Goto [ Index ]

Zoe Boutin-Perry has already led an interesting life. Now, at 17, life gets even more interesting when she joins her adoptive parents on a journey to colonize a new world. When an alien threat cuts off the colony from all contact with the human Colonial Union, Zoe and her friends must try to survive and build new lives for themselves, all without the benefit of technology.

ZOMG! You mean no PDAs? Do you know how hard that makes it to keep in touch with your boyfriend and BFF?

Fortunately, those aren't the most serious obstacles Zoe has to overcome in the course of the novel. In fact, as the center of an "interstellar chess match" (from the jacket copy), it's amazing that Zoe has any time to think about boyfriends and BFFs at all, and I think author John Scalzi does an admirable job of balancing the teenage-driven angst with the meatier galactic politics and war story, win which Zoe plays a vital role. It's what keeps this book on the SFF shelves, and not just in the YA section.

I have two complaints about the book, neither of such weight to keep me from recommending it to anyone. First, the first person narration is very aggressive. Scalzi has been praised for being spot-on with his capture of an teenage girl's voice, and I have to agree. Sometimes, though, the voice gets a little too strong, a little too conscious in its attempts to sound like Zoe talking and I wish it were toned down a little, to let the story speak for itself. There's one point where Zoe gives a lengthy tribute to someone she's lost, and it is so striking in its simplicity of style that I cried a little. This over-worked voice is something that happens a lot with 1st person narration, so I don't think you can blame Scalzi for it, and at least Zoe is someone you genuinely like, so it's not a huge distraction.

My other complaint is that the novel retells the events of Scalzi's previous novel, The Last Colony, which I have not read. I couldn't shake the sense that there was stuff going on around the edges of Zoe's story that would be more meaningful if I had read the other book, particularly with regards to her relationship with her parents, and her parents' role in the political plotting going on. On the other hand, if I'd read The Last Colony I might feel ripped off about reading a story where I already knew the ending. Would ignorance of the other book have made a difference? I don't think so.

Those two complaints aside (and they really are minor, minor complaints) I think Zoe's Tale is a lot of fun to read, space opera of the best kind, because it makes you think a little bit about humanity's place in the universe without stinting on the heroic action and zippy dialog. I'll happily share it with both my 12-year-old daughter and my 70-year-old mother, and anyone in between who likes a good story.