A new colony, an attempt to bring together a patchwork of settlers, interstellar politics wherein this colony is technically illegal, an old fighting team brought out of retirement; these are the elements of "The Last Colony.

Did I mentioned treachery? Hang on a moment and we'll get there.

I read Old Man's War and thought Scalzi did a darned decent job; he actually had me thinking I'd missed his early works, but it turned out that was his first novel. I haven't read The Ghost Brigades, but I'm darned sure it's in the Summer Reading Bag and I just didn't get to it last year. Darn. ...but I didn't need it for The Last Colony.

This one starts off with the premise of two retired (peacefully so and just leave us alone!) military/special forces types having built a decent, quiet life for themselves as a payoff for their efforts. ...and no, they don't get recalled so much as 'maneuvered' into taking the administrators positions in a new colony the over-government wants established. An easy deal, they get their old place back when the new place is rolling on its own; all they have to do is provide their expertise (more administrative and personality tamping than gun fighting) with these disparate groups (yes, groups) of colonists from across a bit of a broad spectrum of the planets handled by the over-government. Thing is, they're being set up. ...and on more than one level.

This colony is scheduled for destruction. Not failure, annihilation. It seems another over-government doesn't want humans expanding willy-nilly onto just any old planet. ...and the good guys think it would be cool to drop the colonists on a different planet than what they've been prepped for (to misdirect the bad guys). Oh, and they take away their tech too. It's a darned good thing they have some Plain Folk along.

That should be enough, but the colonists do have some resources. ...and they have considerable brain and analytic power. ...and they figure things out pretty well. ...and when push comes to shove from the over-government, it's the government flack who is pushed back.

Folks, this one's a good read. I'll give it four stars: it works okay as a stand alone, ties in well with the first two, and it keeps your interest well enough to keep the book from wandering off under a pile some place. It provides a darned decent resolution to the conflict set up for the reader to parse through.

I'm off to read the middle book in the series...
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Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Tor Books (April 17, 2007)
ISBN-10: 0765316978
ISBN-13: 978-0765316974
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