I'm not normally big on the idea of doing a "sequel" in a series as a re-telling of the previous book but from a different POV, but considering this was Zoe's take on the events of The Last Colony I was pretty excited to dive into this. There were a few points in The Last Colony I wished had been gone into with more detail but couldn't with it being from John's perspective, and this did a great job of telling its own story without doing a ton of re-treads of scenes I'd already read from his perspective since Zoe spends a lot of time doing her own things.

I loved the tone of Zoe and her best friend, Gretchen. They were spot on for smart, snarky teens and reminded me a lot of my own friends in high school. He even got that right level of pretension that comes with being a teen and being smart, especially with the poetry of Enzo.

Definitely worth a read for fans of the series and I loved seeing Zoe take charge so much! It's always refreshing to see science fiction with a female lead that's allowed to actually take the lead.

The last 60 or so pages help fill in some plot from The Last Colony, but other than that I'd skip this one unless you're a fan of teenage angst.

Zoe is wonderfully heroic and a tremendously admirable character. (She is cut from the same cloth as Buffy the vampire slayer, as most fictional teen characters are in the last two decades, but more realistic and human normal.) I don't know if she was born to be a charismatic independent thinker, or if she grew into the expectations of people around her, but it becomes clear she can think quickly on her feet when the immediate threats of death begin to swarm about.

This is an interesting teen perspective version of the book, 'The Lost Colony', the previous book in the Old Man's War series. She is an ordinary kid who must either rise to the challenges created by having adventurous parents (two sets!) who traipse across the universe or be emotionally crushed by her losses. In both books, her biological and adoptive parents expect her to pull her weight (age appropriate). But this reader never felt she wasn't reading a story told by a realistic teenager, however precocious Zoe was in tight spots.

Some authors would have stuck into one book the third and fourth novels of the series, using alternating chapters between the viewpoints of Zoe and her stepfather, John Perry; I think I might have preferred that construction of the plot better. However, this book is all Zoe's voice and she speaks as the 17-year-old teen that she is. The in-depth knowledge and awareness of the political and military strategies swirling around John and Jane's life from the previous books are missing from 'Zoe's Tale'. Instead, we gain insight into Zoe's childish girl perspective as the same events unreel, as well as see how she influenced and solved what were still mysteries by the end in the previous book. By the end of this novel, all loose ends are tied up.

I liked it. But it's written in a teen girly voice, even if Zoe does do strategic saving-the-world sacrificing when required. Some might not like her Buffy-the-vampire-slayer-isque dialogue, but I was taking notes for my own personal use. Life, and her parents, have made of Zoe a person who faces her fear, and this was REALLY cool to me.

At first I didn't think this book could offer much, since it is retelling - from a different point of view - a story I've already read. Scalzi does a great job, however, in making this story worthwhile. I enjoyed it tremendously, and even got a bit teary toward the end. Recommended if you've read the first three in the series.

The best of the four in the series, in my opinion. I had a much tighter connection to Zoe than I did to John or Jane. This book even brought tears to my eyes twice. Very engaging and well written!

He did retell the last book and that counted against the story. But it was fun reading more about the werewolves and the Consu and the Obin. It was worth reading, but I wish I didn't have to read the same story twice.

This is basically the same story as told in the previous installment of the series, only from a different perspective. And IMHO it shifts to a kind of young-adult book which is slightly disappointing. The storytelling is good, as usually with Scalzi, and the language is witty. However, it feels pretty bland and almost entirely uninteresting for someone coming from the previous book. The only real info we get is a more in-depth description of the Obin race. It could have been a short-story instead.