Author: John Scalzi
Cover Artist: John Harris
Publisher: Tor
Binding: Hardcover
Publication Date: August 2008
In Zoë’s Tale John Scalzi changes stride – this stand-alone novel set in the Old Man’s War universe is told entirely from the perspective of a 17-year old girl, intentionally being accessible to both adults and a young-adult audience.
Zoë’s Tale presents a different view of the events covered in Scalzi’s previous novel, The Last Colony, with the point of view from Zoë, the adopted daughter of John Perry and Jane Sagan, the main stars of The Last Colony. Simply stated, the plot involves Zoë’s adoptive parents being chosen to lead a new colony of humans within a universe where habitable planets are coveted. Politics greatly complicate the situation, and things become ever more dangerous – and through it all, Zoë deals with the same teenage trials common to the more privileged of the human race. Oh, and Zoë is also a virtual demigod worshiped by an entire race of aliens that provide her with two body guards who continually record their experiences to share with the rest of their species. Navigating the tricky ground of writing a story that many readers will already know, Scalzi gets to show us another side to those events, addressing the wants and issues his fans had with The Last Colony and potentially attracting an entirely new audience to his world.
One thing that I love about John Scalzi’s books is that they are simply fun to read. His choice of words makes for fast, easy, and enthralling reading. His humor and wit entertain and even though this might not be the most innovative or mind-blowing science fiction out there, it’s certainly among the most fun to read. Equally impressive is that this book crosses that magical (and often forbidden) line between adult and young adult fiction – I can say it worked well for me, and I imagine it will work equally well for the young adult audience.
Zoë’s Tale is far and away Scalzi’s best book yet. The voice of a teenage girl is always tricky, yet Scalzi, a male in his upper-30s, manages to get it rather right. Zoë is just as snarky, inconsistent, short on judgment, emotional, and remarkable as any teenager can be. She really comes alive through Scalzi’s witty dialogue and uncertain internal discourse – it’s very easy to imagine Scalzi channeling his pride of his own young daughter into Zoë, and I get the feeling that his daughter is his number one audience.
One of the aspects of Zoë’s Tale that I enjoyed most is Scalzi’s treatment of the colonists’ PDAs – think something like the most techno-jacked-up blackberry of today, except that it is much more powerful and important to the every-minute life of people. Due to a need for a complete radio blackout, all of these devices must be confiscated and the colonists must rely on non-wireless technology and their own brains. I recall not thinking too much about this when reading The Last Colony, but seeing this event from the perspective of a teenager lends an entirely greater weight to things. The parallel to the youth of today cannot be missed.
The success or failure of Zoë’s Tale resides entirely with its namesake: Zoë. As I’ve indicated above, Scalzi scores a winner with Zoë in this book (in spit of my finding her a bit flat and unconvincing in The Last Colony). She is the every-teenager with all the usual trouble of personal interaction, young love, adolescent angst, with an added danger and the fact that she is literally worshiped by an entire alien species. All this forces Zoë to discover who she is and who she will be – the identity struggle that all teens deal with – and the realization that while she is literally the center of a whole species’ universe, her actions have consequences, and the view outward is of great importance. While Zoë is a remarkable person (perhaps even too remarkable), it works and it’s this success that raises Zoë’s Tale above Scalzi’s other books.
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