I waited and read the whole lot in one hit. It's basically the greatest science fiction tv show you've never read. The episodic format of the stories works brilliantly and Scalzi manages to fit in drama, romance, comedy and action without any element feeling tacked on. My one complaint, a lack of pay off for the overhanging mystery/conspiracy that goes across most of the story, but i suppose thats just building up to season, uh, i mean book 2. I'm sure other reviews of this book will be more thorough and complete than mine. If you don't know, this book was written in serial fashion for Tor books. It does read a little episodic because of that, which isn't any big deal.This review is for the audiobook. LET ME STRESS THAT. The audiobook. I had no idea how hard it was for voice actors to voice women and children. And I'm not even limiting this complaint to men, the nice, rich voice of the woman who reads the Discworld books has a velvety wonderful Judy Dench voice until she voices any "old woman." Then it's horrid. Nails on chalkboard. Hell, even her reading of children is this bright fresh voice that makes them instantly sound really stupid... But this is Scalzi, not Pratchett.So...As far as the book goes, this will satisfy anyone who likes the Old Man's War universe. Satisfy, but just barely. Interesting to see a little of what was going on behind the Colonial Union after the whole Roanoke fiasco of Zoe's Tale. Interesting to get to see another one of the Old Man characters, this time through the eyes of a soldier that chose not to entirely leave the service and become a colonist. Not nearly as great as following John Perry or his equally witty daughter... but still not bad.As far as the audiobook part? This one ranks waaaaay down at the bottom of the barrel to me with The Lies of Locke lamora (Scott Lynch novel) voice actor who should be punched in the voice box. All women voices are voiced as though the actor has drawn himself up, put the haughtiest, pinched face that he can, and then stuck out his pinky to get the affectation correctly. They may as well be Disney villains asking about puppies. If an audiobook reader could be accused of misogyny, this guy is right there behind the guy reading Lynch's books, who thinks Mae West is a baseline for what females must sound like BEFORE you add sass to them. Or they speak with some sort of brain damage that makes them sound breathy and vapid.There were times I switched back to the digital book and read through a few pages just so I didn't have to hear him voice a character again. There is a family gathering of a not-actually-that-compelling characters that drags on and on and on with the mother - an older female - and it's awful. When he voices a child, he does it in a whiny, sing-songy voice you use to mimic/harrass/make fun of someone, repeating back what they say with rancid venom. It just makes me wonder if these voice actors are actually mocking all the characters who aren't men. Credit where it's due: the voice actor for all of Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus books is brilliant, doing female and child voices equally fantastically, by simply politely declining to try to mimic one. Simon Jones (who played Arthur Dent in the BBC Hitchhikers TV show) is brilliant. Just reads the lines, and makes them all sound like perfect, normal people. Simon Jones proves it is in fact possible, but the voice actor for this book pretty much sucks.
Do You like book A Lázadás Hangjai (2014)?
I didn't follow this along episodically as it was released, but rather took it on as a full book. And, as such, its triffic stuff, and a worthy further installment to the OMW series. Rather than a fixed set of characters over a series of chapters, we get an interlocking series of stories with characters who drift in and out, almost all of them interesting. It reminded me a bit of some of Niven's early "Known Space" stories, in a favorable way.Good stuff, as individual (often cliff-hanging) tales, as well as an overall book.
—Jess
While the entire Old Man's War series has been worth reading the subsequent books in the series have always seemed to be missing some of the charm of the initial novel. This installment recaptures that and is just as enjoyable as the start of the series. Where after the previous book (Zoe's Tale) I felt like I needed a break from the series I might just jump straight into book six...which I just found out isn't going to be released for six months.
—Nj_joiyeeta
Disappointed. A superb series but one should stop at book 3, The Last Colony.
—jill
