Gretchen Trujillo is a space diplomat in the latest story from the Old Man’s War series by John Scalzi. As with the previous story, the central character is neither old nor a man. THE SHATTERING PEACE is set a decade after the last battle, when the legions of troops made by regenerating elderly Earth citizens in new, strong bodies have largely been set aside.
You’ll really need to have read The Last Colony and perhaps Zoe’s Tale, the two previous stories. Gretchen grew up on the troubled planet of Roanoke Colony. She was the best friend of Zoe Boutin Perry, daughter of John Perry from the original episodes. Having palled around with large aliens called the Obin, learning languages and manners of other races comes naturally to Gretchen. She’s also good at combat. She’s assigned to find out why a colony has disappeared.
At this point, a fragile peace holds among the parties of The Colonial Union, Earth and the Conclave of worlds. Don’t worry about it if you haven’t caught up on the other tales; this story mainly concerns itself with a highly advanced race that doesn’t deign to trade or make deals often, the Consu. They were last spotted interfering in the empty space where there used to be a hollowed asteroid containing Unity Colony. What is going on? With her Obin assistant, Ran, who is learning human ways, Gretchen takes ship. Of course, she walks into trouble.
Unity Colony is an interesting concept, and we learn a lot about the physics of skip drives, which take starships around in double quick time. Most of the story is set aboard ships. There’s combat in a way that reminds me of the battle school of Ender’s Game. The downside of having read a lot of Sci-Fi is that I keep comparing books to other books. So far, there are only so many ways to do the same things, but this fight certainly takes my breath away.
Come visit the universe of Old Man’s War, where the characters by now feel like friends and the aliens are increasingly deadly. Maybe the message to take is that women are more diplomatic than men, this diplomacy being needed for peace and prosperity. THE SHATTERING PEACE is a worthy successor to the earlier instalments. John Scalzi has also written several fill-in books to pursue the space war theme between the major events. A glance at the shorts, with ominous titles, makes me glad that peace is being pursued.
After a decade, acclaimed science fiction master John Scalzi returns to the galaxy of the Old Man\'s War series with the long awaited seventh book, The Shattering PeaceTHE PEACE IS SHATTERING
For a decade, peace has reigned in interstellar space. A tripartite agreement between the Colonial Union, the Earth, and the alien Conclave has kept the forces of war at bay, even when some would have preferred to return to the fighting and struggle of former times. For now, more sensible heads have prevailed – and have even championed unity.
But now, there is a new force that threatens the hard-maintained peace: The Consu, the most advanced intelligent species humans have ever met, are on the cusp of a species-defining civil war. This war is between Consu factions... but nothing the Consu ever do is just about them. The Colonial Union, the Earth and the Conclave have been unwillingly dragged into the conflict, in the most surprising of ways.
Gretchen Trujillo is a mid-level diplomat, working in an unimportant part of the Colonial Union bureaucracy. But when she is called to take part in a secret mission involving representatives from every powerful faction in space, what she finds there has the chance to redefine the destinies of humans and aliens alike... or destroy them forever.
No excerpt available.
© 2003-2026