Zoe's Tale cover art

Zoe's Tale

An Old Man's War Novel

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

£5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options

Zoe's Tale

By: John Scalzi
Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
Try for £0.00

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £19.09

Buy Now for £19.09

About this listen

How do you tell your part in the biggest tale in history?

I ask because it's what I have to do. I'm Zoe Boutin Perry: A colonist stranded on a deadly pioneer world. Holy icon to a race of aliens. A player (and a pawn) in a interstellar chess match to save humanity, or to see it fall. Witness to history. Friend. Daughter. Human. Seventeen years old.

Everyone on Earth knows the tale I am part of. But you don't know my tale: How I did what I did — how I did what I had to do — not just to stay alive but to keep you alive, too. All of you. I'm going to tell it to you now, the only way I know how: not straight but true, the whole thing, to try make you feel what I felt: the joy and terror and uncertainty, panic and wonder, despair and hope. Everything that happened, bringing us to Earth, and Earth out of its captivity. All through my eyes.

It's a story you know. But you don't know it all.

©2008 John Scalzi; (P)2008 Macmillan Audio Adventure Fantasy Military Science Fiction Space Opera

Critic reviews

“The Last Colony will kick your butt across the galaxy and make you care.” —Rick Kleffel, The Agony Column, on The Last Colony

“Scalzi's captivating blend of off-world adventure and political intrigue remains consistently engaging.” —Booklist on The Last Colony

“In Heinleinesque fashion, the book is loaded with scenes of comradeship, isolation, ruthlessness and the protocols, which govern the lives of active-duty soldiers. But this is where Scalzi, famous for his blog ‘The Whatever,' surpasses Heinlein. Scalzi weaves in subtle discussions of humanity's growing fear of aging and our simultaneous attraction and repulsion to the Frankenstein-like creatures we are able to create.” —San Antonio Express-News on The Ghost Brigades
All stars
Most relevant
it was a different installment, but this gave a point of view that added to the overall story. As some reviewers have mentioned there were differences in pronunciations from the other books in the series, but they did not bother me. Many names are pronounced differently by different people. The writing was emotive and insightful, a definate hit for me.

I liked it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
it's a good read but it is an retelling of The Last Colony except from Zoe's point of view. This book seems to be younger than the other books as well, I wonder if Scalzi thought it's about a teenager so it should be for a teenager. I wonder if I had this before TLC would I have felt like TLC was unnecessary‽

it's okay, but sort of an unnecessary story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
if you are a teen - listen to this, no need for the others. if you read the others this is a parallel thay basically repeats the last in the trilogy.

Is it aimed at teens? adds barely anything

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Only interesting for the last couple hours really. The narrator pronounced some words very strange. Almost like it's from another franchise for young adults

Should have been a short story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I'd have preferred if the Scalzi had spliced together The Lost Colony with this book, it covers the exact same time period but from a different perspective. It made the book less interesting than the previous one as you are just waiting for events to unfold. This book is optional in the series but it might be possible to swap it with the previous one. If you are a fan of the series you should get this book, or perhaps you're compelled to read it for completeness sake, in that case you should stop reading reviews and get it already.

Should have been spliced

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews