Wednesday Knights Blog

In October, John Scalzi placed an advance reader copy of his new book, The Last Colony, up for auction. The auction was to benefit the John M. Ford Book Endowment. In his post announcing the auction, Scalzi added additional bonuses (additional books or ARCs) if certain bidding levels were reached. The final level was $5,000. With respect to that, Scalzi said:

“I’ll write you your own short story. Because, damn, if you’re paying $5K, you deserve it.”

Bill Schafer, the publisher of Subterranean Press bid $5,000 and won the auction. The short story that Scalzi promised to write in exchange for the $5,000 bid became The Sagan Diary, a novelette set in Scalzi’s Old Man’s War universe. The Sagan Diary is a first person narrative told from the perspective of Jane Sagan, a major character in all three of Scalzi’s “Old Man” books.

This book takes place after the second book, The Ghost Brigades, and before The Last Colony. If you have not read either Old Man’s War or The Ghost Brigades, I suggest that you take a pass on this book.

The book is short, 89 pages in my “trade” edition (which is hardcover), and is divided into eight chapters, each dealing with Jane Sagan’s struggles in converting from a person created in a lab to be a killing machine to a “normal” human who settles down with a family.

The third chapter, which deals with communication, really reinforced the difference between the members of the Ghost Brigades and the regular soldiers. Although both are genetically altered to be superior fighters, the members of the Ghost Brigades are “born” into a state of communicating electronically rather than physically. The thoughts in the chapter about dealing with “normal” people who speak really emphasized those differences.

My favorite line in the books opens the fourth chapter: “I rose early the day I killed my friend.” That line grabbed me the first time that I read it. So much about what the members of the Ghost Brigades are like are contained in just those few words.

The chapter on Sex was surprisingly good. Again, the beginning of the chapter is just great:

“I must apologize to you. I am sitting with you and you are talking to me, telling me about the world to which we are going, where you and I will start our lives together. I’m sure what you’re saying is important–critical things I need to know, about a place I have never been but where I will spend the rest of my days. I am sure you are telling me things I need to hear, but I must confess I’m not hearing a single word.

Instead, I am intent on your face, and the movement of your lips, and the memory of how those lips feel when they are on me.”

That is great stuff. In those short paragraphs, Scalzi demonstrates that, despite the fact the two characters present in the scene are genetically engineered super fighting machines, they are still human, just like the rest of us.

The final chapter also hit a nice note in describing the internal conflict that Jane is facing as her consciousness is about to be transferred to her new body. Although we will likely not have to face that scenario, the demons that she struggles with in Chapter 8 are the same demons that we all struggle with in facing new challenges in our lives when major changes (whether chosen by us or foisted upon us) occur. Scalzi strikes nice balance of bringing these issues to the forefront without getting sappy.

Overall I enjoyed the book. I will say, however, that I am not sure that I really like looking that deeply into anyone’s mind. If you enjoy the Old Man’s War series, I recommend picking this up. Alternatively, on the same day that the book was released, Scalzi released a free audio version of the book on his website. The readers are all women and include Elizabeth Bear, Mary Robinette Kowal, Ellen Kushner, Karen Meisner, Cherie Priest and Helen Smith.