Title: The Last Colony
Series: Old Man's War
Author: John Scalzi
Genre: Sci-fi
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: April 17, 2007
Format: Paperback
Pages: 320

 

The Last Colony marks the return of John Perry from Old Man’s War, once again making him the central character. Having married Jane and adopted Zoe since the events of the last book, the family lives a peaceful farmstead life. Until the Colonial Defense Force makes them a new offer, filled with honeyed words and half-truths. Whereas the first book was about regular soldiers and the second followed special forces, this third installment focuses on civilians. Being the last book in the original trilogy for this series, The Last Colony has its ups and downs.

On the positive side, Scalzi once again shows people in different lifestyles and new situations. Once again, he demonstrates that he knows how to write more than one type of scenario. We see that while humans are not necessarily the good guys, humanity is much more fractured than most of the alien species. There is merit to what the mad scientist in the previous novel said about the CDF’s corruption. Overall, The Last Colony is a fitting end to the trilogy and a good story. Not quite a great story, but a good one.

The negatives of this book, and the trilogy as a whole, are what keep The Last Colony from being good rather than great. One key issue is the lack of descriptions. There are a fair number of aliens in this series and none of them get described in detail. Some just have a name put to them and that is it. The mental images readers can paint of these aliens is very, very limited. Tying into that, the world building is very light. The limited information is justified as the characters not knowing a lot in the grand scheme of things, but most other series find a way to fit more world building in.

On the whole, the Old Man’s War trilogy is one of the better space sci-fi series out there. Particularly the first book, which had a lot of unique concepts that were well executed. But the magic in that first book just lost momentum as the series went on. This last original installment, particularly, has some holes in it that the fourth book fixes later. And from there the quality of the series continues to dip further. Reading Zoe’s Tale after this book helps but after that, it is safe to stop with this series.

Title: Goblin Slayer, Vol. 1
Series: Goblin Slayer
Author: Kumo Kagyu
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Yen On
Release Date: December 20, 2016 (English); February 12, 2016 (Japanese)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 224

 

Goblin Slayer is a very mixed bag. It is a “love it or hate it” series for the majority of readers out there. The range of reactions to the series mainly seems to do with audience expectations. If you are looking for something that is critical and serious with top-notch world building and character development, this is not necessarily for you. If you are looking for a combination of dark humor/shock value and humor, this can be a just-for-fun story. There are good and bad things about the book and how those factors rank, or whether you consider them good/bad yourself, will determine if this is a book for you.

Starting with the good, Goblin Slayer takes place in a genuine fantasy land. This is not a “trapped in a video game” scenario. By this point, everyone knows we have enough of those. The world here seems to run on D&D-type rules, with adventurers slaying monsters but not being too overpowered. People take quests, magic has limited uses per day, and so on. The other key takeaway is that this is not a “save the world” story. The stakes are rarely high, but they are personal. Goblin Slayer (the character) is driven by an unquenchable thirst for vengeance, not a sense of righteousness.

Now, for the bad bits. None of the characters have actual names. Everyone is referred to by whatever their role is. “Goblin Slayer”, “Priestess”, “Guild Girl”, etc. And their personalities pretty much match stereotypical fantasy roles for whatever character class they use. The other glaring issue is the writing. Saying the writing is bad is a bit of a stretch, but the author is no seasoned professional. It is a very basic style. If your interests lie in great works of literature, look elsewhere.

SMALL SPOILER BELOW

So, the last thing that must be addressed could be considered either good or bad. This one is really a matter of personal preference. And that is the extreme level of violence. Having watched the anime first, I knew what was coming in the book. The violence is not quite on the level of absolute extremes like Higurashi or Elfen Lied, but it comes close. It is dark, it is brutal, and it comes completely out of left field after the soft introduction. Some people are disgusted by it but for others that is the draw of Goblin Slayer. The decision there is up to you.

Title: 11/22/63
Author: Stephen King
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Scribner
Release Date: November 8, 2011
Format: Paperback
Pages: 849

 

11/22/63 is one of Stephen King’s non-horror books, demonstrating his mastery of many genres. Like most of his novels, 11/22/63 is a long book. There are also references to some of King’s previous works, further building the shared universe where his stories take place. The premise of the book is simple: a time traveler attempts to stop JFK’s assassination. In and of itself, that summary sounds like it could be a simple short story. But there are rules to the time travel, namely that protagonist Jake Epping can only go back to a certain date, 5 years before the assassination happens. If he wants to save JFK, he will have to wait out that time. And a lot can happen to a man in 5 years.

Throughout 11/22/63, Jake’s mission to save JFK is more of a motivational device than anything else. At first, he figures he can just wait out the 5 years for the most part. But sitting and just waiting is hard for even a little while, let alone 5 years. A man has to do something in that time to keep himself busy. He has to live life. And life has a way of moving things and changing people. In some ways good and in others bad.

Jake spends his time in the past keeping an eye on Lee Harvey Oswald. But as he lives a new life in the late 50s/early 60s, he begins to meet new people. He builds relationships with the people around him, making friends and enemies alike. There is pain and there is joy, forcing Jake to make hard decisions on whether he should focus on himself or his mission. Ultimately, 11/22/63 becomes a story as much about Jake’s growth as a person as his history-changing mission.

This type of story is hard to review because of its length. It may be a long story, but the page count is not wasted. The book is detailed and a bit of a slow burn, but not overly so. By the end, it comfortably covers the roughly 5-year period of Jake’s mission. There are some bits at the beginning of the book taking place in the town of Derry, which will only fully make sense if you have read IT. While a number of King’s other books end awkwardly, that is not an issue in 11/22/63. By the last page, the story feels complete, and it’s a hell of a ride through America’s heartland and history the whole way there.

Title: The Trench
Series: MEG
Author: Steve Alten
Genre: Horror
Publisher: Pinnacle
Release Date: July 28, 1999
Pages: 352

 

The Trench picks up 4 years after the end of MEG. In that time, the surviving baby megalodon from the first book has grown to rival her mother. Trapped in the artificial lagoon of the Tanaka Institute, she has become an 8^th wonder of the world. That being said, keeping a large thought-to-be-extinct creature captive as a habit of not going well. All the while there are evil, greedy rich people attempting to manipulate the situation to their own ends. And like the first book, this all kicks off in the style of a SyFy Channel original film.

First off, any good monster story has to have a fair amount of time dedicated to the monster. The Meg herself is not a malicious creature. She is an animal driven by instinct, nothing more and nothing less. But she is also an invasive species that could cause catastrophic damage outside of her natural habitat. This time around, however, the Meg is not the only monster lurking beneath the sea.

Following 4 years of lawsuits after the first Meg rampage, the Tanaka Institute fell on hard times. Until the eccentric billionaire Benedict Singer came along. And as we all know, “eccentric” is a synonym used to replace “crazy” when talking about rich people. While Singer is a stereotypical villain, from having a god complex to speaking Latin because it makes him feel smart, his wealth makes him truly dangerous. Accompanying him is Celeste, Singer’s arm candy who is more venomous than any viper. The pair makes dangerous foes that show true monsters often spring from humanity rather than the depths of the sea.

Like the Meg, this is by no means a serious book. If you like cheesy Sharknado-esque monster movies, you will enjoy The Trench. There is a big monster, made-up science, characters who behave kind of like real people, and other classic B-movie tropes. Water monsters are always scary since man is out of his natural element in the sea. And people are still scared of sharks over 40 years after Jaws came out. With stories like The Trench still being released semi-regularly today, that is unlikely to change anytime soon.

Title: The Ghost Brigades
Series: Old Man's War
Author: John Scalzi
Genre: Sci-fi
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: May 1, 2007
Format: Paperback
Pages: 347

 

The Ghost Brigades departs a bit from Old Man’s War, being the rare series that switches main characters between books. Whereas the first book was a narrow, Starship Trooper-esque novel, The Ghost Brigades starts to expand the world building. We get to see humans and aliens do much more than shooting at each other this time around. Politics both inside and outside human culture start coming into play. It becomes more apparent here that things are not as simple as “humans good, aliens bad”. This is like the Rogue One equivalent to the series, where we see the good guys doing some definitely unethical things in order to win.

New protagonist Jared Dirac is fairly different from John Perry in the first book, but still a fantastic character. Being able to showcase an equally good story using someone with a very different personality really showcases Scalzi’s writing ability. For reasons that would contain spoilers, Dirac starts out with an almost childlike personality. And is immediately thrust into the life of a special forces soldier. He picks up traits from his brothers-in-arms, but his core personality persists throughout the story. It adds a unique nature vs. nurture aspect to Dirac and to the story as a whole.

The first book highlighted that essentially all aliens (and humans) are in a constant, all-out war. Habitable planets are extremely rare (which itself is rare for a series like this) and everyone fights for real estate. But here we start to see that there is some trade and some aliens are willing to make alliances. Not forever, but long enough to crush a common enemy. And humanity has been successful enough in its conquests to make many, many enemies. At the same time, though, old hostilities and habits can make “allies” quick to turn on each other.

What really sets The Ghost Brigades (and Old Man’s War) apart is that it is pure, military sci-fi. There are hardcore action sequences, but there is also humor. Politics play a part and so do the everyday lives of characters who know they are cogs in the machine. Scalzi manages to write all of this around a host of interesting characters, some new and others returning from the first book. All the while, he keeps things focused without turning the book into a space opera or some other sub-genre. Not to say space operas and other genres are bad, but keeping that rare focusing is a large part of what elevates The Ghost Brigades from good to great.

Title: Man of War
Series: Eric Steele
Author: Sean Parnell
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: William Morrow
Release Date: September 11, 2018
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 356

 

Man of War is an exciting action-thriller and phenomenal debut for Sean Parnell. Featuring protagonist Eric Steele, Man of War holds the same level of being crazy but not entirely unbelievable as stories like Jason Bourne and John Wick. Steele is a badass among badasses in a secret government program called the Program. The Program is a typical action story secret organization; a black ops group that goes in and kills bad guys. No politics, no red tape. They simply take out targets. Which works out well until they are betrayed by one of their own, Steele’s mentor.

Parnell has written another book about his own military experience, but Man of War is his first work of fiction. Steele and other military characters are written in a way only someone with firsthand experience could manage. Thrillers like this are filled with tropes, Man of War being no exception, but Parnell’s writing stands out with how his characters act. The way Steele walks, talks, and behaves all comes off as very real. He is in every way a soldier, as he lives and breathes. And as much as his skills are essential, it makes things harder as he faces off against a former brother-in-arms.

The story also stands out because Steele is not invincible. He is very good at what he does, the best of the best, but is still a man. Even with the training and resources at his disposal, he is just one man. Things can potentially go south due to factors outside his control. Steele is not the sort of protagonist who will go into a fight outnumbered and walk away clean. The fight will be dirty, and he may not come out unscathed. It added a depth of realism in a genre filled with Mary Sue supermen.

Along with the military action, the story also features a political element. Readers see various high-level government officials working against each other. The good guys focused on the safety of the nation and the bad guys focused on their own personal gain. Pieces of the sub-plot felt off, with its conclusion a little rushed, but it provided a good secondary antagonist. All in all, Man of War was a whirlwind of action and suspense drizzled with good pacing and great characterization.

Title: Overlord, Vol. 9: The Caster of Destruction
Series: Overlord
Author: Kugane Maruyama
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Yen On
Release Date: January 22, 2019 (English); June 29, 2015 (Japanese)
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 320

 

The Caster of Destruction picks up shortly after the end of The Invaders of the Great Tomb. Some details from the side stories in the previous book are relevant here, but it primarily continues the main story. Among Overlord fans who keep up with the original Japanese versions of the book, Vol. 9 is largely considered to be the best. The battle between the Kingdom and the Empire mentioned in previous novels takes place here in epic, fantasy proportions. That being said, there are a few faults in here that have more to do with translation quality than plot/characters.

Like the previous books, The Caster of Destruction is split into several parts. Each part shows different character perspectives and acts like a mini-story within the main story. The beginning is a bit slow as it builds up to the battle but speeds up as the war approaches. It does feel like as this series goes longer, we start to see more of the same. People underestimate Ainz and co. for <insert reason> and bad things happen to them. Many sections are from the POVs of these characters. It gets a little stale building up characters who readers know are likely to be slaughtered.

But when the slaughter actually commences, audiences will not be left bored. This is another installment in the series that hammers in a key point: Ainz is the bad guy. He may have been human once, but he is now literally a heartless monster. As the story goes on and more time passes, he seems to lose more and more of his former humanity. What he does, or orders others to do, to people continues to be horrific while he feels nothing. He is not without mercy, but his definition of ‘mercy’ is not exactly the dictionary definition.

SMALL SPOILER BELOW

One thing very irksome in The Caster of Destruction was a translation error. In this book, Nazarick becomes a country and Ainz gains a title as king. The country is called the Sorcerer Kingdom with Ainz known as the Sorcerer King. For whatever reason, the translation changed his title to King of Darkness and the nation to the Kingdom of Darkness. Which seems to be the most generic villain title in any work of fiction, ever. Considering the Overlord anime, which covered the events of this book last fall, successfully translated the Sorcerer King title correctly, I do not know what happened there. Granted it was still good to read this book given the budget issues the show had during season 3, but the mistranslation felt the book feeling somewhat incomplete.