Professor Bainbridge...on law, politics, religion, culture & food

Zoe’s Tale

Blogging has been light today (so has work, for that matter), as the mail brought an advance reading copy of John Scalzi’s forthcoming SF novel Zoe’s Tale.

When I first read about ZT on Scalzi’s blog, I was skeptical. ZT is a retelling of the events of The Lost Colony. Been there, done that, right? If Orson Scott Card couldn’t pull it off (I hated Ender’s Shadow and all the rest of the Bean series, although YMMV), retelling the same events using a different POV character has got to be a very tough job. As for the different POVer, it’s a teenage girl. With the half century mark looming ever closer, teenage POVers no longer hold much interest for your truly. But especially not teenage girls.

So ZT started out with two strikes. Needless to say, as you’ll have seen this coming, I was hooked by the end of the first chapter and have been zipping along ever since. ZT solves two plot issues I’d had with TLC by filling in some key back story. More important, however, ZT stands alone. You could pick it up without having read TLC—or any of the other Old Man’s War series—and enjoy it very much. Neat trick.

As for POVer Zoe, in many ways, she’s the most enjoyable of Scalzi’s POV characters to date.  Zoe’s smart, sarcastic, witty, and vulnerable, in turn. She’s older and wiser than her years, but given what Scalzi’s put her through that’s okay. She reminds me a bit of my 20-something nieces, both of whom are a joy to know and hang out with, which tells me that Scalzi’s done a really fine job of characterization.

One criticism. Scalzi’s come up with a very imaginative alien race in the Obin, but he’s now taken away the one thing that made them really unique. I understand why he had to do it as a plot device, but the resulting problem problem is that none of the alien races seem all that alien. General Gau, for example, seems no more alien than, say, Grand Admiral Thrawn. Of course, the same complaint could be made of virtually every science fiction novel in history. At the end of the day, they’re all just actors wearing Star Trek makeup.

That quibble aside, this is exceptionally good stuff. TLC was a Hugo Award nominee and ZT is almost certain to follow suit. Highly recommended.

What other bloggers are saying:

Tom Easton:

The overall flow of events is familiar, but though the book starts at the same time as Last Colony, with Rybicki’s arrival, Zoe just isn’t privy to what is going on. Her life is that of a kid, an intelligent kid, and a kid who just happens to be something like a goddess to the Obin, but still just a kid. She’s busy growing up, becoming and learning who she is, as opposed to what she is. In due time, she solves the mystery that has obsessed the Obin for ages (why did the Consu give them intelligence but not consciousness?) and gains help from the Consu for herself and Roanoke, all largely because of who she is.

And that’s the moral of the tale: Who you are is much more important than what you are. It doesn’t sound very profound when said so flatly, but think of how many people get killed because someone sees the what (ethnic identity, religion, gang membership, political affiliation, etc.) as more important than the who. Needless to say, galactic civilization--the CDF and all the aliens out there--have a lot to learn from Zoe, for the conflicts that embroil them have much more to do with what than who.

Coyote:

I just snagged the book back from my son and he said it was great.  As all you parents know, 14-year-old boys can be oh-so nuanced and deep in their communications with their parents, so I did not get a lot of detail (oddly enough, having read a few chapters, the communication and decision-making abilities of teenage boys seems to be a minor theme in the book).  The best metric of his fondness for the book was that he told me to make sure to read the acknowledgments at the end.  It must be some kind of sign of engagement when a teenage boy reads the acknowledgments.

I am several chapters in and really like what I have seen so far.  Always nice to see a strong teenage girl protagonist, and Scalzi is as funny as ever.

SFF World:

Character has consistently been a strength of Scalzi’s writing, he has an ear for dialogue and the scenes just flow very smoothly into one another. Although the scenes involving Zoe, Jane, and John (or any combination thereof) are crafted very well, Zoe does her best with her friends and the Obin. Particularly when Zoe and her best friend Gretchen get into involved conversations, the story just flies by and Scalzi reveals just how frustrated Zoe is about her position as saviour and daughter of the head of the colony. When she is alone with the Obin, you can see the hints of a greater person to come as she (sometimes) patiently informs the Obin of why they are off-putting.

An OMW story set 20-odd years later than TLC and ZT that explores the relationship between an adult Zoe and the Obin (and the Conclave and the CU) could be very interesting. A human friend of General Gau’s with inante political chops and an entire race of highly capable warriors at her beck and call would be a redoubtable political force. Imagine a cross between Joan d’Arc, Alexander the Great, and maybe Margaret Thatcher (please, God, not Hillary or Obama).