In 1953 John Myers brought his friend Gary Wolf a book he had just read, Space Hawk by Anthony Gilmore. The two were already avid readers but this would be their introduction to an entire genre, Science Fiction. They both say that it was Space Hawk that sparked a life long love of all things Sci-Fi. According to both of them, they had an opportunity to re-read Space Hawk as adults and found that it had not weathered the years well. They decided they would write their own science fiction adventure in the same style, but do a better job. The result is their book Space Vulture.

As is evident in the title alone, Space Vulture leans much more in the direction of paying direct homage to the work that inspired it, rather than offering something in the same vein but different. There are many more similarities between the books than their are differences. This seems to be at odds with the author’s stated goal of doing a better job. What we get instead of improvement is nostalgia and a throw back to the style and content of the author’s childhood. Seen in that light, for those who wish to go back to those days, this is probably a great ride. They can get a new story, in the old format. The issue for newer readers is that they don’t have the nostalgia to gloss over the stories issues.

I started reading science fiction in elementary school in the late seventies. I moved out of the kids section of the library in the early eighties and tore through anything I could get my hands on. This means that I read a lot of science fiction that was written in the fifties and even further back in some cases. Many books that are still favorites today come from that era. That is what drew me to Space Vulture. As I read it though, I found myself caught off guard. I could not recall reading anything like this, even as a kid. Then it hit me. The books I’ve read from the fifties are the cream of the crop. They are the classics that I am sure will continue to be read for years to come. Space Hawk and others like it do not fall into this category and now I know why.

The characters of Space Vulture are flat and unbelievable. I would say they are cartoonish but many of todays cartoons provide a much richer experience than is found in this book. The villain is Space Vulture. An evil, beautiful, genius. He enjoys rape, murder and slavery. He operates throughout the galaxy capturing innocents to sell as slaves or food. Everyone who would stand up to Space Vulture is either unwilling or incapable of doing so. He is the scourge of the galaxy, with his private army of aliens and humans carrying out his will without any choice.

There is one exception to those who tremble in fear of Space Vulture. It is Galactic Marshal Captain Victor Corsaire. In every way that Vulture is bad, Corsaire is good. Criminals everywhere tremble at Corsaire’s name. He has an unbending code of moral conduct and even in the face of a corrupt and ineffective justice system, Corsaire single handedly brings what peace and safety there is in the universe. The entire book turns on Vulture and Corsaire, though we have a single mom, a couple precocious kids, a shifty con-man and a handful of aliens and such to round things out.

The book reads like the cereal style stories it imitates. In the short time frame it covers, the hero is captured, escapes, gets recaptured, escapes, etc. multiple times. The side plots are filled with narrow escapes and cliff hangers. And it all feels rather like a carnival ride. Characters do what they do because that is the function they fill in the story. There is little ambiguity and very rarely do the actions of characters feel like something that comes as a result of their being a person. They are all set pieces going through the motions that create the ride. So it seems to really boil down to the question, “Do you like this kind of ride?” It seems to me that the only people who are going to really enjoy it are those who have fond memories of going on the same ride as children.

With one of the co-authors being an archbishop, it seems only fair to consider how religion fits into the book. The previously mentioned single mother prays a lot. There is not much over the head religious reference otherwise. Myers and Wolf seemed to have steered clear of any heavy handed dealing with religious issues. At times this is a bit of a weakness. Once again, the hero does what is right because it is. The villain will do evil and there is no effort to dig into what might separate the two. There are opportunities that would be perfect to dig a little deeper but no effort was made to do so. This is probably in keeping with the style and format they are emulating. It’s also probably a part of the reason that you don’t find people still reading the older works.

While the religious angle isn’t pushed there are some anachronisms that do come out that I think would have been better dropped. The most noticeable was the heroin’s apparent inability to do much for herself. She’s not completely useless all the time, and she does make small efforts here and there, but other times she just sits on the side lines and watches events unfold. How a frontier living leader could be so ineffective at times just breaks one out of the story. I guess she can’t show up Corsair or interfere with his heroic scenes. I’m sure in the fifties this would have been an outright progressive portrayal of a woman but today it still comes across as sexist and demeaning.

There are sizable plot holes and inconsistencies. The ending is not going to surprise anyone. I’m not all that bright and I had everything nailed down by half way through the book. Really the bright spot for younger readers is that it may be bad enough to come across as campy, but to be honest I doubt it. For anyone who was reading Space Hawk as a kid, there is that nostalgia factor. I almost rated this a four because of those folks, but I just couldn’t do it. There are just too many good books still around from that time that will provide all the fun but with better writing and plot.

Title: Space Vulture
Author: Gary K. Wolf and Archbishop John J. Myers
Publisher: Tor
Pages: 333
ISBN: 978-0-7653-1852-0
Rating: 3/10

• Liberation, by Brian Francis Slattery
• Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
• Nano Comes to Clifford Falls, by Nancy Kress
• The Alchemy of Stone, by Ekaterina Sedia
• Sly Mongoose, by Tobias Buckell
• The Night Sessions, by Ken MacLeod
• Postsingular, by Rudy Rucker
• Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow
• Matter, by Iain M. Banks
• Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
• Multireal, by David Louis Edelman

John Scalzi the author of Hugo Award nominated science fiction novel Old Man’s War has built what started as a story serialized in his blog into a series of full novels and short stories. The latest installment in the OMW universe, Zoe’s Tale is quite a departure from the previous three books. It is the first of Scalzi’s sci-fi novels written intentionally as young adult fiction. In a move that I am sure will continue to fuel Scalzi/Heinlein comparisons, Zoe is a precocious young woman thrust into a world of adventure and danger. In just three years Scalzi has built an impressive resume as an author of fiction and Zoe’s Tale will be no small part of what looks to be an influential and outstanding career.

Scalzi himself rightly credited the influence of Heinlein when Old Man’s War was published. Unfortunately I think that some have taken the comparisons too far and tend to view everything that Scalzi writes in terms of how it contrasts or parallels something by Heinlein. I think this is a mistake, not because Scalzi isn’t a great writer like Heinlein but because Scalzi has his own voice. His work has a considerably different tone and viewpoint from much of what Heinlein published. It would not be correct to view Scalzi in a vacuum but it seems to me that it is just as much an error to define Scalzi in terms of RAH. For what it is worth, Scalzi has said on his blog that he welcomes the Heinlein comparisons as it helps him to sell books.

I mention this because Heinlein is very well known for his juveniles. Podkayne of Mars is a very well known and in some ways controversial novel that centers around a young woman and her adventures. Zoe’s Tale shares a few surface characteristics with Podkayne but is in many ways almost the opposite story. I think this is important to mention because I think some people may dismiss this book as a retread of something else, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. This is a fresh tale, and I believe may be one of those stories that years from now will be a fondly remembered first read for many science fiction fans.

Each of the previous Old Man’s War universe novels stands well on it’s own. There is very little overlap of characters in the first two and while the third brings back major characters from the first two, knowledge of them is not required to follow the story. Zoe’s Tale stands on it’s own as well but this is because it is a retelling of the third book, The Last Colony from a completely different perspective. Whereas The Last Colony focuses primarily on John Perry and Jane Sagan from Old Man’s War, Zoe’s Tale as the title informs is told from the perspective of their adopted daughter, Zoe.

Zoe is very much a typical teenager, though she lives in very atypical circumstances; even for a teenager in her time of interplanetary travel and colonization. Humanity lives in a universe shared with a myriad of other intelligent species. Many of them are competing for very rare and valuable real estate, inhabitable planets. The human government has decided to start their first new colony populated by people coming from existing colonies. To this point every new colony has been started by people leaving earth. Zoe’s parents John and Jane are asked to lead this endeavor.

I would imagine that a middle aged man writing a teenage character of the opposite sex would be quite a stretch. Scalzi says that he had quite a bit of help from women in his life. However he did it, he pulled it off extremely well. Zoe is smart, sometimes a bit too smart for her own good. She is sarcastic and moody but a much fuller person than some winey charactature. The reader gets to experience her ups and downs and watch her grow. She’s a great kid right from the start but even stronger, more confident and wiser by the end. This is a book for young adults that does not treat the reader or the subject matter in a childish way.

In fact there aren’t a ton of differences between this and any other Scalzi book. There is a good bet that this will work just as well for adults as kids. The language is tamer, there is no graphic sexual content (though I can’t think of any in the other books.) and the violence is toned down. There is still action and there is violence, but the descriptions are not quite as graphic as in the other novels. The emotions and the consequences of actions and words are just as strong and this is important. While this is less graphic, that does not mean content or meaning is filtered out. It truly is a young adult novel with emphasis on young.

Many of the greatest science fiction stories for youth out there were written in the 50′s. Scalzi has created a modern tale that incorporates current technology, mores and norms in this story. This is an excellent introduction for any young man or woman who may not already be an avid science fiction fan. Important themes include those of being truthful, transparency in government, the sanctity of life and loyalty. These and more are touched on at various times but the book never feels preachy or heavy handed in its approach.

There is only one real negative with this book and it is only a drawback for those who have already read The Last Colony. The story is told from a completely new perspective, but it is still the same story. There are many new scenes and information brought in that were not revealed in Zoe’s predecessor, but the outcomes are the same. This is not a weakness through a failing on the part of the author but rather a natural outcome of writing two books taking place in the same time frame. I still really enjoyed the book and was eager to see how certain events took place but it didn’t hold quite the same impact at times as events had when I read The Last Colony. This wont be an issue for anyone who hasn’t read that book or any young people who haven’t read any of the novels. For me it was the difference between a 9 and a 10.

That is such a small thing though. This is a strong entry in a great series that I believe is destined to be considered a classic. Scalzi’s entry into the field is a welcome treatment of classic themes with a fresh new viewpoint that is smart and entertaining.

Title: Zoe’s Tale
Author: John Scalzi
Publisher: Tor Books
Pages: 335
ISBN: 978-0-7653-1698-1
Rating: 9/10

Orson Scott Card’s work Ender’s Game began as a novelette, that he says he wrote as a means of leading up to the full story he had developed, Speaker for the Dead. Ender’s Game was published as a full novel in 1985, won the Hugo and Nebula awards (as did Speaker for the Dead in ’86 and ’87). I think it is safe to say that Ender’s Game is ensconced in its position as a science fiction classic. Now, 23 years later, Card has finished the first direct sequel to Ender’s Game in his new novel Ender in Exile.

While Speaker for the Dead was published right after Ender’s Game, there is a huge gap in time between the two stories. Due to the effects of traveling at close to light speed, thousands of years pass between the two novels. Chapter fifteen of Ender’s Game does give an explanation of the events that fill that time. Card also went on to write other novels set in the Ender universe that do not involve Ender directly but rather other students from the battle school and family. This makes Ender in Exile more of a ‘midquel’, a term Card uses in the afterword, than a sequel. Because of this, from a high level view of the plot, readers who have stuck with the saga will not find much new here. This is a closer look at events already related in other books for the most part.

Card is an able author and this story is solid. Much of it reminded me of some of my favorite classic science fiction. There is colonization, extended periods of life aboard space ships, discovery of alien civilization and not much in the way of hard science. Card’s primary purpose is to analyze and consider the human condition as opposed to exploring technological possibilities or theories. Almost everything that is highly advanced is the result of alien technology and is never explained or understood. Much of it functions on an almost mystical or magical level.

Ender is a young adolescent with an incredibly unique life and mind. In this novel we see him transitioning and growing from a youth into a man. I was often reminded of Herbert’s Paul Atreides when he was first on the run in the desert with his mother in the book Dune. Ender is aware that he is different and has amazing capabilities but he is unsure just what the full ramifications of that difference are. He is trying to find his place in humanity and in the universe as a whole.

The story encompasses four basic plot lines that flow one to the next. I never felt any great sense of urgency or climax and resolution in the story. Really what it felt like was a thread weaving together pieces from the earlier stories. While the themes and issues were great, sometimes the characters were remote or the working of the issues very subtle. The most impacting and emotional moments relied upon knowledge of events from the other books in the series to carry their full force. In that light the novel is very effective. I think that fans of the Ender series, already biased towards this work, are going to be very pleased and enjoy Ender in Exile greatly. They are going to get to dig just a bit deeper into this world and it’s primary character Andrew Wiggin. They will enjoy moments of discovery and the answer to questions that may have been in the back of their minds, possibly for the last twenty years or so.

On the other hand, someone new to the series may not be as enthralled and may find the story to be a bit flat. If I could I would rate this book in two ways. For those who have not read all the other Ender books, a 6 or 7. This is not bad since the book is designed to sit in the middle of an existing set of tales. It is possible that someone could pick this book up without having read a single Ender story or novel and track with it. I think they would even find it interesting if a little flat. But for a fan of the series with a high degree of familiarity with the characters and events of this world it is probably a solid 8 or 9. At the very least, Card has done nothing to tear down what he has built up but has completed a sturdy addition to the body of work.

In the afterword Card has some interesting comments to make about reader involvment in helping him to write this story. He also explains how he would like to approach some discrepancies between this story and what is related at the conclusion to Ender’s Game. I thought it was a sign of the times that an author, facing a large and complex world he had created but could not track on his own, was able to use the internet to call upon readers assistance in achieving as much consistancy as possible.

This is a thoughtful, well written book. It may even motivate some to dig up an old copy of Ender’s Game so that they can relive the enjoyment of a classic and see what is new to find. I think that most will not be dissapointed. Some may not be as thrilled as they would hope, but there is something here for any science fiction fan.

On a side note, in conjunction with the release of this new book, Marvel Comics is doing a limited series comic adaptation of the original Ender’s Game novel.

Title: Ender in Exile
Author: Orson Scott Card
Publisher: Tor Books
Pages: 377
ISBN: 978-0765304964
Rating: 7/10

John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War universe now spans four novels, The Last Colony is the third. Of those initial three this is the one that is most a sequel. The first, Old Man’s War and the second, The Ghost Brigades each stand alone. And I think that The Last Colony actually can do so as well, but this is the first where the main characters are both from the previous books. That said, this is still a complete story and may even appeal to readers who may have not been crazy about the previous books.

The first two books were very much military sci-fi with quite a bit of action. I think this is what drove a lot of the comparisons to Heinlein. Scalzi himself has said that he is glad for those comparisons and they have helped him to sell books. (It is what got me to read Old Man’s War.) But what I find funny is that Scalzi’s similarity to Heinlein seem to me to be only in two regards. First that they are both excellent authors who can write a good story with compelling characters and second that they both wrote at least one story about a soldier in the future.

Heinlein used much of his fiction as a vehicle to illustrate and present his moral and political philosophy. Scalzi does too, but is not nearly as heavy handed in doing so. But even more importantly, the messages the two have to get across are not the same. If anyone could doubt this from the first two OMW novels (I don’t see how – but let’s just pretend.) then The Last Colony should ruthlessly crush that misconception.

The Last Colony picks up with our earlier heroes John Perry and Jane Sagan living peacefully with their relatively young family that includes adopted daughter Zoe. Things are nice and quiet for both, now regular colonists no longer in the military. They no longer have the special abilities of military members but they aren’t involved in regular combat any more either. But this quiet is short lived, when an old military acquaintance shows up and asks them to lead a new colony. Of course they accept, and then the ride begins.

The story twists and turns and is in many ways a political thriller. There is still some good action, but it is not the center piece of this tale. I enjoyed plowing through, to see where the next turn would come. The story does not fall into a rut of predictability. I had guesses where things would go next but I never ‘knew’ and a lot of my guesses where wrong, delightfully wrong because what happened was so much better than what I had thought.

Scalzi has created sympathetic and well rounded characters that pull the reader in with crisp and meaningful dialogue. Humor keeps things from getting too heavy and keeps the pace moving well. The book never feels preachy, but to get back to my earlier point, there are some strong messages. There is a strong value placed on life, all life. There is a strong value placed on the freedom of individuals; their right to know what is going on in their world and their right to determine for themselves how they will act. This is in strong contrast to Heinleins work, like Starship troopers, where there is a strong emphasis on the individual but just as high a value on setting aside those rights for the betterment of the race. Often this involved submission to a benevolent and mostly wise authority. In The Last Colony Scalzi does more to emphasize the danger of authority that does what it does because it can.

I am a hard-core Heinlein fan. I own everything published by the man and read many of them repeatedly. I see the similarities that Scalzi brings to the table but I think some have fallen into the trap of looking at everything Scalzi does in terms of Heinlein. I don’t think that is really the right path to getting the most out of Scalzi’s books. Does Scalzi owe a debt to the Sci-Fi masters? Of course, but he has his own strong voice and a high degree of skill in his craft.

The readers who felt that the military action side of Old Man’s War and Ghost Brigades was too heavy may really enjoy the more tactical and political emphasis they will find here. The flip side of that is Last Colony does not have the same sense of intimate involvement between the reader and protagonist. Often the viewpoint is more distant than in the previous two novels. This is necessary to take in the full scope of events and their import.

The afterword includes a note explaining that Scalzi is finished with John and Jane. This is a satisfying conclusion to their story while at the same time it is comforting to know that Scalzi has already been true to his word to return to this universe with Zoe’s Tale.

I would recommend that anyone new to the Old Man’s War universe, read the books in order. Not because it is necessary but because they are all so well written and fun to read. Anyone curious about the universe, but having trouble committing, can get a free taste by reading After the Coup a short story set in the Old Man’s War universe. This is a completely stand-alone story that will not spoil any of the plot line in the four novels. < a href="http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/fall2007/fiction-the-sagan-diary-by-john-scalzi/">The Sagan Diary is also available on-line, another short story but this one sitting between The Ghost Brigades and The Last Colony.

On a final note, Scalzi’s blog is an excellent source of information about his work and writing in general. Aspiring authors (and many fiction readers seem to fall into this category) would do well to keep up with it as Scalzi is extremely transparent and free with advice from writing itself to the business side of being an author.

Title: The Last Colony
Author: John Scalzi
Publisher: Tor Science Fiction
Pages: 324
ISBN: 978-0-7653-5618-5
Rating: 8/10