In one of my Old Man’s War reviews I mentioned that Scalzi’s strong suit wasn’t in crafting disparate personality types; his best characters are all (presumably, but I’m confident on the logic) stand ins for John Scalzi, which is fine because I like them all. This book has more than a dozen characters we share a POV with.  It’s a lot, and it doesn’t play to the author’s strengths.  I had a tough time separating characters for just this reason, and it somewhat undermines Scalzi’s attempts at diversity.  I love that he writes strong female characters, but when Danielle Lowen […]

The more John Scalzi I read, the less convinced I am that he can write characters who aren’t John Scalzi.  Mind, that’s not entirely a criticism as I thoroughly enjoy John Scalzi, and so I like all his characters who are very clearly him as well. Same reason I like Bill Murray; you don’t buy a ticket to a Bill Murray movie for the same reason you see a Meryl Streep movie. Disappearing into a role is not the same as embodying a character so thoroughly they’re indistinguishable from yourself, but the differing skills both have value. This is Scalzi’s […]

I do love some sci-fi, and I’m fully aware that Star Trek TOS owes as massive a debt to old western serials as sci fi owes to Star Trek.  But man, I just can not get into westerns.  At all.  I watched The Searchers specifically because it’s the best western out there and thought “yeah I’m sure it is, and it took all of my focus to pay attention to it” after the credits rolled.  So it’s not scalzi’s fault I didn’t love this, as it’s the most space western of all of his books. That said, it’s still a […]

I hate to be that guy, but don’t judge this book by its cover.  The art is lovely enough, so I mean no offense to the artist when I say that this, like so many sci-fi covers, looks like it’s gonna be capital S serious.  Red alerts in deep space and stoic men and nary a woman in sight. If you’ve read any Scalzi, you know it won’t be, but if I were a new reader, this would not be a book I’d pick up immediately. This book picks up slightly east of where we left off in Old Man’s War […]