Zoe's Tale
by John Scalzi
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Book Summary Information
Author: John ScalziEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-04-28
ISBN: 0765356198
Number of pages: 416
Publisher: Tor Science Fiction
Book Reviews of Zoe's Tale
Book Review: Calling a colony "Roanoke" is just asking for trouble
Summary: 5 Stars
John Scalzi graduated to my must-read list a while ago, never mind that he doesn't yet have a lot of books under his belt. ZOE'S TALE is the fourth entry in what was supposed to be only a trilogy in Scalzi's Old Man's War series, and, although not touted as such, this one feels more like Young Adult sci-fi, and it is a riveting read. ZOE'S TALE runs parallel to the events that took place in The Last Colony, and Scalzi admits in the afterword that he wrote this novel mostly a) to address several plot holes in THE LAST COLONY that reader feedback had pointed out and b) because fans were clamoring for more Zoë, who is one of the most intriguing (and, in my opinion, underused) characters in THE LAST COLONY.
Good news for folks already familiar with THE LAST COLONY, Scalzi doesn't indulge much in repetitive detail in ZOE'S TALE. He introduces the overlapping moments and then veers off into unexplored territory. However, those who haven't read THE LAST COLONY may feel that Scalzi glosses over those same key events. Still, my two cents is that even if you haven't read the companion novel, ZOE'S TALE still manages to tell a complete stand-alone story.
So, yeah, this is a rehashing, and yet it works primarily because of the central protagonist, who we get to know as she tells her tale in first person narrative. Somewhen in the future, Zoë Boutin-Perry inhabits a universe teeming with sentient alien races, and all these life forms are fighting over habitable, as yet uncolonized planets. Zoë is a 17-year-old girl, whip-smart and very sarcastic, and her priorities differ drastically from those of John Perry, the main character in THE LAST COLONY. So the tone is different, and it feels like a different story, even if Scalzi more or less covers the same events.
Zoë has a unique life. The adopted daughter of John Perry and Jane Sagan, her life irrevocably changes (again) when the CDF (Colony Defense Forces) asks John and Jane (who are retired military) to forego their pastoral existence on their backwater world to instead head up a seed colony. John and Jane agree, and off they and Zoë and their extended family go to an unknown planet called Roanoke. And if you know your history, then you may see why calling the colony "Roanoke" is equivalent to calling it "Oh, yeah! We're Fu@%&d-ville." Needless to say, things aren't all as they seem.
Zoë Boutin-Perry is accompanied and bodyguarded by two intimidating extraterrestrials she had named Hickory and Dickory when she was very young. Hickory and Dickory are Obin, a wicked scary alien race which was granted self-awareness by Zoë's now dead biological father (who was something of a mad scientist). Zoë being the only living link the Odin have to their benefactor, she is revered by them. A crucial element in the Obin's peace treaty with the Colonial Union is that two of the Obin be allowed to live with Zoë and to record her as she grew up. Thru Zoë's life experiences, the Obin hope to learn what it is like to live. Seventeen years old now, Zoë begins to rebel against being the subject of such idolization. She just wants to hang out with her equally sarcastic best friend and also daydream about her boyfriend or maybe teach her scary bodyguards to sing in a hootenanny. She just wants to be Zoë, and not Goddess of the Obin or whatever.
It's been a while since I read THE LAST COLONY, so the plot points have dimmed a bit. This works out pretty well in reading ZOE'S TALE because I found myself pleasantly surprised at some unfolding event which I'd forgotten. But I'd always been intrigued with Zoë and am happy as pig in slop that Scalzi chose to revisit the up-against-it Roanoke colony thru her teen-centric perspective. We learn what went down with Zoë when she was "off-camera" in THE LAST COLONY. We follow her starting from just before she and her family leave the planet of Huckleberry and then on to her adventures on Roanoke, a colony which, by the way, was promptly abandoned by the Colonial Union, leaving the frantic settlers to fend for themselves. But most of the key moments happen when she finds herself going it alone. This is when the coming-of-age aspect really impacts the reader, when Zoë discovers the true measure of the Obin's devotion. I think these passages, in the last quarter of the book, demonstrate Scalzi's ability to write extremely powerful, emotionally wrenching scenes within the framework of high adventure. There isn't a false note anywhere. And Scalzi also manages to fill in those plot holes, namely what happened to the werewolves and also the backstory behind the deux-ex-machina nature of that final action sequence in THE LAST COLONY (re: the sapper device).
Folks are comparing ZOE'S TALE to Heinlein's classic juvenile works, and I can see why. This book has wit, is accessible and so very readable, and, yeah, I'm reminded of that feel-good Golden Age of sci-fi literature. Off the top of my head, in recent years, only David Gerrold's Starsiders trilogy, John Varley's Red Thunder, and Steven Gould's Jumper: A Novel have come this close. And, as much as I like David Rice (protagonist in JUMPER), if forced to choose, I'd rather catch up with Zoë Boutin-Perry anyday. She just has this tremendously appealing voice. Or maybe it's 'cause she rocks that snarky attitude.
Summary of Zoe's Tale
How do you tell your part in the biggest tale in history?
I ask because it's what I have to do. I'm Zoe Boutin Perry: A colonist stranded on a deadly pioneer world. Holy icon to a race of aliens. A player (and a pawn) in a interstellar chess match to save humanity, or to see it fall. Witness to history. Friend. Daughter. Human. Seventeen years old.
Everyone on Earth knows the tale I am part of. But you don't know my tale: How I did what I did ? how I did what I had to do ? not just to stay alive but to keep you alive, too. All of you. I'm going to tell it to you now, the only way I know how: not straight but true, the whole thing, to try to make you feel what I felt: the joy and terror and uncertainty, panic and wonder, despair and hope. Everything that happened, bringing us to Earth, and Earth out of its captivity. All through my eyes.
It's a story you know. But you don't know it all.
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