The Last Colony

Again, this one is quite different from the first two books: everything encountered before falls together (or at least gets a cameo) to create a monumental story that encompasses even the parts of the universe not yet explored. There are a few threads that don't seem to go very far and are mainly used to shed more light on the situation as a whole, but that is hardly noticeable among the many other events that do form a part of the larger puzzle.

Politically, Scalzi doesn't want to take a clear stance for or against the Colonial Union and what it stands for, and instead has his characters discuss both sides thoroughly and with contantly shifting sympathies. The reader will have to follow along whatever arguments seem to make the most sense.

Originally, this was meant to be the last story in the Colonial Defense Forces universe, but at the time of writing this short review, there are already three further novels and a couple of short stories, so that idea seems to have been abandoned.

You know how sometimes you don't feel like getting into anything too engrossing or mentally taxing but instead just wanna enjoy something mindless? Military sci-fi tends to be that genre for me, specifically delivered in one of those squat mass market paperbacks. Having already read the first two books in this series, this seemed like the right time to pick through the third.

Our returning main character from the first book is retired ex-military now though, and gets roped into a civilian colony project that quickly spirals into a, "what isn't our government telling us?" mystery with a series of tense backroom discussions. Which is to say this is a more political and dramatic story than I was expecting, and the sole action scene at the climax felt a little rushed and unearned. Oddly, this also didn't feel like a blatant setup for an immediate sequel neither.

All in all it's a fine sci-fi colonization story set in a universe and with a cast of supporting characters I'm growing to enjoy but told from the perspective of a protagonist I don't really care for. This seems to be the last book in the series told from this guy's point of view however, so I'll likely continue with the next three books at some point.