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.
First published online from January to April 2013 as a three-month digital serial, The Human Division now appears as a full-length novel of the Old Man’s War universe, plus—for the first time in print—the first tale of Lieutenant Harry Wilson, and a coda that wasn’t part of the digital serialization.
__________________________________
Fantastic News Here!
Now that we’ve come to the end of the 13 episode serialization of John Scalzi’s The Human Division, it can be told: A second season has been commissioned!
Author John Scalzi broke the news this past Tuesday, revealing that the story of the Old Man’s War universe will continue for at least one more season. The story, still in its very early stages, will be collected in a novel in a manner similar to The Human Division, which will hit shelves on May 14th, containing two extra stories set in the Old Man’s War universe.