John Scalzi hasn't failed me yet. All three books in this series so far have been gripping, stirring, exciting adventure stories with a thrilling edge of darkness. Even though he does not paint his alien characters in shades of black and white, he also does not flinch from demonstrating that some species of aliens are extremely dangerous, brutal, and willing to stop at nothing to murder and mutilate humanity. My only criticism is that an early plot-line dealing with a native threat on the colonized planet was completely dropped when the greater outside threat presented itself, and it retrospect it seems like a thread that should have been resolved or otherwise dealt with. As I understand it, his upcoming book, "Zoe's Tale", deals with the same time period but tells it from a different perspective, so that should be interesting. I look forward to reading that, and I'll definitely continue picking up everything he writes.