• Full Title: The Last Colony
• Authors: John Scalzi
• Year: 2007
• Genre: Science Fiction, Interstellar War
• Publisher: Tor
• ISBN 0-7653-1697-8 (library hardcover)
• Wikipedia page
• Author’s Wikipedia Page

 

Summary

After I realized that The Ghost Brigades wasn’t a sequel to Old Man’s War, I assumed that this book, The Last Colony, would be similar — just another book in the same universe. Instead, I was surprised again. It is a sequel to both the previous books.

The first book (OMW) introduced us to the Colonial Union and its military arm, the Colonial Defense Forces, via main character John Perry, and later introduced side-character Jane Sagan. The second book (TGB) is told from the perspective of a new character, Jared, who meets and works with Sagan. In The Last Colony, Perry and Sagan are together again, this time as colonists with adopted daughter Zoë. They’re asked by the Colonial Union to head up a new colony as part of a nefarious scheme to defeat the Conclave, a group of non-human races determined to put a stop to human colonization. Except Perry and Sagan aren’t told about the nefarious scheme part. In the end, Perry and Sagan manage to upset both the Conclave and the Colonial Union.

 

What I Liked Least About It

SPOILER ALERT: There was one incidence of deus ex machina, wherein a seemingly unsolvable problem is miraculously solved by a heretofore unmentioned advanced machine. At times, these can work as comic relief or for other legitimate purposes, but in this case it was obviously contrived. The only thing that saves Scalzi from further criticism here is that he admittedly did foreshadow in earlier books that the Consu are an incredibly advanced race with technology we can’t even imagine, and he has already established that the Obin have a working relationship with the Consu. So, when the Obin show up with a Consu device to save the day, Scalzi can at least say he built up to this.

And my usual Scalzi complaints: lack of character descriptions and forward-backward time jumps.

 

What I Liked Most About It

In general, the story was enjoyable. It was a fitting conclusion to the trilogy (I learned as I read that there is at least a fourth book in this universe, but I think it’s meant as a standalone story). The twists and turns were plotted out well enough (except for my deus ex machina complaint above); some are nearly predictable to a reader familiar with the characters and universe, but not boringly so. Others are surprises, in both good and bad ways.

One thing I like about Scalzi’s fiction in general, and especially in this series, is that even the bad actors — the antagonists — are seemingly reasonable people, just people with different aims and goals than the protagonists. The only truly irrational people are typically left unnamed or off-stage, so to speak. This mostly comports with my experience in real life.

Again, the scale of the story is grand, which is something I typically prefer in speculative fiction. Not that I dislike stories with more limited settings, but more epic tales are more fun for me. The story covers quite a few planets spread light years apart.

 

Conclusion

For anyone who read and enjoyed either of the first two books, I recommend this one; not only is it very similar in style but it wraps up a bunch of loose ends and ties the whole thing together fairly well.

(As I’ve said elsewhere, The Collapsing Empire is still my favorite of Scalzi’s, and I’m eagerly awaiting a chance to pick up its sequel, which was released last last year.)

Related: Old Man’s War

Related: The Ghost Brigades

 

 

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