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Khorum · 11-16-2006, 09:09 AM

I enjoyed the book immensely, although it was a little short. It's practically Hugo-fodder if you know what the award tends to lean on---consider that Starship Troopers, Ender's Game and even A Fire Upon The Deep were all about the perspective of unwitting citizen-soldiers in an alien war, it falls into the pattern.

The book was quick, reads like a screenplay, and was amusing although the science was a little thin. Scalzi's angle that most of the CDF's technology is stolen/adapted from aliens is pretty plausible imo, considering Vinge's Technological Singularity expansion on Hurzweil's concepts: namely that technology becomes commoditized to the point where it becomes as culture-neutral as mathematics, and just as easy to steal.

I came in expecting much worse for a first novel actually, but I was pleasantly surprised. I did get the VERY strong impression that the novel started life as a script though, Scalzi does a lot of his development and exposition via dialogue and every resolution feels aggressive and physical enough to be on film or TV.

11-16-2006, 09:09 AM	#8 (permalink)
Khorum Registered User Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Chicago Posts: 4,594 -33 Internets	I enjoyed the book immensely, although it was a little short. It's practically Hugo-fodder if you know what the award tends to lean on---consider that Starship Troopers, Ender's Game and even A Fire Upon The Deep were all about the perspective of unwitting citizen-soldiers in an alien war, it falls into the pattern. The book was quick, reads like a screenplay, and was amusing although the science was a little thin. Scalzi's angle that most of the CDF's technology is stolen/adapted from aliens is pretty plausible imo, considering Vinge's Technological Singularity expansion on Hurzweil's concepts: namely that technology becomes commoditized to the point where it becomes as culture-neutral as mathematics, and just as easy to steal. I came in expecting much worse for a first novel actually, but I was pleasantly surprised. I did get the VERY strong impression that the novel started life as a script though, Scalzi does a lot of his development and exposition via dialogue and every resolution feels aggressive and physical enough to be on film or TV.