Review: The Last Colony

Thirty years from now, when we’re all looking back nostalgically at the great science fiction writers of the beginning of the twenty-first century, John Scalzi is a name that will come up a lot. From the humble origins of writing an online serial novel, he became one of the big names in modern SF. I’ve previously read Agent to the Stars, The Android’s Dream, Old Man’s War, and The Ghost Brigades and highly recommend them.

The Last Colony picks up where TGB left off. John Perry and Jane Sagan have both retired from the military, and have cushy government jobs on a backwoods colony. They’ve adopted Zoe, the daughter of the villain from the previous novel. Long after they’ve settled in to life on the colony, a Colonial Union general convinces them to take charge of Earth’s latest colonization effort, Roanoke. From the beginning, it’s clear that a lot of political manoeuvring is at play, and when they finally get there, things get interesting.