Oh this book has me all mixed up. I read it because in the linear to-read-within-the-family lists, this book was placed after Last Colony. I didn't realize it was basically the retelling of that tale but through Zoe's eyes.

First. It was good. It was very good YA style book. It filled in a lot of missing details and after we branched away from the colony it read even better.

The however.... However, I would not have read this book right after Last Colony if I had known this. I'd have waited a few months. Reading it so close made it hard to read. You knew what was going on. I just left this story, re-reading it was..weird and challenging. Knowing what was to happen and remembering the other book so vividly made me not want to read it as much. That meant I had to just power through it which.. well that's like eating fiber pills.

It was written well though. Scalzi is a wordsmith and this book read a bit more relaxed than his other triology. It was loose, it was wittier, it was about a teenage girl. Well, duh, it should.

I liked the character development, the relationships, and caveats, it all rang well in timber and resonance.

So--if you want to read this and you just finished Last Colony, unless you are just dying to re-read the story I'd let this one sit on your shelf until you got a little foggy on the remembrance then it would be a fun read down memory lane with a different vantage and path.

I do wonder if this book could be added into Last Colony, the first 2/3rds could fit near like a glove.

Anyhow! Onwards!