TL;DR: Massively boring beginning. This is a rather experimental story with a great, tear-jerky ending in which Zoe grows up quite a bit.

Warning: This book has the exact same plot as [b: The Last Colony|88071|The Last Colony (Old Man's War #3)|John Scalzi|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1437660786s/88071.jpg|18279847] from beginning to end, only this time Zoe is telling the story. My review is in two parts because I quit reading at 30% with no intent of finishing the book, and then read it anyway a week later (not because it was so great, quite the opposite but because I was out of other books).

Review of first third of the book: 2 stars - Because as far as I can tell at this point, there's nothing new. Yes it's still Scalzi's enjoyable writing style, and I do like Zoe's snark and sarcasm quite a bit. But I feel ripped off, time- and money-wise. I am disappointed.

When I read the - great! - ending of the previous book, and heard that John and Jane were going to live happy lives where they were and that their story was over, and Zoe would now take over, I expected something completely different. At first I thought it was going for a quick recap and then get on with the actual story. I waited and waited and nope ... it's not a quick recap it's the same story all over. I had not read any reviews about this. There was no warning that I noticed anywhere. The end of the previous book suggested that from now on the reader would read Zoe's adventures, nothing suggested that it would be the same adventure from a different point of view.

It's as if Scalzi originally planned to have Zoe's viewpoint in the previous book but had to cut it out, and a year later he decided to blow it up to a complete book mirroring the original. Yes it clears up a few of the "mysterious" things Zoe has been doing. And it introduces more detail to her friends Gretchen and Enzo and I suspect the special mission John sends her on to the alien general will be described later on, and maybe, just maybe there'll be some new stuff at the end (one review claimed the final 100 pages are the justification for all the rest) but right now I am not sure I am willing to stick around. Last night I fell asleep with the book in my hand. It was literally boring me to sleep.

Review of the rest: 4 stars - so the review that said the last 100 or so pages make it worth was right. I totally agree. But I can't help thinking that if I had known about this experiment before I started reading, my enjoyment of the story would have been better. If only there had been a clear explanation at the beginning that I didn't have to expect something completely new. So when I put the book down at 30%, I had no intent of ever reading the rest, because I was so bored with reading the same story again.

But then there was a day where I needed something easy ... and I read the rest of the book in the space of two days. Yes it's still the same story and I am still disappointed about that but just around where I quit the first time the story starts filling up the blanks from the previous book instead of only having the same scenes we had before. The book became much better which averages out to the 3 stars I gave it now.

The story about Zoe and Enzo becomes a real tear-jerker and so does the mission to General Gau, which really turns out quite interesting. All of this creates a believable journey of growth for her and I am hoping the next book will have more of her.