Zoe's Tale-John Scalzi

Zoe's Tale
John Scalzi
Tor, Aug 2008, $24.95
ISBN: 0765316986

Jane Sagan and John Perry have been recruited to establish Roanoke, a new human colony. When they agreed to help, neither Jane nor John expected interference or hostility from the scheming amoral home-world government. They were also taken aback by local shapeshifters and under alien assault by a federation violently opposed to human expansion into their sector.

While they struggle with those threatening to demolish the colony, their adopted teenage child Zoe ignores the big picture; instead she has fun with her boyfriend Enzo and her sarcastic best friend Gretchen while flirting with her Obin bodyguards. The Obin pair keeps Zoe on a pedestal due to her late biological father, a God to that species because of an incredible scientific discovery he made.

THE LAST COLONY contains much of the same events that occur in ZOE’S TALE but with a differing perspective as that novel was through the eyes of Jane and John. Thus, though ZOE’S TALE is well written and entertaining, to those who read THE LAST COLONY, it has a déjà vu feel. Still comparing the viewpoints is fun as interpretations of what is going on differ between the teen and the adults enhancing the intriguing read as the devil is in the details and that is where Zoe sees things radically diverse from her adoptive parents.

Harriet Klausner