Reviews for Last Colony

The average rating for Last Colony based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-06-10 00:00:00 Katia H Iglesias stupid fucking humans, you are the worst! always getting shit wrong and not caring! John Scalzi sort of agrees but sort of doesn't. he's a humanist who loves the individual as well as a scornful critic who slams systems, systematized secrecy, imperialism, and the use of conflict as a way to achieve goals. so he gets to have his cake and eat it too. his love of people is on display as ever, and although his characters often lack depth and aren't particularly interesting, they are still warmly characterized and pleasant to be around. sympathetic characters because Scalzi is a sympathetic sort of author. but he also finally gets to openly slam the Colonial Union and their war-mongering, secretive, tunnel-visioned ways. this is the third book in the series and the preceding books almost function as a wind-up to what turns out to be a mean right hook. stupid fucking Colonial Union, they've been long overdue for a knock-out. as usual the writing is pleasant and also generic. I did notice an increasing tendency to make things a bit too much on the nose. there's the name of the colony itself, "Roanoke", which of course has all sorts of resonance. but at least Scalzi acknowledges that. what's rather aggravating is the on-the-nose quality of the dialogue. it's always snappy and sarcastic and everyone responds with perfect timing; it's like a sitcom minus the laugh track. the end result is that it comes across as a bit plastic and characters sound a lot like each other. still, that's a minor complaint. overall this novel is fast-paced fun, full of adventure and politics and battles and aliens. because Scalzi is more interested in the human condition than anything else, his aliens often act just like humans. that can be annoying, but fortunately in this one he has a couple that don't: Hickory and Dickory. they were also pretty fun and I'm looking forward to getting to know them better in the follow-up novel. oh the synopsis, in my rush to get out of here I almost forgot: characters from prior novels lead a group of colonists to a new planet. the book is all about the layers upon layers of intrigue that surround this colony.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-08-10 00:00:00 James Burkholder This is the point in the series where the story needed to make me fall in love with it as much as the first book did. Coming off a decent, albeit underwhelming second novel (Ghost Brigades), I wanted Last Colony to evolve into a series I could endorse as passionately as The Expanse. Alas, while I was thoroughly entertained from start to finish, the book did leave a few points to be desired. My biggest complaint is the lack of description. Scalzi has all of these interesting alien species, but I'm at the halfway point in the series and couldn't begin to tell you what they look like. I love myself some xenobiology, but I feel the author has taken what should be a selling point to the series and glazed over it with ambiguity. At least Last Colony saw the return of my fav, John Perry, and an interesting convergence of storylines from the first two books. The humor came back in force and played a huge factor in my overall enjoyment. At the end of the day, while I've concluded there are some weaknesses to this series, all the strengths add up to give me an easy sci-fi, perfect for a light reading mood. My Fantasy Buddy Reads group on Goodreads has called it "hefty fluff" or "fluff-plus" and I don't think it inaccurate. I would definitely recommend it anyday for someone in the mood for a bit of fun. Via The Obsessive Bookseller at www.nikihawkes.com Other books you might like: