Zoë's Tale (Tor, April 2008, 416pp, ISBN978-0765356192 ) is the fourth of the Hugo-nominated novels to be made available to Hugo voters by Anticipation, the 67th World Science Fiction Convention.
Astonishingly, it is like the Gaiman and the Doctorow, a YA novel. Even more astonishingly, it is a retelling of the events in an earlier novel -The Last Colony- from another perspective, but which is still good enough to get on the ballot.
Old Man's War
Scalzi sprang to prominence in 2005 with the publication of his debut novel Old Man's War, and its two sequels. With the 2007 conclusion of the trilogy, Scalzi hinted he needed time away from an epic of 75-year-olds given new bodies with which to fight interstellar war.
However, two things led him to change his mind. One was repeated demands from readers for a new story, the other the perception among some readers that Scalzi had left dangling plot threads, and concluded his novel with what was a very well written deus ex machina, but was still a deus ex machina, no matter how well written.
The Last Colony
To answer that demand for fresh work and to explain the perceived flaws in the earlier novel, Scalzi has written a companion to The Last Colony, but written from the perspective of fifteen-year-old Zoë Boutin Perry, adopted daughter of Jane Sagan and John Perry, the protagonists of the earlier novels. Zoë is no ordinary teenager, however. Thanks to an invention of her biological father, Zoë has iconic status among the Obin, an alien race who owe their consciousness to his invention.
John and Jane are persuaded to oversee the establishment of a new human colony on the planet Roanoke, unaware that much of the truth has been withheld from them by their own government. Thrown back on their own resources by a communications and computer black-out, Zoë and her friends encounter a race of alien werewolf-like indigines, and in one the novel's high-points resolve the dispute peacefully.
However, the colony is attacked and in trying to avoid a massacre, Zoë's father tries to negotiate with the enemy, leading to subsequent accuations of treason. To avoid the colony's destruction John Perry sends Zoë to negotiate with enemy General Gau, under the protection of her Obin bodyguards, Hickory and Dickory, two of the most rounded aliens in SF since Poul Anderson's After Doomsday.
Robert A. Heinlein
Scalzi is often compared to Robert A. Heinlein, and it's easy to see why, with his straightforward narrative and everyman perspective. But teenager Zoë is a fully realized character with her sarcastic asides and her efforts to deal with what she is --rather than who she is-- and the repeated comparisons to Heinlein are damning with faint praise. Scalzi is a writer in his own right, not another heir to the late Grand Master, and a very good writer at that.
Like the other books on the ballot, Zoë's Tale is just as enjoyable for adults, and readers new to Scalzi are advised to check out his earlier books.
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