Book Review: The Last Colony

The Last Colony is, as Scalzi warned, a departure from the first 2 books that took the series in a different direction. Book 3 focuses on John, Jane, and their adopted daughter Zoë. The small family have settled on a colony world filled with clashing characters and big personalities. The Colonial Union can't let our heroes rest, of course, otherwise it would be a boring book, so they ask John and Jane to settle a new colony, which, after much grumbling, they agree to do.

But there was a reason they asked our heroes to lead the colony instead of someone with more colonizing experience. The new world isn't at all like the advertisement. Worse, they're completely cut off from the rest of the Union and can't use technology for fear of being discovered.

Needless to say, our heroes aren't thrilled with this new development, but they pool their collective resources and buckle down with Zoë's alien bodyguards, who are the most entertaining characters in the book, to see if they can survive an ever-expanding scope of madness that threatens the very foundations of the Colonial Union.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book and the teasing relationship between John, Jane, and Zoë. It dove maybe too far into the details when explaining colony mechanics, but I did enjoy the politics between colonists, and between John and the military. The story is a worthy successor to the series and a fine finish to the trilogy, if that's where you want to stop—which I probably will.