sdlotu
5/25/2025
What you are about to read is a series of experiments by the author in expanding and elaborating on a long running story that approaches one of many possible outcomes. This s not a novel, but several thought pieces tied togetther to create the appearance of a consistent, coherent thread.
Clearly the author was tired of this story arc, but felt pressure from his publisher to crank out another sellable book to keep the cash machine ringing. The result is a scattershot of ideas and stories that loosely tie together here and there and clumsily reach a conclusion that barely jibes with much of the earlier work in the Old Man's War series.
It also appears that Scalzi was already working on the ideas for Locked In, and included several of them here either before fleshing out the later novel, or to get a better feel for the ideas before beginning writing.
Not as good as the earlier installments, but worth it if you liked them so far.