Turned it off after 4 hours

I loved the first 3 Old Man's War books, but I couldn't get into this one. The writing is not really suited for Audiobooks - way too much dialog where each person just says a single, short sentence which really makes it obvious how often the narrator had to say "said so-and-so". Regardless, the stories just aren't interesting. With the previous books, Scalzi mixed humor, sci-fi and interesting plots. This has none of those things.

12 people found this helpful

A Middling Position

First and formost, if you haven't read the Old Man's War series and are considering picking up this book - what are you doing?

Stop.

Right now.

Even if you've stumbled onto this page by accident and your curiosity is naught but a faint glimmer in the distance, that's good enough. Go to the search bar and find his earlier works before coming to this one.

It's not that the Human Division (located in the same universe as OMW) won't make any sense (it won't) or even that there are spoilers in the Human Division for the previous series (there are) - the truth is that Scalzi's first foray into this world was better. As a matter of fact, it was fantastic.

His characters had more shades, the aliens were more interesting, the science was explored more deeply, and the plot line was more intricate.

Scalzi is true to his style in this newest novel - easy and interesting, funny without pandering to the audience, and the story zips along - but it's clear that the Human Division is propped up by the strength of the last series.

Don't get me wrong - Scalzi stands heads above the rest of herd, and is still one of the most engaging sci-fi writers around. I'll continue reading the series with the same relish as I read most of Scalzi's work, but given how high he set the bar with the first series, it's hard not to feel a little let down.


Also, as an aside: the dialogue tags. My god, the dialogue tags. In the written form it's easy enough to gloss over the word "said", but listening to it repeated over and over and over was occasionally, frustratingly, hugely distracting.

Every so often, I found myself thinking of synonyms that Scalzi could have used in place of the word "said" and noting the rare occasions he chose to use them.

If that's liable to bother you, you might want to consider getting the book.

91 people found this helpful

not a novel

Not even a novella, This book is a collection of short stories from the old man's war series. The author and Audible should have been honest enough to say so ahead of time

6 people found this helpful

Smart People solving problems

This story takes place in John Scalzi's Old Man's War universe. Personally, I liked but didn't love Old Man's War, and the sequels dropped off fast for me. I'd given up on that universe, but this story was originally released serially, I'd heard good things about the first episode, so risked a buck. Enjoyed it so much, got the series, and then the collection when released.

For centuries, the Colonial Union didn't have a lot of use of diplomacy. When humans broke out into interstellar space, they were really good at this fighting thing. An overcrowded Earth supplied an unending number of soldiers and colonists, so the CU went where they wanted, kicked everyone out of their way, and killed anyone who wouldn't move. Their soldiers were highly developed cyborg forces that originally had been the old and dying from Earth (put them in a new body with genetic and nanotech improvements). Many died in the wars, but there were a lot of old people on Earth who wanted a second chance.

Unfortunately for the Colonial Union, the good times have come to an end. Earth has learned how much the CU was holding it back, so no more colonists or soldiers. And the other races have formed an alliance. So brute force won't work anymore, they have to be smart.

And I like smart.

The first story, for example, has a nice bit of problem solving at its core - how do you find a black box that isn't meant to be found unless it responds to the right signals, and the battery has run down. And once the black box is found - how to deal with the data inside and its implications.

This story builds on the tech from the OMW universe. It's possible, if you haven't read OMW, you may be at sea with some of the references (BrainPal, SmartBlood, and so forth). They get explained, briefly, I don't know if that will be enough (having come into it knowing about those).

As I said, the story was originally released serially. This collected edition includes two bonus stories. The first, After The Coup, was a prequel to the other stories, amusing but not at the same level I thought. The second, though, was a gem. Starting with the title, "Halfte Sorvalh Eats a Churro and Speaks to the Youth of Today", it is placed after the events in the other stories. It's a wonderful little vignette of an alien talking to some schoolkids after the traumatic events in the last episode.

Yes, traumatic events in the last episode. While this is a great tale on it's own, the final episode all but has a "to be continued" sign stuck on the end. I don't mind, and am looking forward to the "next season" of the Human Division.

One minor annoyance, though. First, when writing dialog, John Scalzi does way too much "Blah Blah", he said. "Stuff stuff stuff", she said. "But interjection interjection", George said. In an audiobook, that does get annoying. Annoying to the point that the performance got four stars. I know these books are "unabridged" when recorded - but maybe a little editing for things like that would be appropriate.

25 people found this helpful

Boring, cliche crap. Don't waste your time.

Book summary:
- he said
- she said
- he said
- she said
- he said
- she said


It's not even a complete storyline, just a bunch of random tales set in the same universe, poorly written, with lame humor for kids under 14. Each book the author releases gets more stupid.

3 people found this helpful

The B Team in action

When reading a book I often was wondering what happened to the secondary characters. What they did when not helping the hero? What kind of life they lived? Now I had the possibility to get to know more about some of them.

In The Human Division I met Harry Wilson of the Old Farts. If you haven't read the Old Man's War, you may not know who the hell I'm talking about. I can tell to you: you missed a great story, so you better go and read it. If you did, probably you remember the group of old people who signed up for the Colonial Defence Force, got a new enhanced body and became green in the process. Yes, they were the good Old Farts. They went in different ways in the CDF, Wilson became a Lieutenant in the technical service. Lately he got assigned to assist diplomats, who - well, to put it mildly - were the B Team. But don't get it wrong, in this dangerous universe even the B Team saves the ass of the Colonial Union once or twice. You may think that the most dangerous in diplomacy could be that you die of boredom during endless speeches in meetings. But rest assured: even diplomats get shot at or sucked out into vacuum from the space lock of the ship. And the assisting personnel may be beaten up by half size aliens and they may have to perform skydiving while the space station they just left is blown up. Yo know, the usual space stuff.

The book consists of 13 seemingly separate stories, but by the end a grandiose conspiracy plot takes shape against the Colonial Union. Or the Conclave. Or both. It's not really clear who is behind the scenes, and what is their purpose exactly. This is why I can hardly wait for the next book of the Old Man's War universe.

I really enjoyed Scalzi's sarcastic humour, it is one of the reasons he became one of my favourite authors. The narration was excellent, William Dufris got Scalzi's humour right.

8 people found this helpful

Dissapointing

If you could sum up The Human Division in three words, what would they be?

A TV show.

Would you recommend The Human Division to your friends? Why or why not?

Probably not. See below for why.

Have you listened to any of William Dufris’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Mr. Dufris is a competent and consistent narrator. He does a good job with Human Division.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No

Any additional comments?

I loved Scalzi's Old Man's War and the next two books in the series. I laughed at Agent to the Stars. I'm having a hard time finishing this story. I've met the primary character before. He's the same sarcastic, wise cracking guy we saw in Agent to the Stars, Red Shirts and Fuzzy Nation. The name has been changed, but not the voice. I want new characters in a new book.

A small but irritating point is that Scalzi almost never omits the "he said - she said" after dialog. This intrudes into the narration. Wilson said. Schmitt said. Wilson said. Schmitt said. Wilson said. Schmitt said. Wilson said. Schmitt said. Wilson said. Schmitt said. That works fine for written work, but with more and more books getting made into audiobooks there should be a class for writers that brings home the point that not every utterance needs a he said after it to keep the conversation clear.

Another minor point is that this, strictly speaking, isn't a novel. It reads like a series of TV shows that loosely revolves around a theme and cast. Honestly, it isn't working to hold my interest, and I've read or listened to every novel that Scalzi has had published.

28 people found this helpful

A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS

WE ONLY NEED THE HEADS
I am a huge fan of Scalzi. I had listened to the first episode, The B-Team for free and liked it, so I got the whole book. I found I liked episode 1, even better the second time around. There are 13 episodes and two stories. You do not get the final two stories if you just get the episodes. The final two stories are funny and great. Many of the episodes are very good I was bored by episode 9 and 10, but the rest were good to great.

THE DOG KING
These are loosely connected, so it is mostly 15 short stories with a common theme. It is rare to have this many good stories in a collection. If you are a fan of short stories this is a must.

WALK THE PLANK
Scalzi's writing in these stories remind me a lot of Asimov's Robot stories. Asimov would expand on his robots and the laws of robotics with each story. Here Scalzi often expands on Smart Blood and what can be done with it. Asimov was not as funny, but it was a different time. If you like Asimov try this series.

26 people found this helpful

Best entry in series since first book

Good characters, good plot and lots of laughs make this the best entry in the “Old Man’s War” series since the book that gave the series its title. The main character, Harry Wilson, bears what I think of as the typical Scalzi acerbic wit and ability to creatively solve just about any challenge thrown at him. I lost count of the number of times I laughed out loud while listening to this on Audible. I tried bookmarking some of the places that made me laugh, like this part, where Wilson is telling an ambassador that something has gone horribly wrong:

“Humped the bunk … Screwed the pooch … Gone fubar… insert your own metaphor for things going sideways here.”

But somehow all by itself it’s not quite as funny as when heard as part of the flow of the story. The banter is fast and furious, and nearly all the characters talk like they are delivering one-liners from a sitcom, but somehow it works. I lay a LOT of the credit for that with the narrator of the audio version, William Dufris.

This book was definitely meant to be heard, not read. Eschewing his usual narrator of choice (Wil Wheaton) for Dufris was a good move. Dufris does a better job than Wheaton of giving the characters different voices, even though they are all dishing out one-liners at breakneck speed.

A good example is the story of the kingsflower plant. This is a huge, Venus flytrap-type plant that eats an ambassador’s dog. So naturally, our hero has to get swallowed by the plant in order to retrieve said dog. The laconic voice used by the narrator for the character of the gardener (“Don’t be alarmed when the plant starts cutting off the circulation to your extremities, it’s a perfectly normal part of the process,”) was the defining reason this section was laugh-out-loud funny.

It is definitely worth it to stick around after the main story has wrapped up to listen to two additional short stories set in the same universe. I enjoyed both “After the Coup” and “Hafte Sorvalh Eats a Churro and Speaks to the Youth of Today.”

After reading some of the other reviews here on Goodreads, I now realize that this was originally released as a serialized novel via Audible and that a sequel(s) are forthcoming. As long as Scalzi is writing and Dufris is reading, I will be listening.

7 people found this helpful

SciFi TV series in audio book form

This book was originally a series of short stories released once a week, a format Scalzi will repeat again. Tellingly, in his announcement that he would be writing another Human Division novel, Scalzi said that he had been renewed for "Season 2." The metaphor of a science fiction television series exactly nails the good and bad of this novel.

The books are a loose story arc of self-contained episodes taking place in the Old Man's War universe. Some of the episodes- sorry, I mean stories - are very solid, some are pretty mediocre. The overarching plot is dished out in small doses, which makes the pacing feel uneven. At its best, it is like watching a great Star Trek episode. At its worst, it is like watching a bad one. There is never a moment where the novel breaks down, but it is rarely very compelling either.

I am a Scalzi fan, but, as much as I like his work, he can be extremely uneven. His most compelling work (Old Man's War, for example) is like a smarter, modern-day Heinlein, with wonderful characters and interesting settings. At his less-than-best (Redshirts, this novel) he is still entertaining, but the formula of witty, insubordinate characters and repeated low-grade mystery-solving becomes a little obvious. He is still one of the best writers of fun science fiction out there, but I keeping hoping for another home run. While a solid entertaining time, with occasional moments of brilliance, this is a base hit.

22 people found this helpful