The Human Division (Episode 1) - The B Team by John Scalzi [Review] : Bart's Bookshelf

Info:

Title: The Human Division – The ‘B’ Team
Author: John Scalzi
Publisher: Tor
ISBN: 9781466830516

Rating:

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For those that don’t already know, John Scalzi is initially releasing his latest novel in the Old Man’s War series in the form of 13 ‘episodes’ or short stories which will eventually form the full story, some will be very short – about 6000 words – some like The B Team will be longer at around 22000 words, each one will cost £0.65p/$0.99c. (All 13 should cost about the same as the compete story, when it is released in May).

The B Team is a strong re-entry in to the Old Man’s War universe, re-introducing us to an old friend and a bunch of new characters, as they rush to find out who tried to sabotage an important trade negotiation, and complete those negotiations. The repercussions should they fail, being high.

In, The ‘B’ Team, John Scalzi does a great job, of reminding us of the world and the current state of affairs, and building the tension for both this ‘episode’ and future ones. Dropping back in to this world, was just wonderful, I’d forgotten how well John Scalzi weaves in humour though dialogue, and I think that was one of the highlights, there were some real laugh out loud moments.

On the showing of this first outing, I think the episodic device, is going to work out quite well, and should add to the story-telling rather than detract from it.

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The opening episode of The Human Division, John Scalzi’s new thirteen-episode novel in the world of his bestselling Old Man’s War. Beginning on January 15, 2013, a new episode of The Human Division will appear in e-book form every Tuesday.

Colonial Union Ambassador Ode Abumwe and her team are used to life on the lower end of the diplomatic ladder. But when a high-profile diplomat goes missing, Abumwe and her team are last minute replacements on a mission critical to the Colonial Union’s future. As the team works to pull off their task, CDF Lieutenant Harry Wilson discovers there’s more to the story of the missing diplomats than anyone expected…a secret that could spell war for humanity.

At the publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.

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Buy: The Human Division – The ‘B’ Team by John Scalzi

One Response

nrlymrtl February 4, 2013 at 7:14 pm | Permalink | Reply

This was a freebie on Audible.com (don’t know if it still is) and it was my first introduction to Scalzi’s work. I can see what everyone is raving about now. I plan to give Old Man’s War a read and to also catch all 13 episodes of this new book when it comes out in book format.