What better way to go out on CBR bingo than on the “this is the end” square for the last of the Old Man’s War series entitled The End of All Things? Poetic. This wraps up the war between the CDF and Conclave (with special guest Equilibrium) in Star Wars fashion – with politics! Ok, im being unduly harsh, Scalzi does what he’s done this whole series to great effect – taking an interesting idea from his last book and expanding on it – particularly […]
Oh the humanity! Too much humanity!
In one of my Old Man’s War reviews I mentioned that Scalzi’s strong suit wasn’t in crafting disparate personality types; his best characters are all (presumably, but I’m confident on the logic) stand ins for John Scalzi, which is fine because I like them all. This book has more than a dozen characters we share a POV with. It’s a lot, and it doesn’t play to the author’s strengths. I had a tough time separating characters for just this reason, and it somewhat undermines Scalzi’s […]
I’m not sure I’d do better, and I used to be a teen girl
The more John Scalzi I read, the less convinced I am that he can write characters who aren’t John Scalzi. Mind, that’s not entirely a criticism as I thoroughly enjoy John Scalzi, and so I like all his characters who are very clearly him as well. Same reason I like Bill Murray; you don’t buy a ticket to a Bill Murray movie for the same reason you see a Meryl Streep movie. Disappearing into a role is not the same as embodying a character so […]
Space Western
I do love some sci-fi, and I’m fully aware that Star Trek TOS owes as massive a debt to old western serials as sci fi owes to Star Trek. But man, I just can not get into westerns. At all. I watched The Searchers specifically because it’s the best western out there and thought “yeah I’m sure it is, and it took all of my focus to pay attention to it” after the credits rolled. So it’s not scalzi’s fault I didn’t love this, as […]