Today’s Reader Participation Post: Rank My Novels
Posted on July 19, 2013 Posted by John Scalzi 534 Comments
Got an irate e-mail from someone last night who hated hated hated Redshirts, which is of course fine. It was followed almost immediately by a gushing e-mail from someone else who absolutely loved Redshirts and thought it was my best book yet, which is also fine. I admit to liking the positive e-mail better. I was also amused at the juxtaposition of the two e-mails. It’s a reminder how varied readers and their specific tastes can be.
And in point of fact, I don’t suspect that there’s a single book of mine that isn’t both loved and hated (and also, thought indifferently of). Lots of people love Old Man’s War, but a fair number don’t get what the fuss is about, and some actively dislike it. Some people think The Android’s Dream is my best while others can’t get past the first sentence. There are those who have told me they think Fuzzy Nation is better written than Little Fuzzy, the H. Beam Piper book on which it is based; there are those who think it is far worse and despise me for rebooting the story at all. And so on.
They’re all right, inasmuch as they are discussing their own tastes. Everyone is different, so every book will work differently for them. And as I’ve said many times before, even someone whose work you generally love will occasionally produce a clunker for you. It’s almost inevitable over the course of a career. And even if you like everything someone has created, you’re going to like some things more than others. And your list is likely to be different than other people’s.
To illustrate this point, I have a request: If you’ve read more than two of my novels, I would like for you to rank those novels, from your most favorite to your least favorite, down in the comments. And if you like, you can elaborate a bit on the individual titles: Is your “most favorite” still not one you like very much? Is your “least favorite” one you still like a lot? Do you hate hate hate one of my novels (or several)? Go ahead and note it. Don’t worry, you won’t hurt my feelings. I will be fine.
What I hope to illustrate here is — again — that every reader is different, and no one likes everything equally (or indeed, in some cases, at all).
So: rank my novels! Let’s see what you think. And thanks.
Quick notes:
1. Comment thread is for people’s lists only, please. Other comments will be snipped out.
2. Also, don’t criticize other people’s rankings or comments about which books they prefer. The whole point is that everyone has their own rankings, and reasons for the ranking.
3. Don’t use this thread as an excuse to trollingly slam (or uncritically and gushingly praise) me or my work, especially if you’re not going to offer a ranking. Comments that boil down to “Everything you do SUUUUUUCKS” or “Everything you do RAAAAAAAAWKS” without actually offering rankings will be snipped out. The Mallet still works, is basically what I’m saying.
4. That said, don’t be afraid to offer criticism, both positive and negative. I can take it.
5. For those who need a list of my novels, they are (in order of first print publication):
Old Man’s War
Agent to the Stars
The Ghost Brigades
The Android’s Dream
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
The God Engines (a novella, but worth including in these rankings)
Fuzzy Nation
Redshirts
The Human Division
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
Agent to the Stars
Redshirts
The Android’s Dream
unread:
The God Engines
Fuzzy Nation
The Human Division
Of your novels that I’ve read my ranking is:
Old Man’s War
The Last Colony
Redshirts
The Android’s Dream
The Ghost Brigades
Of your novels that I’d like to read or have started but have yet to finish, the order in which I plan on reading them is:
The Human Division
Zoe’s Tale
Fuzzy Nation
Agent to the Stars
1. Old Man’s War
2. The Android’s Dream
3. Zoe’s Tale
4. Ghost Brigades
clearly I am falling behind on your output!
The God Engines (Fantastic)
Redshirts (Very Cool)
The Android’s Dream (Quite Interesting)
Old Man’s War (Enjoyed)
1) Android’s Dream – first thing I read of yours, and simply hilarious
2) Agent to the Stars – great dialogue and ideas
3) OMW/GhostBrigades/LastColony – a good trilogy that has me eager to read Human Division
4) God Engines – nice and dark
5) Redshirts – I wasn’t as fond of the codas as everyone else was, but I really enjoyed the story
6) Zoe’s Tale – good new perspective and extension of LastColony, but the POV didn’t seem as natural as the rest
7) Fuzzy Nation – enjoyed it more than most books I read, just not as exciting as the rest of yours
i) Human Division – waiting until I can re-read the OMW books to follow the characters all the way through, might wait for the sequel as well
(From favorite to less favorite, which happens to coincide in the order I read them)
Old Man’s War — I can re-read this book multiple times and still be laughing.
Redshirts — It was a fun romp and I loved the meta and humor, but doesn’t have the re-readability of Old Man’s War.
Agent to the Stars — The ending didn’t feel like an ending, but still enjoyed the humor. It had less punch than the other two.
1. Old Man’s War. Good SF and full of a sense of *fun* that makes it really stand out.
2. The God Engines. Mmm, delicious grimdark. Read immediately before or after The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms for best effect.
3. Redshirts. Nigh-Pratchettesque levels of mixed hilarious and moving.
4. The Android’s Dream. The above three are spectacular-tier; now we are in the lands of pretty-good. This was enjoyable but I don’t feel like I took much away from it.
5. The Ghost Brigades. Pretty good, but you seem to have identified “reasonably hard military SF” as what worked about Old Man’s War and mined that vein, and it really wasn’t the good bit. Sense of fun went largely missing in the later OMWverse installments that I’ve read (excepting After The Coup, interestingly), and the pacing doesn’t seem as tight.
6. Zoe’s Tale. Ditto.
7. The Last Colony. Ditto.
1. Old Man’s War
2. The Last Colony
3. The Ghost Brigades (top 3 are very close)
4. Redshirts
5. The God Engines (still liked a lot to this point in the list)
6. Agent to the Stars (kind of meh but still enjoyable enough for these last two)
7. The Android’s Dream
Haven’t read the others yet.
Old Man’s War
Redshirts
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
The God Engines
Unread
The Human Division
Fuzzy Nation
Agent to the Stars
The Android’s Dream
Of the ones I’ve read:
Zoe’s Tale
Old Man’s War
Redshirts
God Engines
Agent to the Stars
Last Colony
Ghost Brigades
Android’s Dream
Weird, I’ve read more of your books than I realized! I still need to pick up The Human Division, though I did see you reading from it in NC.
FWIW, I did like all of them, but this is a pretty firm ranking.
For me the list for those Ive read is
1. Old Man’s War
2. The Ghost Brigades
3. The Last Colony
4. The Human Division
5. Redshirts
…
6. Zoe’s Tale
7. Agent to the Stars
And yes, theres long cap beetweek 5 and 6 for purpose…
Let me preface this with a caveat – I listen to audiobooks a lot more than I read paper books. I know and accept that the narration performance is a huge factor in the enjoyment of an audiobook. I’ve only ingested Scalzi-meat via audio so it is apples to apples, but the narration was not all by the same performer.
This is my preference order (best first):
Redshirts
Agent to the Stars
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
The lowest on the list is still high enough that follow-up books are in my Audible queue waiting for credits to arrive.
Old Man’s War
Redshirts
Fuzzy Nation
The Ghost Brigades
Zoe’s Tale
The Human Division
The Last Colony
Haven’t read yet:
Agent to the Stars
The Android’s Dream
The God Engines
I probably recommend (and given copies away) OMW and Redshirts to more readers than any other books I’ve read (Although The Graveyard Book comes close)
I gave a bunch of people a glowing review of THD at the ALA conference in Chicago and either encouraged them to get an autographed copy or gave them my free copy.
That said, I’ve enjoyed all that I’ve read and those that I haven’t read I just haven’t gotten around to – too many books not enough time.
1. Agent to the Stars
Liked the idea of an Alien race needing a spin doctor to perform introductions.
2. Old Man’s War.
3. Zoe’s Tale
4. Fuzzy Nation
Still think H.Beam Piper’s stories are better though in a simpler fashion.
I have read all the others except the Human Division ( have it on order ).
1: Old Man’s War
2: Redshirts
3: Fuzzy Nation
4: The Last Colony
5: The Ghost Brigades
6: Agent to the Stars
:)
Read:
1. Old Man’s War
2. The Ghost Brigades (4 stars)
3. Fuzzy Nation (4 stars)
4. The Human Division (4 stars)
5. Redshirts (4 stars)
6. The Last Colony (3.5 stars)
Unread:
The Android’s Dream
Agent to the Stars
Zoe’s Tale
The God Engines (a novella, but worth including in these rankings)
Read Rankings…
Old Man’s War (Couldn’t put it down!)
The Android’s Dream (Laughed until I cried during first scene)
The Ghost Brigades (Great follow up to OMW)
Redshirts (Not as thrilled with this one, but understand it’s a different kind of novel compared to the ones above)
Unread Ranked in Order of Most Wanting to Read
The Human Division (On audible and can’t wait to check out)
The Last Colony (Anything OMW Universe I am anxious to read)
Zoe’s Tale (Ditto)
The God Engines (Might check out at some point)
Agent to the Stars (Not as interested)
Fuzzy Nation (Not as interested)
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Redshirts
What I liked best about Old Man’s War was the characterization, the way it captured the narrator’s gradual acceptance of a remarkable change, combined with regret and longing for the past. (Maybe that’s just me.)
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
Fuzzy Nation
Redshirts
The Human Division
Excluding those I haven’t read yet.
1. Redshirts
2. Old Man’s War
3. Fuzzy Nation
4. The Last Colony
5. The Ghost Brigades
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed each and every one of these, and though I just started The Human Division, I predict it will top Fuzzy Nation when done.
These ones I liked a lot, and have re-read them a couple of times each, maybe more – I haven’t been keeping track:
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
These ones I like pretty well, just not so much as the first category. I’ve re-read them once or twice, I think:
Zoe’s Tale
The Human Division – THD in particular is an interesting experiment, but I think it works better as a series of short stories than a novel. I admit that short fiction is not rally my preference. I’ll still buy and enjoy THD2, but I’m not really sure I’ll do the subscription again.
These I think are still pretty good but not quite as good as either of the previous two categories. I’m not at all sorry I bought them, but I don’t feel any special need to re-read them any time soon:
The Android’s Dream
Agent to the Stars
Fuzzy Nation
I have not read these:
The God Engines (a novella, but worth including in these rankings)
Redshirts – I admit I specifically did not buy this because I perceived that it would probably fit into the lighter/more humorous bracket that I enjoyed less.
Overall, of your works that I’ve read, I didn’t think that any of them suxx0rzed or anything; I liked them all. The core OMW trilogy is still my favorite work of yours, and the lighter/more humorous set of works is my least favorite. “Least favorite” here means I liked them pretty well, but I haven’t loaned them to anyone as a way to get them excited about the Scalzi oeuvre.
1 – Old Man’s War
2 – Fuzzy Nation
3 – Redshirts (my first Scalzi read)
4 – Agent to the Stars
5 – The Ghost Brigades
6 – The Last Colony
7 – Android’s Dream
8 – Zoe’s Tale
9 – The Human Division (thought I’d like the chapter per week release, but found it more awkward than anything)
10 – The God Engines
Old Man’s War (Great book; Solid)
The Ghost Brigades (Great book; Solid)
The Human Division (Annoyed by the cliffhanger)
The Last Colony (deus ex machina bleah)
Redshirts (Started awesome; petered out)
Zoe’s Tale (Didn’t do much for me)
Agent to the Stars (meh)
The Android’s Dream (actively disliked)
The God Engines (Unread)
Fuzzy Nation (Unread)
Redshirts
Old Man’s War
Human Division
Ghost Brigades
Zoe’s Tale
Last Colony
I think Redshirts was a more enjoyable read but Old Man’s War a serious one. So they are very close, I think it’s worth pointing out my wife, who is not a scifi fan loved Redshirts as well. I do plan on going back to read Redshirts again, I’m not sure (especially considering the several other novels) that I would say the same about Old Man’s War. I still really enjoyed bot Zoe’s Tale and Last Colony, but I think the exceptionally unique point of view of Zoe’s Tale was really refreshing and different.
My list, from best to worst (though I’ve liked them all):
The Android’s Dream
The God Engines (love my copy from Subpress!)
Redshirts
Old Man’s War
The Human Division
The Last Colony
The Ghost Brigades
Zoe’s Tale
In general, I like all of your writing. I think the quality of the writing has improved over time, and I generally like your standalone books better than the OMW sequels (still good stories, but the sequels haven’t grabbed me like the other books). I really enjoyed The Human Division and it probably deserves to be ranked higher…
Top novels: Old Man’s war; The Ghost Brigades; Human Division
Pretty darn good: Redshirts; Agents to the Stars
The Human Division – I like this one the best so far
Redshirts – Slightly less than The Human Division so far
Old Man’s War – Slightly least, you know, so far
Old Man’s War
Ghost Brigades
Last Colony
Redshirts
Human Division
Zoe’s Tale
Really, it’s two clusters. Old Man’s War and Ghost Brigades at the top, and the others clumped together somewhat lower. If you asked on a different day, I might rank them a bit differently within the clusters.
If you had asked a few years ago, before I went back and re-read Ghost Brigades with a little older perspective, I would have ranked it much lower.
From most to least liked:
* Old Man’s War
* The Ghost Brigades
* The Human Division – Episode #1 (The B Team)
* The Last Colony
* Redshirts
I’m still halfway through The Last Colony and I’ve only read Episode #1 of The Human Division. The list might change once I’ve finished these two and Zoe’s Tale.
Despite being the least liked, Redshirts is still very good. Very entertaining, kept me thinking of how the writers eschew technological advancements for on-screen suspense (such as walking to the bridge to give a report that could be emailed, or knowing down to the second when fatal radiation exposure will happen).
Old Man’s War is really good. I especially liked that the CU and the CDF are flawed, they’re not the benevolent organisations we’d expect them to be. That gives the books more reality, like the fact that George R. R. Martin’s “A Song of Fire and Ice” has no heroes and bad guys.
Keep up the good work!
Agent to the Stars
Redshirts
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
The Human Division
The God Engines
Just cannot get past the 1st chapter
Fuzzy Nation
1) Old Man’s War- First book of yours I read and I tend towards military fiction and non fiction in most of my reading.
2) Ghost Brigades- Ditto first
3) Fuzzy Nation- Thought it complimented the original very nicely.,
4) Redshirts- Laughed my ass off.
5) The Human Divison- Liked the serial presentation and of course ditto the first two.
6) Agent to the Stars- ?? Just didn’t do a lot for me.
7) The God Engines- Just plain didn’t like this one. I thought the writing was good but didn’t like the story itself.
Fuzzy Nation
The Android’s Dream
Agent to the Stars
Old Man’s War
The Human Division
The Ghost Brigades
Zoe’s Tale
The Last Colony
Redshirts
I haven’t read the God Engines. I like all of the books, but Fuzzy Nation is my favorite. There is really very little separation (if any) between the rest of them in my ranking except for Redshirts being at the bottom of my list. I thought I would like it more than I did, and I am really not sure why it doesn’t resonate with me as much as the others.
1. The Ghost Brigades – I really miss Jane more than John since they’ve ‘retired’
2. Old Man’s War
3. The Last Colony
4. The Human Division – Might move higher or lower depending on how the sequel pans out (probably not fair to this book to judge based on what might happen later, but I was quite interested in the background conspiracy which is as-yet unresolved), but this is the book I re-read the most (in part because of the self-contained nature of the chapters)
5. Agent to the Stars
6. Zoe’s Tale – insofar as I disliked this (not that I did – I just liked the other books better), it might be that you did too good a job capturing the behavior of teenagers.
7. Redshirts – I might not be a big enough Star Trek fan to appreciate certain aspects of Redshirts
The Android’s Dream – favorite
The Ghost Brigades
Old Man’s War
The Human Division
The Last Colony
Agent to the Stars – least favorite
I can’t help it; I love the Android’s Dream, and would love to see the fight at Arlington Mall in film some day. Perfect Scalzi formula of emotional plot + wacky humor.
Of the Old Man’s War novels I like the Ghost Brigades best; after hints of this in the first book, you get wrenching evidence that the Colonial Union are psychotic imperialists.
Nothing *wrong* with Agent to the Stars, really, I found it an enjoyable book, but not as polished or action-packed as the rest.
Haven’t read any of the others, though I will read Redshirts once I can get a mass market paperback.
Old Man’s War – 1st Scalzi contact, loved the universe and ideas.
Omelas State University – what brought me to Whatever.
The Ghost Brigades – nicely expanded on the first.
The Last Colony – These first four are actually pretty close. liked them all. especially the new breed space soldiers.
Zoe’s Tale – seemed unnecessary to the tail and little forced.
Redshirts – in the not-a-fan camp. little too predictable and didn’t hit my funny bone.
Old Man’s War
Redshirts
The Ghost Brigades
The Human Division
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
Redshirts feels like a must read for any Star Trek fan, except those who have every episode memorized and rooms dedicated to memorabilia.
On my list of books to read
Agent to the Stars
The Android’s Dream
The God Engines (a novella, but worth including in these rankings)
Fuzzy Nation
Most favorite:
Old Man’s War
Ghost Brigades
Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
Slightly less favorite:
Fuzzy Nation
Redshirts
Agent to the Stars
Android’s Dream
God Engines – I just hated it.
And the Human Division I haven’t read yet, though I look forward to it very much.
There’s not a lot of spread between how much I like the books at the top of the list and the bottom of the list. They were all excellent reads for me. If I could offer one criticism, it would be that I find your dialogue kind of annoying sometimes. Like, in many scenes there will be too much reliance on dialogue to move the story along, and too much focus on making it snappy and cute, as opposed to realistic. Personal opinion, obviously. In general I love all of your books, especially the Old Man’s War universe. You can tell by the fact that I’ve read most of them and own about 7.
I did not like the God Engines. I flat out hated it. I read so little of it I can’t even recall it much to tell you why I hated it. I’m sure your feelings can handle this crushing blow.
1: The Last Colony, I couldn’t stop reading it, went down in under 24hs, and the final twist is brilliant.
2: The Ghost Brigades, is where I understood what all the fuzz about OMW was about
3: Agent to the stars, really close to GB
4: The Human Division, for me it was the sequel to Last Colony, so I expected more
5: Old Man’s War, I liked it, but I found it a bit “too easy”, so to speak.
And I haven’t read any of the others.
From my most favorite to least favorite:
Old Man’s War
The Android’s Dream
Redshirts
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Agent to the Stars
Fuzzy Nation
Zoe’s Tale
Haven’t read The Human Division, but have it in my suitcase to read on vacation!
Old Man’s War
Fuzzy Nation (I keep coming back to these)
Agent to the Stars
Redshirts
The Android’s Dream
The Human Division
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
not read yet
—————-
The God Engines (a novella, but worth including in these rankings)
http://dft.ba/-KREO
http://dft.ba/-instaKREO
I liked these novels about equally: Old Man’s War (though was disappointed a little by an ending that seemed to put whiz bang feel good action over the novel’s deeper themes); The Ghost Brigades, The Last Colony (great sequels!), The Android’s Dream (that one was a lot of goofy fun.) The God Engines was a cool foray into sci-fi horror.
I haven’t been able to get into Zoe’s Tale; I started to read Agent to the Stars and grew bored. And that’s where all that stands.
1. Old Man’s War
2. Agent to the Stars
3. Ghost Brigades
4. Human Division
5. Redshirts
6. Last Colony
1. The Human Division – You really hit on all cylinders here. It felt like that favorite sweater you wear WAY beyond when you should.
2. Old Man’s War – Classic, would be #1 but HD felt a little more composed.
3. Redshirts – Great concept, brilliant execution.
4. The Ghost Brigades – Both this and TLC could flip/flop because both are solid entries in the series.
5. The Last Colony – See above.
6. Zoe’s Tale – This one just didn’t get beyond clever and mildly interesting for me. Nice to get the different character perspective but didn’t add enough to move it above any of teh other novels. I feel the same way about the Sagan Diary.
I guess I need to read Android’s Dream if you think so highly of it. Fuzzy Nation is sitting on my Kindle waiting for a rainy day.
Ghost Brigades
Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
Old Man’s War
Redshirts
Fuzzy Nation
God Engines
Should I read The Human Division? Yes, yes I should.
1. Zoe’s Tale (one of my favorite books period)
2. The Last Colony (in my top five favorite SF books)
3. The Human Division
4. Fuzzy Nation
5. Old Man’s War (which I still like quite a lot and recommend frequently to fans of military SF).
5. The Android’s Dream (it’s a draw between these two, though Android’s Dream would probably inch ahead if I was considering Judge Sn Goes Golfing to be part of the book)
The rest I’ve either not read or can’t remember well enough to rank.
I hate rankings, so I gave stars instead.
5 The God Engines (Fantastic)
5 Old Man’s War (classic)
4 The Android’s Dream
4 Agent to the Stars
3.5 Redshirts
3.5 The Human Division
3.5 Zoe’s Tale
3 The Ghost Brigades
3 The Last Colony
3 Fuzzy Nation
I am also slacking in terms of keeping up with the output. Gives me a hobby, at least.
1. Ghost Brigades – thought it took the OMW universe to a fascinating new level. Saw clear progress in the writing technique and the imagery.
2. OMW – Created a world I was very happy to inhabit for multiple readings. Thanks so much for washing away the lingering taste of Heinlein.
3. Redshirts. Loads of fun, had a clear target and hit it squarely.
4. Android’s Dream. This was actually my intro to Scalzidom, since it was what the library had in that day. Nice ideas, good execution.
5. God Engines. Did not work for me. Felt like it was being tried on for size, and it didn’t quite fit. But if we didn’t have the misses, we wouldn’t appreciate the hits.
This is a hard one. It would be somewhat easier to do if I could divide everything into Comedy vs Non-comedy, though even there I might have to put Android’s Dream into both categories. Maybe comedy isn’t the best descriptor, but I hope people will get my meaning.
Old Man’s War/The Ghost Brigades
Fuzzy Nation
Agent to the Stars/Redshirts
The Last Colony
The Android’s Dream
The Human Division
Zoe’s Tale
From the bottom up, Zoe’s Tale was my least favorite, but probably for bad reasons. I read the entire OMW series straight through, so when I started with Zoe’s Tale, I had *just* finished Last Colony, so the original material was maybe a little too fresh.
I think I’ll probably rank Human Division much higher after the next part of it is released. As it stands, it’s a series of stories that build to a climax, but no resolution.
I liked the story of Android’s dream, but I have the hardest time keeping track of who’s who and which side their on.
Fuzzy/Agent/Redshirts were all great. The only complaint I might have had with Redshirts was I thought some of the Codas dragged a bit, and I thought the book would have been fine without them.
Old Man’s War
Redshirts
Fuzzy Nation
Fuzzy Nation was the first one I read, and I enjoyed it enough to read some more. Good stuff!
I loved “Fuzzy Nation” and had to put it down when Baby was murdered. Picked it back up a week later. Was really intrigued with “Old Man’s War” which lead to “The Ghost Brigade”. I have just finished reading “The Ghost Brigade” making it last as long as possible putting it down and not allowing myself to pick it immediately back up and resume reading for as long as possible – okay a few hours at best. Sadly I will not be able to read “The Last Colony” until after Christmas as it will be on my Christmas list. Unless of course by some miracle of epic proportions I should become gainfully employed (not much of a chance of that since I’ve been unemployed for the last 2 years and old people are not considered employable), in THAT case I will gleefully run to the nearest bookstore and buy a copy only after replacing a sad situation in the underwear department. Okay, no, Union City is extremely rural, gas is too high the real scenario is I will gleefully get on the internet, order a copy and complain every day that it’s taking too long to get here. I must tell you I practically inhaled “Old Man’s War” in just a couple of days. Extremely sad for me as I do not have access to more but received a wonderful break from my present ongoing blight. Also I find your “Acknowledgements” every bit as entertaining and read every last word as eagerly as I read the story. Thank you John Scalzi, your books will be kept and re-read. Possibly loaned out but only if I have a second copy on hand, otherwise they can buy their own. You are the best I’ve read in a very long time and that’s saying a lot cause I’m old.
Old Man’s War
The God Engines
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
Fuzzy Nation
Redshirts
Agent to the Stars
unread:
The Android’s Dream
The Human Division
I generally don’t like most comic novels. Redshirts was better than most I’ve read — but still, your funny books are at the bottom of my list.
1. The God Engines-the most interesting world. Please expand on this one
2. Old Man’s Ware
3. The Last Colony
4. The Ghost Brigades
5. Red Shirts
6. The Human Division
Unread:
Fuzzy Nation – next on list
Android’s Dream
Zoe’s Tale
This is tough. I’ve read several, but not all of your novels. I’m going list my top three and why. These aren’t in any order as they each excel at something different.
– Human Division: In addition to greatly expanding the universe, you balanced politics with plot, ALL while writing it in an episodic fashion. It is both a great novel and a technical achievement. Well done.
– Old Man’s War: A great new universe was introduced to me and that is always a reason to celebrate. It was a good book but the fresh vision of a future was incredible.
– Redshirts: This isn’t comparable to the other books. It is a humorous satire on many science fiction shows out there, but not a Science Fiction book. I enjoyed the freshness of it and the insight into the tv business. It wasn’t your best writing and if it had been any longer it would have gotten stale. The ending was slightly stretched but I was enjoying the ride enough at that point that I didn’t care. This is a book with a more limited appeal, but for those in the target, it was great. I can also see how this would have been a fun book to write and I know that having fun in your job is important.
I’ve also read Ghost Brigades and have the rest of your books on reserve at my favorite library. I’ve read the original Fuzzy book and look forward to reading your take on it.
Keep them coming.
-Pie
@piewords
The God Engines (outstanding and innovative)
Old Man’s War (excellent)
The Android’s Dream (ROTFLMAO)
The Ghost Brigades (okay)
The Last Colony (meh)
Zoe’s Tale (meh – )
unread:
Fuzzy Nation
The Human Division
Agent to the Stars
Redshirts
Of what I’ve read:
GHOST BRIGADES
THE LAST COLONY
OLD MAN’S WAR
ZOE’S TALE
REDSHIRTS (I honestly did not care for this one, but that’s mainly because I’m not much for ‘meta’ fiction. I can’t quibble with the writing; this one just wasn’t my cuppa.)
I still intend to read HUMAN DIVISION (actually, I really want to read that one!). Not sure how interested I am in the others.
In general I’m a huge fan of your writing, so making this list was tough.
Redshirts – loved the morality play, loved the plot twists
Zoe’s Tale – your characterization of Zoe is spot-on
Old Man’s War
The Human Division
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Fuzzy Nation – a great story but I wish it wasn’t a reboot; I still have the original echoing in the back of my head
The Android’s Dream
Agent to the Stars
Old Man’s War: First Scalzi I read, strong first impression, good story
Redshirts: Fun read, and the codas provide some nice perspective
The Last Colony: Great follow-up to OMW with focus on John Perry
The God Engines: Brilliant idea, good tone and atmosphere
The Ghost Brigades: Good follow-up to OMW
Zoe’s Tale: Should have read this right after The Last Colony so I could follow the continuity a little better
Haven’t read:
Agent to the Stars
The Android’s Dream
Fuzzy Nation
The Human Division (Have read the first two episodes, which were excellent. Haven’t gotten to the rest—yet)
Old Man’s War
The Human Division
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
The Android’s Dream
Agent to the Stars
Zoe’s Tale
The God Engines
Fuzzy Nation
Redshirts
My issue with Redshirts was that it’s a bit too similar (in concept) with the Red Dwarf: Back to Earth season which I loathed. I couldn’t get past that. So, it’s not you, it’s me.
From fav to not as fav, but still like a great deal:
The Android’s Dream
Old Man’s War
Agent to the Stars
The Human Division
The God Engines
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
Fuzzy Nation (Move up several spots if using the audiobook)
Redshirts
The Ghost Brigades
The Human Division would have been lower in my list after the original weekly release based reading. But I just finished reading the printed version and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it did not feel like a collection of shorter works.
This became surprisingly difficult for me from Redshirts on down.
Old Man’s War
The God Engines
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
The Human Division
Redshirts
Agent to the Stars
Zoe’s Tale
The Android’s Dream
Fuzzy Nation
Hi what I find most enjoyable about your books is the characters and dialog. Few authors (I find) have the ability/desire to focus on making characters and their dialog so sharp, genuine/complex, and just entertaining. My general criticism of sci fi authors is that going the distance is tough; short story lots of punch, but stretching that over 400 pages or several books…well there is bound to be some saw dust. That said, your books seem to play out well, and the level of pandering/fan service is very low, very credible throughout.
What I liked most of your work? The God Engines. lots of punch, superb dialog and characters, a great, great read. I also really liked the Human Division, very, very creative way to avoid “another installment”, and it seems you are now ready to be the next sci fi show that will reboot every 5-7 years. Seriously, I would love to see that happen, I think the universe of that series of books and especially the stories within Human Division are perfect for a fresh take on sci fi TV. I would be very surprised if you didn’t intend that.
Anyways basically I find your focus on dialog and character is something that keeps me hooked, and impresses me compared to other authors.
In order of Delight…..
OMW – grabbed me from the first moment – truly engrossing read
The Human Division – love, love, love (and didn’t need to read rest of trilogy to “get it” – although I absolutely will…)
Redshirts – an real hoot, but I concur with a previous comment re: wasn’t as keen on the codas
Agent to the Stars – great fun, a quick read
Have all of your other books on my “must read” list…..
I’ll preface this with the fact that I’m also an audiobook ‘reader’ and it’s not even remotely a coincidence that my favorite novels are all the ones performed by Wil Wheaton. I also love it when a book makes me laugh.
Fuzzy Nation (made me laugh AND cry – kudos)
Redshirts
Agent to the Stars
Old Mans War
Ghost Brigades – This one’s pretty much tied with Old Man’s War. I liked them both very much.
Zoe’s Tale – This was the only book on the list that I didn’t enjoy, and I think it’s because I’m admittedly prejudiced against female narrators. (Note: I’m female.) I just think it sounds ridiculous when women put on “man voices”. Perhaps it’s because I’ve heard so many effeminate male voices over the years in various media that it sounds normal to me, but I never hear women imitating masculine voices unless I’m listening to an audiobook?
Here’s my ranking:
Old Man’s War
The Human Division
The Android’s Dream
Redshirts
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
Agent to the Stars
Fuzzy Nation
The God Engines
1) Fuzzy Nation – I love to read it back to back with Little Fuzzy. The different approaches to the same story line appeals to me.
2). Old Man’s War
3) Agent to the Stars
4). Redshirts
5). The Android’s Dream
6). The Ghost Brigades – I can’t explain it, but while I loved Old Man’s War, the sequels just don’t grab my attention.
Fuzzy Nation was the 1st book of yours and the one I’ve liked the best. I knew nothing about you at the time & have never read nor heard of Little Fuzzy (does my geek card get pulled now?). I got pulled in from the start and on rereading the description I can recall enough of my feelings to remember being on the edge of my seat a few times.
The Androids Dream was the second book I read. At that point I knew I’d be seeing you at Boskone and a number of friends insisted they’d introduce me to you (they all forgot but I did point you in the right direction a few times as I was a volunteer) so I thought I better read something of yours & still hadn’t connected you & Fuzzy Nation. My biggest problem with the book was that the cover did not seem to match the inside & I kept waiting for something to bring the two together. Otherwise I enjoyed the book.
Redshirts was a must read but I’d never been a big Star Trek fan so I know I missed many in-jokes (my husband laughed a lot while reading). I still enjoyed the book but knowing how much I was missing took some of the fun out of it. Not your fault as you wrote exactly what you said you were writing. I just didn’t have the background to fully appreciate it and after listening to hubby laugh I felt left out. (Geek card getting pulled for sure LOL)
oh, and if we’re counting The Sagan Diary, it’s up there with TLC for second, and NOT just because I was able to use it to BS a 2,000-word paper on women and their relationship to death in modern literature).
Zoe’s Tale-My favorite
Old Man’s War-Had to debate with myself whether this or Zoe’s Tale was my favorite.
Last Colony-Reasonably loved
Agent to the Stars-Not your best, not your worst
Ghost Brigade-I only read it to stay loyal to the series
Androids Dream-Nope. Not happening for me even a little bit.
Zoe’s Tale
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
Sagan’s Diary (which wasn’t on your list but should have been)
Fuzzy Nation
The Last Colony
The Android’s Dream
The Human Division
The God Engines (a novella, but worth including in these rankings)
Redshirts
Agent to the Stars
1. The Ghost Brigades
2. Old Man’s War
3. The God Engines
4. Agent to the Stars
5. The Last Colony
6. Redshirts
7. The Human Division
This is kind of misleading though because I would rather read The Human Division than 98% of the books I own (I am a chronic re-reader with 160+ minutes of public transit commute 7 days a week, I’ve reread it three times since the serial finished), but while I thought The God Engines was a really well crafted world and great story… once was enough for nightmares.
Well, I havent gotten to Fuzzy Nation or The Android’s Dream yet, but Here is how I would rank them:
Redshirts
The Ghost Brigades
Old Man’s War
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
Agent to the Stars
The Human Division
The God Engines
Redshirts was simply a masterpiece. I loved the concept, and the characters were great. I always had a soft spot for sci-fi/fantasy books that took the weirdness back to “our” universe/timeline…and the extra meta bit at the end sealed the deal….(I also laughed out loud at the last sentence in the main novel). The codas were…interesting. I can’t remember another work I have read that followed up the main story like that. I loved the additional material and how you went back to wrap up the sub plots.
The OMW series is hard to rank…I think of them as one story, not as individual bits…but I think that Ghost Brigades was the best of the bunch. The focus on Sagan, and insight into her mind was brilliant, as was the entire concept of who Jared was, how he evolved, and how the story resolved. Great stuff all around. The first book gets 2nd just for the part where Perry becomes the first human to kick himself in the uvula. Great line! That and many others had me laughing out loud while reading this series!
Agent to the Stars was clever, and well written, and I did enjoy it quite a bit (enough to re-read it a few times)…it just didn’t quite top the OMW series though.
I REALLY enjoyed Human Division. It was a great experiment, and I looked forward each week to the new chapter…I can not WAIT for the 2nd book (season, series, whatever…) to start up! However, taken as a whole, it wasn’t quite as cohesive as your other novels…it felt a bit…fractured. The stories were great…I always liked your little “side trips” with Harry, but it didn’t quite gel as a whole I think. I haven’t yet gone back for a complete re-read of it, start to finish…and having 12 separate “books” to fiddle with on my device is not very convenient…I will probably re-buy the e-book as one complete volume…you should consider having Amazon and the rest offer a “subscription” to the 2nd book…including weekly downloads of the individual chapters, and a comprehensive download (including “exclusive” additional content) at the end, for one price. Just a suggestion….
The God Engines? Well, it was an interesting story…just all too short! I liked the concept, but just as I was getting comfortable with the universe you created, it was over! Maybe you can re-visit the universe, or take this book and expand it to a full length novel…IF you can squeeze it in along with all of the other stories I am sure you have buzzing around in your head!
All in all, I really, REALLY enjoy reading your stuff, and I want to thank you for all of the hard work you put into your stories. Keep writing them, and I will keep buying and reading them!
The Ghost Brigades
Old Man’s War
Fuzzy Nation
The Android’s Dream
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
Agent to the Stars
The God Engines (a novella, but worth including in these rankings)
I can’t get enough of the Old Man’s War universe and genuinely like the book that started it all, but for me The Ghost Brigades is the go to book. I enjoyed the change in perspective, the overall story, and the level of action and intrigue.
On a relative scale I would rank those top 6 pretty close together. I really enjoyed Agent tot the Stars, but would just gravitate toward the others above it if I ever get around to reread. The only one I didn’t really like was The God Engines, but I appreciate you doing something different.
Still haven’t red Redshirts or The Human Division yet although I have bought them both.
Old Man’s War – Maybe not my favorite for writing, but my favorite for concepts and characters
The Android’s Dream – Listened to Wil reading this to me on long commutes and I was in tears with laughter
Redshirts – One of the fastest reads for me on record, LOL and such interesting concepts. Though the last chapters just had me sitting there with tears running down my face.
The Ghost Brigades – I liked going into the story of the Ghost Brigades, but it didn’t have the emotional impact of Old Man’s war
Agent to the Stars – Several silly ideas and a fun read
Zoe’s Tale – Liked, but couldn’t tell you what happened in this one vs what happened in Last Colony from memory anymore.
The Last Colony – See Zoe’s Tale
God Engines – Pretty sure I read it, but don’t remember it, will have to go back and take another look.
Rankings:
God Engines – Dark and fantastic!
Muse of Fire – Technically not on the list, but AWESOME!
Zoe’s Tale
OMW
Redshirts
Androids Dream
Ghost Brigade
The Last Colony
Fuzzy Nation
Human Division
Unread – Agent to the Stars
Looking forward to whatever is next!
Old Man’s War
The Last Colony
Redshirts
The Ghost Brigades
Discovered you with Agent to the Stars…
Audiobook of Redshirts was terrific.
My ranking:
Agent to the Stars
Redshirts
The Android’s Dream
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Fuzzy Nation
The Human Division
Zoe’s Tale
The Human Division
I loved these stories. They harkened back to one of my favorite styles of SF, the action diplomat/government worker stories that I read a lot of in the early 90s… (The names of which seriess escape me mostly… Smart, competent, sneaky. I love protags like Miles Vor Kosigan and the Stainless Steel Rat. *wants more*
The Sagan Diaries (Ties with The Human Division for my favorite fiction thing you have written) This and the next book are some of the most impressive use of character voice you’ve done that I have read at least.
Zoe’s Tale: Explained an event that bothered me a lot in Lost Colony. I think you hit Zoe’s voice incredibly well. Also, a lot of fun.
Redshirts
The Last Colony
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
The Android’s Dream
Haven’t read:
The God Engines (a novella, but worth including in these rankings)
Fuzzy Nation
Agent to the Stars
Ok – in order – IMHO
The first five are my happy favorites – I like them enough to keep them around in either e-book of book form for re-reading pleasure.
1) The Ghost Brigades (My favorite of the OMW universe novels)
2) Old Man’s War
3) The Last Colony – 2 and 3 could flip flop in place depending on the day/time , my mood, what I had for breakfast – I really Really liked these three
4) Redshirts
5) Zoe’s Tale (Not my favorite – but still pretty darn good)
Now…the ones I am less fond of (that I have read):
6) Agent to the Stars – not sure why – but it seemed just kinda meh. It had some good bits, but I don’t feel in any desire to re-read it again.
7) Fuzzy Nation – I wasn’t a fan of Little Fuzzy – Based off of some friend’s recommendations I slogged through it, but it didn’t give me any pleasure. I did enjoy your versions of Fuzzy-dom better than the original, but that is truly being damned by faint praise.
The Human Division and the God Engines are both on my “to be read” list.
Here’s my list:
1. Old Man’s War. Good novels are not necessarily rare, but good novels replete with original ideas are. Without question, OMW stands up with the best of the genre and I have recommended it many times to friends.
2. The God Engines. Again, original and compelling.
3. Redshirts.
4. The Last Colony. Pacing and characters were great.
5. The Human Division.
6. The Android’s Dream. I’d rate it higher but with the exception of Judge Sn, I didn’t like most of the characters. I’ll sneak Judge Sn Goes Golfing in here as a late last chapter.
7. The Ghost Brigades.
8. Zoe’s Tale / The Sagan Diaries
9. Agent to the Stars.
10. Fuzzy Nation.
1. Fuzzy Nation
2. The Android’s Dream
3. Redshirts (Loved the Coda style)
4. The Ghost Brigades
8. Agent to the Stars
5. Old Man’s War
6. The Human Division
7. The Last Colony
9. Zoe’s Tale
No dislikes – just my level of “favorite”. Read/Heard Android and Redshirts back to back on a drive from AZ to KY, had me in tears from laughing so hard. It was followed up with Fuzzy which really showed how you could draw on more than just humor (at least for me), parts of it just tug at your heart.
1. Redshirts
2. Old Man’s War
3. Android’s Dream (this is a toss up w/ Zoe’s Tale)
4. Zoe’s Tale
5. Last Colony
6. Ghost Bridades
7. Fuzzy Nation
I haven’t read the others (I’m getting to them, I swear) yet.
I only started reading non-blog material in the past 18 months or so, which in that light, makes the fact that I’ve only read half of these seem not so pathetic:
1. Old Man’s War
2. The Android’s Dream
3. The Ghost Brigades
4. The Last Colony
5. Fuzzy Nation
Ones I need to get to:
Agent to the Stars
Zoe’s Tale
The God Engines (a novella, but worth including in these rankings)
Redshirts
The Human Division
Ranking the ones I’ve read:
The God Engines
Redshirts
Old Man’s War
Agent to the Stars
The Last Colony
The Ghost Brigades
Zoe’s Tale
Fuzzy Nation is awaiting my next long flight for its chance to be read.
I was completely gobsmacked by God Engines when I finally read it (got the HB from Subterranean way back when, and it sat on my shelf for quite a long time).
My only other comment is that all of the non-God-Engine ‘worlds’, so to speak, of yours that I’ve read have one consistent plot device. Trying not to spoil for folks who haven’t read one or more of them, but Michelle Beck, Jane Sagan, Jasper Hester… they all share a common trait.
I wouldn’t say the being at the bottom of the list is bad, just that I recall enjoying some pieces slightly more than others. It’s like trying to rank eating vs. breathing.
1.) Agent to the stars
2.) Old Man’s War
3.) The Android’s Dream
4.) The Ghost Brigades
5.) The Last Colony
6.) Zoe’s Tale
7.) Fuzzy Nation
8.) Redshirts
Never got a hold of the Novella, but didn’t care for Metatropolis (or some such).
1. Android’s dream -funniest sci fi since Douglas Adams left us.
2. Old man’s war
3. The last colony
4. The ghost brigades – note, its very very hard to rank these three. On another day the ghost brigades could well be my favorite of the three
5. Redshirts- starts out kind of lightweight and not as funny as it could have been but the emotional gut punches in the codas keeps it up there.
6. The human division -liked the playing with the new format, but it necessarily therefore didn’t get as in depth as I would have preferred.
7. fuzzy nation, wholly enjoyable but didn’t seem to add too much to the original.
8. zoes tale- too much retread of the last colony. I enjoyed reading it, but have never picked it up to reread it, unlike just about everything else on this list.
9. Agent to the stars- didn’t leave much of an.impression, I think there was too much gross out humor for my taste.
hope this was helpful.
OMW – Created a universe and people I genuinely care about. This book is like an old friend I reread when I want to be entertained without having to work hard on learning something new.
Human Division – Somehow closer in heart and entertainment to OMW than even the other sequels. I also loved the delivery mechanism.
The Androids Dream – I liked this very much. I think that one reason I don’t pick it up more often is that I don’t have it electronically.
The Last Colony
Ghost Brigades
Redshirts
Zoe’s Tale – You got “teenage girl voice” just right. It’s been a wonderful book to introduce you to my teenage daughter and all her friends.
Fuzzy Nation – I’m so grateful for this book. I’m ashamed to say that I’d never heard of Little Fuzzy or Piper before you wrote this. I fixed that, and I enjoyed this version. This is also an excellent gateway book for the YA audience.
Agent to the Stars
The God Engines – I did not like this one, but that’s more about me than the book. I’m not a big fantasy fan.
Also, the top two I feel giddy about (/gush withheld). Three through eight I love nearly as much as the top two and each other. The only miss for me really was The God Engines (And the Sagan Diaries, although that’s not on the list. That may also have been the delivery. I really do need to read it myself, rather than listen to it. Jane is a very interesting woman.).
My List, most favorite, to not quite most favorite… And thank goodness for me writing my mini reviews on goodreads, because I have a lousy memory for novels.
Old Man’s War
Fuzzy Nation
The Ghost Brigades
The Android’s Dream
Zoe’s Tale
The Last Colony
Agent to the Stars
Redshirts
The Human Division
God Engines
I have only read four of your novels so far- I plan to read more, but there are so many things to read!
Anyway, here is the list:
1. Redshirts (because of the codas- they really made the book for me
2. Ghost Brigades
3. Old Man’s War
4. The Last Colony
But my absolute favorite thing of yours I’ve read is your short story “How I Proposed to My Wife: An Alien Sex Story.”
Stick The human division in as a 3.5!
Old Man’s War – First of your books that I read and always recommend it if someone’s looking for something new, even my Dad enjoyed it and he doesn’t read! I came across it making a cameo on SG:Universe, I loved the concept and style from the get go but can humanity have some friends please?
Fuzzy Nation – I need to find the time to go read Little Fuzzy, I put this off reading for a long time, don’t know why, once I started, I couldn’t stop. Do the lead protagonists always have to get a win and work their way out of sticky situations?
The Ghost Brigades – Devoured this, I was hungry for more after Old Man’s War, very excited to read all about the special forces.
The God Engines: I’d love to see this universe expanded, there’s so much possibility!
Agent to the Stars – After finishing OMW universe (including all the short novels; before THD came out, I started looking for more of your work, and figured I’d start at the beginning). I loved that this was so different to the OMW series, I loved the quirkiness of it and the ideas behind it.
The Android’s Dream – Great story, I loved the resolution, starting to get tired of having three acts so obviously represented, but what the hell, it’s a cracking read!
Zoe’s Tale – Rated above The Last Colony only because I loved another author taking on the challenge of telling the same story from another person’s perspective, and yet not telling the same story at all. Very well done.
The Last Colony, Really? No more Perry?? This makes me sad!
Redshirts – Just because it’s at the bottom of the list, doesn’t mean it wasn’t enjoyable, I liked that you took a lot of license with the story, however I didn’t like the way things got tied up in the end. Characters that were dead could easily have been brought back to life by “bad scifi plot twists”, why wouldn’t the crew have pushed for this to happen?
The Human Division : I liked the episodic format, I was a little disappointed that there didn’t feel like a conclusion, who’s the big bad? I’m sure there were lots of hints dropped that I didn’t pick up on. Looking forward to getting some explicit answers in the next installment!
1. The Android’s Dream (for best opening chapter ever)
2. Old Man’s War (The book that introduced me to your work)
3. Ghost Brigades (Great continuation of an epic story)
4.The Human Division (thanks for coming back to this universe in such a fun way)
5.Agent to the Stars (so cool if it happened IRL)
6.The Last Colony (loved this too!)
7.Redshirts (is it wrong I felt this was the sequel to Agent of the Stars?)
8. Fuzzy Nation ( very good!)
9. The God Engines (loved the ending!)
10. Zoe’s Tale (a bit redundant but some good background stuff too)
Rankings:
Redshirts
The God Engines
Old Man’s War
The Human Division
Zoe’s Tale
The Last Colony
The Ghost Brigades
Agent to the Stars
Unread:
The Android’s Dream
Fuzzy Nation
Notes:
-I came in expecting to be the only person on the planet who liked The God Engines (I really, REALLY loved it), but I’m really happy to see that a lot of others liked it too! Good for you, God Engines.
-I feel bad for poor old Agent to the Stars, which I thought was a perfectly fun book. But the story wasn’t as deep because it was, as you’ve said, just an experiment to see if you could write a novel at all. I still remember it fondly enough that I don’t think it really deserves to be at the bottom of a list, but there it is.
-Redshirts was transcendent. Interestingly, I was lukewarm on the book until I reached the Codas, which transformed the story in my mind and brought the entire thing into a new context. It’s now one of my favorite books ever, and I recommend it frequently.
-The second three on my list, from God Engines to Human Division, could be scrambled in any order and I’d still stand by that ranking. It’s only between Human Division and Zoe’s Tale that I feel confident in ordering one above the other. A three-way tie for second place? Sure, why not.
Keep doin’ what you’re doin’, Scalzi.
1.) The Android’s Dream (First Scalzi book I read. Hilarious.)
2.) Old Man’s War
3.) The Ghost Brigades
4.) The Last Colony
5.) Zoe’s Tale
6.) The God Engines (a novella, but worth including in these rankings)
Cannot rank the others because I haven’t read them yet.
1) Old Man’s War
2) The Ghost Brigades
3a) Fuzzy Nation
3b) Redshirts
3c) The Android’s Dream
6) The Human Division
7) The Last Colony
8) Zoe’s Tale
9) Agent to the Stars – have not read
10) The God Engines (a novella, but worth including in these rankings) – have not read
Old Man’s War and The Ghost Brigades are far and away my favs, just great sci-fi all around.
The next 3 are almost as good, just a half step below the first 2. Loved the re-telling with
Fuzzy Nation. Redshirts was brilliant, just alot of fun with a really cool concept.
Maybe a poor analogy but it was if Christopher Moore re-wrote the story for Galaxy Quest.
Android’s Dream was also just a great fun story to read.
I liked the idea behind Human Division, so many intertwined tales that can stand on their own as well.
I think the only thing about Human Division that moved it down the list for me was that
it really felt like the strings that will tie your previous novels into your “next big thing”.
Last Colony and Zoe’s tale were good stories, but for whatever reason didn’t strike me in the same way
the others did.
I’ve not read the last 2.
Keep up the great work and thank you for the hours and hours of awesome Sci-Fi entertainment!
Of what I’ve read:
Zoe’s Tale
Agent to the Stars
Old Man’s War
Fuzzy Nation
The Android’s Dream
Redshirts (and only because of the codas – I didn’t find it particularly funny, but it was pleasant enough)
The Ghost Brigades
Difficult, this:
Agent to the Stars — loved how characters went in directions utterly surprising to me.
Old Man’s War — one of my favorite space operas in quite a long time.
Redshirts — might’ve rated it higher, but for me, the addendas subtracted from it, rather than adding.
Fuzzy Nation — loved it almost as much as the original. Fascinating seeing almost the same story, told from a different voice.
The Last Colony — very good book, only rating it last because of the company it’s keeping.
And obviously, I’ve a few still to read.
1. Redshirts
2. The Ghost Brigades
3. Old Man’s War
4. The Android’s Dream
5. The Last Colony
Awesome and reread multiple times:
Old Man’s War
The Android’s Dream
The God Engines
Good, but not one for the ages or sleepless nights:
The Ghost Brigades
Redshirts
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
Book I remember two things about: I’ve read it and “oh God, never read it again”:
Agent to the Stars
unread:
Fuzzy Nation
The Human Division
1. Old Man’s War. This may seem like too much praise, but I think it redeems “Starship Troopers”, one of my favorite early reads of all time. ST has a few technical problems (most glaring, Heinlein’s use of dialogue to avoid drawing clear images), but it’s also plagued with an overly-stupid meta-argument that your story universe has not yet acquired.
On the book’s own merits, starting at the grave site pulled my heart out and stomped on it. The haiku was also brutal. In totally good ways.
2. Ghost Brigades. The nature and value of consciousness, independent of belief in the afterlife/greater good. While it chugs a bit more at the beginning than OMW, the story question gets answered in a satisfying way, *without* resolving how the reader is supposed to feel about it – a neat trick.
3. Redshirts. To me, the codas sell the whole thing. The meta would otherwise be too precious to take seriously.
‘Course, I have to point out that the “are you my real wife or not?” coda is essentially a re-skin of the Jane Sagan Situation, and the entire story question is a comedy re-skin of Ghost Brigades. I read Ghost Brigades *after* Redshirts, so this is just now dawning on me.
Don’t take the last bit as me suggesting that you never go back to the same well again. I’m just pegging what seems to be one of your narrative centers, in the same way that Heinlein wrote a lot of high adventure featuring genius Amazons.
Old Man’s War
The Android’s Dream
The Ghost Brigades
Zoe’s Tale
The Last Colony
Fuzzy Nation
The Human Division
Agent to the Stars
The God Engines
Redshirts
It’s important to note that the graph of the likey-ness is such that it’s a flat from “Old Man’s War” through “Zoe’s Tale” and then starts to decline every so slightly from there through “The Human Division”, but it bends like a hockey stick at “The God Engines.”
Mr. Scalzi:
I think I can recall enough 7 of your works to rank and comment, to wit:
1. Redshirts – refreshingly creative and well crafted
2. Fuzzy Nation – delightful homage to Piper’s work
3. Old Man’s War – brilliant in concept, not quite as well written as your later work.
4. Agent to the Stars – couldn’t stop laughing.
5. Human Division – good, but getting to be a bit derivative.
6. Ghost Brigades
7. Last Colony
While I’m happy to consume further works set in the OMW universe, I will look forward with the greatest delight to All New stuff. (And…your craft just continues to get better.)
Thanks for much enjoyment,
Frank Van Haste
Out of what I’ve read:
1. Ghost Brigades
2a. Old Man’s War
2b. Human Division
3. Redshirts
4. The Last Colony
5. Agent To The Stars
6. Zoe’s Tale (unfinished)
Maybe I’d have time to read more of your books if YOU stopped spending all of MY possibly-hard-earned cash on Big Idea books. I don’t WANT to buy these books, John. Stop giving other great writers a direct line past my brain, through my heart, and into my wallet.
In order of likeness
1. Zoe’s Tale / The Last Colony*
2. Redshirts
3. Fuzzy Nation
4 Old man’s War
5 The Human Division
6 The Ghost Brigades
*Linked because reading one triggers a immediate need to read the other
Have not yet read:
The God Engines (a novella, but worth including in these rankings)
The Android’s Dream
Agent to the Stars
— Like
Old Man’s War
Fuzzy Nation
The Android’s Dream
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
— Ambivalent
The Human Division
Redshirts
— Some Active Dislike
Zoe’s Tale
The God Engines
I loved Old Man’s War and was wholly satisified with the rest of the series. Kudos and thank you.
I was not familiar with Little Fuzzy, so the story was new and fresh to me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Your writing is always accessible and the pacing in that particular novel was execllent I think. I suspect that, as with Zoe’s Tale, had I been more familiar with the pior story ahead of time it may have been farther down the scale of like/dislike, but my experience was very positive.
Zoe’s Tale left me completely cold because I felt like it trod a lot of ground that was already covered and, while interesting as a thought experiment, did not transport me to a new place. Essentially, I got bored.
The God Engine’s I just didn’t get at all. For the life of me, I can’t recall a single detail of what happened. No impact at all.
I suspect that I didn’t get the full value out of Redshirts because I was bored by the epilogue chapters and quit the book early. Reading others reviews, I feel like those chapters added a lot of value to the experience for others, so maybe I missed something important.
The Human Division I haven’t quite completed yet (listening to the last chapter now), but I suspect the episodic format hurt the overall presentation of the story. I enjoy the multiple meanings of Human Division that are layered into the story, but I find the overall experience unmemorable.
Redshirts
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Fuzzy Nation
Zoe’s Tale
Agent to the Stars
The Human Division
Haven’t read
The Android’s Dream
Agent to the Stars
Old Man’s War
Zoe’s Tale
The Ghost Brigades/The Last Colony (tie)
The Android’s Dream
Here’s my list:
1. The Old Man’s War trilogy (I read them back-to-back and think of them as one story; If I had to pick the best of the three, I think it’d be TLC).
2. God Engines
3. The Android’s Dream
4. The Human Division
5. Fuzzy Nation (but never read the original, so no comparison)
6.Agent to the Stars (first book I read and liked it enough to check out OMW, but somewhat uneven in terms of enjoyment across the whole story).
7. Zoe’s Tale (quick read, but may have suffered from being the second version of events in the same timeline — it was different enough to stand alone, but made me want to flip back through TLC to compare notes or check memory)
8. Redshirts (enjoyed the story but did get pulled out of the story occasionally by the “meta-ness” of it all)
I can say that the friend who pointed me to “Election” on your web page (and started me on the path to reading all of your stuff) was not a big fan of Redshirts. I bought it for him as a gift, and after he read it, he gave it back to me because it wasn’t worth keeping. And the story that piqued the most interest among my friends was “How I proposed to my wife: an alien sex story”…it may have just been the title, though.
1. Last Colony/Zoe’s Tale – I like reading them concurrently.
2. Old Man’s War
3. The Ghost Brigades
4. The Human Division (what I’ve read of it so far, which is about half before I got distracted by Hugo reading)
5. Little Fuzzy
6. Redshirts
7. Agent to the Stars – Honestly, I quit this one halfway through. I’ve found I tend to not like Earth-based Sci-Fi.
Unread: Android’s Dream and God Engines.
While this post is about your fiction, I’d also note that if your non-fiction was in play, both Your Hate Mail Will be Graded and 24 Frames into the Future would rate in my top five.
List with the number of stars I gave in Shelfari (which has a lousy interface for searching your own books by author.)
Old Man’s War – (Inexplicably not in my records, but 5)
(The Sagan Diaries would go here)
Redshirts – 5
The God Engines – 4
Agent to the Stars – 3
Fuzzy Nation – 3
Zoe’s Tale – 3
The Last Colony – 3
For what it’s worth, I try to take the ratings scale seriously. (3 – liked it, 4 – really liked it, 5 – loved it.)
1. The Last Colony
2. Old Man’s War
3. Ghost Brigade
4. Redshirts
5. Zoe’s Tale
I will comment that in some cases, the difference in rank is miniscule and fairly meaningless. Even Zoe’s Tale, which is last on my list was an enjoyable read, though admittedly my least favorite. The Last Colony blew me away.
Hmm, it’s hard to say. Your works are actually quite different; action SF on the one hand and comedic legal SF on the other. They’re hard to compare. But I tend to prefer more involved, deeply explored worlds and well developed characters, so I’ll say:
1) The OMW series (minus Human Division, unread): Not really sure how to rank the individual books. They all have their strengths, and I like them each as a different take on the subject material. But I love that universe and the developed family of characters in it.
2) Android’s Dream: Probably the “hardest” of your non-OMW series, which is what I’m drawn to. Obviously not as developed as a multi-book series, but the world and characters are compelling.
3) Fuzzy Nation: A little transparent. I knew where it was going, but it was fun to go along for the ride. I never read the source book.
4) Agent to the Stars: Nothing wrong with it. It was fun and enjoyable, but that’s it. Probably not something I’m going to want to reread years later.
5) Redshirts: Same as above. A little too self-referential for my taste, but fun enough.
6) God Engines: I actually enjoyed this a lot, but there was too little material. You showed us an interesting world that looked really promising, then rushed us through it. I wanted to explore that world more. I’ll revise my opinion if you write additional material!
Unread: Human Division. Sitting on my Kindle, but I haven’t had the time to read it yet.
Of those I’ve read…
1. Old Man’s War (a good “big idea” executed well, action and humor)
2. The Last Colony
3. Redshirts (this is easy to like and dislike at (almost) the same time – the “catharsis” after the climax felt like it was a little too long, but it was a fun story, your passion was in there, and it was (mostly) well paced; my first reaction on reading the end was that it almost felt like a cheat, but then I realized that it was brilliant and the only proper way to have treated the book as a serious work–that dichotomy is rare, and I think that means you managed to pull it off)
4. Zoe’s Tale
5. The Android’s Dream (cute, but it felt like you were more interested in poking at various people and tropes)
6. The Ghost Brigades (felt like you were just going through the motions on this one, I couldn’t read your passion in it)
Unread:
Agent to the Stars
The God Engines
Fuzzy Nation
The Human Division (waiting to get The Last Colony out of storage for a re-read first)
Here’s my list –
The Ghost Brigades – I really need to read this one again. I remember at the time that I thought I could really see an improvement in your writing between OMW and this.
Agent to the Stars – I was really surprised how much I loved this book, especially considering that I didn’t much care for The Android’s Dream and I had always thought those two books would be somewhat similar comedic s/f novels.
Old Man’s War – Old Man’s War is the only one of your books I’ve read multiple times, so I really like it. What a great opening to hook the reader.
Redshirts – Liked this quite a bit, but it wasn’t nearly the straightforward comedy that many of the blurbs/reviews seemed to indicate. The codas really made this for me as they made for a very nice twist in an already very twisty novel!
Fuzzy Nation – Liked it pretty well, but I think I liked re-reading Little Fuzzy even more!
Zoe’s Tale/The Last Colony – I was put off a bit by the deus ex machina ending of Last Colony and probably enjoyed Zoe’s Tale more.
The Android’s Dream – The only one of your books that just didn’t work for me.
The God Engines/The Human Division – Have not read either of these yet, but I know I will read The God Engines at some point as I’m interested in reading some non-humorous non-science fiction Scalzi!
Argh! The Android’s dream wasn’t in my bookshelf either. It goes between Redshirts and The God Engines as a 5.
Old Man’s War
Zoe’s Tale
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
[I re-read these usually at least once or twice a year. Also, I teach them fairly often in college lit classes. These are in the “never getting culled from my collection, no matter how much I need room on the bookshelves” category.]
The Human Division
Redshirts
Agent to the Stars
The Android’s Dream
[Hilarious. I just don’t quite LOVE love them as much as the core OMW novels. But this is like not loving churro waffles quite as much as Coke Zero. One is a lovely treat that you gladly devour when available, but the other is a deep and abiding love.]
Sagan Diary
[I give this a “meh.” It just didn’t do much for me. I found it to be the multivitamin to your usual literary Coke Zero and churro waffles offerings. Nothing to be excited about, but not inherently awful in any way.]
The God Engines
[I bought this, read it, and abandoned it at my sister’s house because it wasn’t worth the space in my suitcase to take home. And it’s not that big. God Engines is the oozing pile of suspicious something at the back of the fridge that you want to forget, but you can’t ever unsee. But, like the probably-formerly-edible fridge surprise, there was potential there. I think I might have liked it a lot if it had been a full length novel so that things got developed more, much as I might have liked fresh strawberries if they had become shortcake rather than slime mold.]
No, I do not know why I have not yet read Fuzzy Nation. Clearly there is no real excuse for me. *Departs in shame to commit literary seppuku. *
Agent to the Stars – My favorite; it was hysterically
funny and just plain fun; I loved ALL the
characters in it
Old Man’s War – I have a hard time ranking these three
among the OMW series; all were excellent
Zoe’s Tale
The Last Colony
The Android’s Dream – Loved the PKD references
Redshirts – Fun and a great lovable lampooning of ST
The Ghost Brigades – These two of OMW were ok, but not as good IMO
The Human Division – Like the re-introduction of Harry
Wilson; was a bit frustrated in the episodic form; I
ended up doing them in groups of two to three at a
time (audiobook format)
The God Engines (a novella, but worth including in these rankings)
– Way too dark; The least enjoyable of your works for me
Fuzzy Nation – Didn’t read
1. Redshirts (interesting story, lots of humor, twists that were surprising and fun, and a deft handling of several layers)
2. Old Man’s War (solid straightforward science fiction)
3. Agent to the Stars (the cuteness of the humor wore on me a bit)
I think Redshirts shows how much you have developed as a writer, John (as I would hope I would if I were a professional with as many books under my belt as you). It’s got a sure voice, the humor is there in the right proportion for my tastes, and you took an idea that was probably fairly simple at first and developed it in ways that I found interesting and unexpected. Old Man’s War was a knockout as a first novel, and I have enjoyed rereading it. Agent to the Stars was one I had to keep making myself pick up. (Read it after OMW, before Redshirts)
1. Old Man’s War – by far your best, John. Loved the concept, the wit, and action.
2. The Ghost Brigades – a narrow margin above The Last Colony, but the intensity of this one wins out. I like these two almost as well as OMW, but the first book’s mystery at the beginning takes the cake.
3. The Last Colony – See above.
4. The God Engines – Enjoyed it. Didn’t love the ending.
5. Zoe’s Tale – I read the first couple of chapters and got bored. Probably because I had finished The Last Colony mere hours before, and it felt like I was reading the same story again. I may give it another try someday, now that I don’t remember all the details of LC.
Redshirts is on my to-read list and coming soon.
1. The God Engines (a novella, but worth including in these rankings)
2. Old Man’s War
3. Zoe’s Tale
4. The Android’s Dream
5. Redshirts
6. Fuzzy Nation
7. Agent to the Stars
8. The Ghost Brigades
9. The Last Colony
(unread)
The Human Division
Truthfully, after 3, it was hard to rank. I have seriously enjoyed them all, but The God Engines is definitely my favorite, by a wide margin. This is partly due to the tone of the narrative and basic premise, but mostly because I keep thinking about it even though it was months ago that I read it. I suspect that I am going to be recommending this one to people for many years…
As a musician, I wonder about the same things you ask in this article about my own work sometimes. I only know that my own musical tastes were sometimes not prepared for certain works at certain times. I would claim to dislike something, and over time, I would find them again and not understand what it was that I disliked. My head clearly caught up with the work in question.
It is clearly the case with any artistic work, but more difficult to notice that particular phenomena with books, as it requires a considerably greater effort to reread a book that you decided was, at one point, bunk, or perhaps more accurately “only okay.”
This is a fascinating look at what others think of your works.
Thanks!
I’m sorry if this isn’t as helpful, but it’s really hard for me to put them in a complete order. For example, of the ones I listed as “first”, I don’t know if I have a single favorite. I love all of them and which book I choose depends on my mood at the time.
First:
Old Man’s War
Agent to the Stars
Redshirts
The Android’s Dream (sequel please?)
Second: (I really love the OMW universe, I just didn’t love the sequels quite as much as the original. Please write more though!)
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
The Human Division
Third: (Couldn’t finish either of these)
Fuzzy Nation – nothing specifically wrong with it, I just couldn’t get into it enough to make me want to keep reading.
The God Engines – really just not my thing. I tried it but it turns out that dark fantasy is not my favorite genre.
Old Man’s War
The Android’s Dream
The Human Division
The God Engines
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Redshirts
I enjoyed Redshirts but wasn’t wild about it.
Haven’t read Agent to the Stars, Fuzzy Nation or Zoe’s Tale yet.
Of the ones I’ve read…
1 – Human Division and Old Mans War, OMW I’ve read more and it really holds up, HD really impressed me this winter
2 – Ghost Brigades, loved the different POV
3 – Last Colony
4 – Zoe’s Tale – maybe it was better for readers who hadn’t just read Last Colony, to me it felt like several shorter pieces patched together
5 – Redshirts – I just could not get through this, I tried but I couldn’t get it, maybe because I was never a big enough trekkie, maybe it was too meta for my tastes
In order of “I liked them” from the one’s I’ve read.
Old Man’s War
Redshirts
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
The Android’s Dream
And a motivational paraphrase from comedian Bobcat Goldthwait who’d respond thusly to fans who complained the he USED to be awesome, and they loved him so much for so long, and they were angry at the latest album or movie sucking, and how he’s sold out and how dare he?
“Well I just met you, and you’ve sucked the whole time”
Read in book format:
Old Man’s War
Audio version-narrated by Wil Wheaton:
Agent to the Stars
The Android’s Dream
Fuzzy Nation
Redshirts
Wil’s narration made your books really enjoyable and I don’t think I would listen to ones he hasn’t read. I tend to look for books he narrates and that’s how I discovered your books.
If you are counting books in audio format, my ranking is as follows:
The Android’s Dream (one of my top 10 favorite audiobooks)
Fuzzy Nation
Redshirts
Agent to the Stars
Old Man’s War
Old Man’s War
The Last Colony
The Android’s Dream
The Human Division
The Ghost Brigades
Redshirts
Agent to the Stars
Fuzzy Nation
Unread:
Zoe’s Tale
The God Engines (a novella, but worth including in these rankings)
1. Redshirts
2. The Human Division
3. Old Man’s War
4. The Last Colony
5. The Ghost Brigades
Unread:
Agent to the Stars
The Android’s Dream
Zoe’s Tale
Fuzzy Nations
The God Engines (though I really want to read this one)
I’ve read five of your books, which I would rank as follows:
Android’s Dream
Fuzzy Nation
Old Man’s War
Agent to the Stars
Redshirts
Android’s Dream was really fun, and I’m eagerly awaiting a sequel. I’ve reread it multiple times and will probably read it again. “Fun” is generally what I look for in my fiction. “Intellectual Fun” is even better. Deep emotional issues are not to my taste, as I have enough of those in my life that I don’t look for them in fiction. Android’s Dream came very close to being perfect in those terms.
Fuzzy Nation was pretty good. I haven’t reread it yet but will probably do so at some point. It was well-plotted and well-characterized and the prose was good. Further, I thought it was really good/cool of you to reboot H. Beam Piper’s work.
Old Man’s War was kind of “meh.” I read it once and didn’t see what the fuss was all about, so a year or two later I read it again and still didn’t see what the fuss was about. The whole business of meeting his wife’s clone didn’t work for me on any level. Some of the combat bits with other species was a lot of fun.
Agent to the Stars was a fun read, but I probably wouldn’t read it again. (IIRC it was your first novel, and just fine for that, but not overall a strong contender.)
Redshirts was the satirical Star Trek novel anyone could have written, though you do deserve the credit for actually moving into that niche and seeing the commercial oppurtunity. I probably would have REALLY enjoyed it sometime in the early eighties, but at this point in my life (I’m slightly less the 50 years old) it was not terribly exciting. After reading the previews I wouldn’t have bought it myself, but I recieved it as a present and thus read it.
Where your novels are concerned – and don’t laugh, I’m serious here – I’m eagerly awaiting “Shadow War of the Night Dragons.” I think the idea is high-concept, accessible parody on the same level as “Redshirts” and probably saleable to a publisher as such, particularly if you write it with a straight face and let the satirical elements emerge naturally.
While most of your novels didn’t really excite me, I LUH-OVE your blogging. I really, really enjoy your blog, and I read it every day. You’ve got a sharp eye and a good grasp of current events and while I’m not a member it feels to me like you did a wonderful job as President of the SFWA. Particularly good moments in Scalzi blogging include your coverage of the Science Fiction Community, your opinion pieces, and your commentaries on sexism.
Your essay about being white and male and “playing the game on the easiest setting” will go down in history as one of the greatest pieces ever on the subject of sex and gender.
In descending order of goodness (items on the same line are equally good):
Old Man’s War, The Ghost Brigades, Zoe’s Tale
The Last Colony
Redshirts, The Human Division
Insert 7 lines here
Sagan Diaries
unread:
The God Engines
Fuzzy Nation
Agent to the Stars
The Android’s Dream
Notes:
The Last Colony is knocked down due to the acknowledged Deus Ex Machina and lost elements that required Zoe’s Tale to resolve (although I still think the natives subplot is not fully resolved).
The Human Division gets knocked down compared to the other ‘Old Man’s War’ universe novels only because it is not self contained like the others. It ends in mid second act with almost nothing resolved, so I don’t really consider it a complete novel. At the very least it’s ‘sequel bait’, unlike the others. Probably because it is the first one written with the intent of there being a sequel.
Redshirts is knocked down by implausibility. There are too many coincidental things that happen in the second half and the Codas, like the story was half done and you realized that you hadn’t set up a way to get to the ending you wanted, so you twisted really hard to make it work out. I could make a list but I don’t want to put in spoilers. Go to a list of problems with the ending of ‘The Legend of Korra’ and replace terms and character name, and you’ll get about the same list.
The Sagan Diaries make absolutely no sense.
Something like this:
Old Man’s War
The Android’s Dream
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
The Ghost Brigades
The Human Division
The God Engines
Redshirts
Agent to the Stars
not read:
Fuzzy Nation
But the real ranking for me would have the whole OMW universe as one continuous book at the top, since in my head I see them just as different chapters, not separate books.
The Android’s Dream
The Last Colony/Zoe’s Tale (tied, partially because I love them as a combined look at their shared events from different points of view)
The Human Division
Fuzzy Nation
The God Engines
Old Man’s War
Redshirts
The Ghost Brigades
Agent to the Stars
I have enjoyed all of these stories. Redshirts was the hardest for me to rank. Because while I enjoyed it all the way through, I felt that the main story was just good. Better than many other books, but not your personal best. But the codas, oh my word, the codas were amazing! If I rated it merely based on the codas, Redshirts would be number one. But taken as a whole, I just could not decide where to put it! Especially since I cannot say that I dislike any of the books of yours that I have read.
The Ghost Brigades (makes me cry. every. damn. time.)
The Last Colony
Old Man’s War
The Human Division
The Sagan Diaries
Zoe’s Tale
Redshirts
Android’s Dream
Agent to the Stars
Honorable Mention to “Shadow War of The Night Dragons”
1. Agent to the Stars
2. Old Man’s War
3. Zoe’s Tale
4. The Ghost Brigades
5. The Last Colony
6. The Human Division
7. Android’s Dream
8. Redshirts
9. Fuzzy Nation
Haven’t read The God Engines yet, but own it and will probably read it soon. It sounded like the kind of book I have to be in a particular mood to read, and for the last few years that’s meant time to read the next Jemisen on my shelves.
And I’ve quite liked all of the ones I’ve read, and the 3-6 books are so close that if I listed them again they might come in any order.
From most to least favorite:
1. Old Man’s War – thoughtful premise, fun reading
2. The God Engines – loved the premise
3. Zoe’s Tale – loved the concept; the only drawback was that after reading the blog for years, I heard “Scalzi” very clearly in Zoe’s voice, and that was disconcerting since you are not actually a teenage girl. (Had I not been reading Whatever I think it would have been fine.) But I really really loved those alien bodyguards.
4. The Last Colony – all of these sequels are fine but the details are lost to me
5. The Ghost Brigades
6. Fuzzy Nation – really fun. I always appreciate a conflict that ends in a clever smackdown (something Orson Scott Card does really well)
7. Redshirts – clever and funny, but it didn’t particularly make me think
8. The Android’s Dream – I enjoyed the humor and surprises and wanted to get into this but I couldn’t remember and keep track of all of the names. At one point I even had a big cheat sheet to help myself, but eventually I gave up. Somehow I made it through War and Peace but not this one.
Fuzzy Nation – Loved the original it was my first introduction to sci-fi. I really liked the updated version, and the idea of taking great sci-fi and making them relevant to today’s readers, without screwing up the story or the intent of the original.
Old Man’s War- Brilliant
The Ghost Brigades – I really liked this, and The Last Colony they rank equally.
Zoe’s Tale – I liked reading the story from a different point of view, but felt there was something lacking in Zoe’s voice, it was difficult to really care about her, The story was good but I think I relied on what I had read previously if one were to read this in the other order it would not work as well.
The Android’s Dream – It was a while ago that I read this, and I had difficulty with this one, I am not sure what it was, it is on my to re-read list it may just have been a I was not in a sci-fi mood.
Have not read yet:
Redshirts – Started it but did not get caught up enough so put it away to try when i was in a better mental place for reading this.
The Human Division – Tried at first discovered I do not do well with serialized releases waiting to read the full book.
The God Engines -Really do need to bump this up on my to read list.
Agent to the Stars
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
Agent to the Stars
The Last Colony
The God Engines
Fuzzy Nation
Zoe’s Tale
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
The Human Division
Redshirts
unread
Agent to the Stars
The Android’s Dream
The God Engines
Fuzzy Nation
Old Man’s War
Redshirts
The Human Division
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Redshirts: 5 stars. Loved it. I pick out little writing lessons from it.
Old Man’s War: 4 stars. Enjoyed it. Wasn’t what I was expecting. Really made me care about the characters.
Ghost Brigades: 4 stars. Jane without John (which I thought worked, but I guess John’s time is done with). Enjoyable, but wasn’t sure I’d care as much. Jane kicks ass, though.
I own Fuzzy Nation. Have not read, but will.
Last Colony is on my list. I’m not in a hurry for it, though.
1 – Old Man’s War – This was the first of your books I read, and it’s one I’ve read many times now. The humour, along with engaging characters are probably what nailed it for me.
2 – Redshirts – I don’t think this is as good as a few of the other books, but I love it, start to finish.
3 – The Human Division – Thoroughly enjoyed the expansion to the universe, and waking to a new episode every Tuesday was a treat.
4 – The Last Colony – Lots of nice badass-ery and I liked the planetary setting.
5 – Agent To The Stars – This took me a while to get into, but when I did I loved it. Got a feel of Douglas Adams off it too, and I liked that.
6 – The Ghost Brigades/Zoe’s Tale – I like these about the same. Maybe Zoe’s Tale should be with The Last Colony, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as that book.
Special Mention – The Tale Of The Wicked (super), and An Election (really good).
Super Special Mention – The Shadow War Of The Night Dragons (YEAH!)
Unread:
The Android’s Dream
The God Engines
Fuzzy Nation (Next on my table)
The Ghost Brigades – my favorite of the whole series, just incredibly engrossing
Old Man’s War – a very close second to ghost brigades
Agent to the Stars – freaking hysterical, was my ‘gateway book’ into your works :)
The Human Division/The Last Colony – can’t decide between these two, so a tie for 4th :)
the rest in order of preference:
The Android’s Dream
Zoe’s Tale
The God Engines
Fuzzy Nation
Redshirts
Have Read:
1. Old Man’s War – Still my favorite. Regularly pick it back up and read it again.
2. Human Division – The humor put this one up above Ghost Brigades for me. Thanks for coming back to this universe… looking forward to next year!
3. Ghost Brigades
4. God Engines – One of those books I wanted to be 2-3x longer. Great concept, couldn’t put it down until it was suddenly over and I realized I had hoped for it to be longer.
5. Redshirts
6. Last Colony
7. Zoe’s Tale – I get why you wrote this (I think), and liked the book on my first read but when I re-read the series I’m not compelled to read it again right away… I usually come back to it some weeks later and read it in an afternoon, but I like the idea another commenter left about reading LC/ZT concurrently.
8. Agent to the Stars – couldn’t get into it very easily, but likely worth another shot
Haven’t Read:
Fuzzy Nation, but it’s on my list
The Android’s Dream
Old Man’s War (the first I read, which likely helped)
Fuzzy Nation (I love a good courtroom drama)
Ghost Brigades (Ok, but my interest wandered)
Redshirts (liked the ideas more than the execution)
Human Division (read it as an experiment in serial novelization; the book itself didn’t seem cohesive enough for me)
Agent to the Stars (didn’t like this one; the mix of humor and seriousness felt jarring and I also didn’t laugh once)
The first two are 3.5 – 4 stars out of five. ghost brigades and redshirts are solid 3s. agent is a low 2.
I admit I like you better as a blogger than a writer but your books are all easy and diverting reads, so I will probably keep on reading them.
In my mind, the first three are just about equal:
1. Old Man’s War – brilliant!
2. The Ghost Brigades – brilliant again
3. The Last Colony/Zoe’s Tale – tied, because in my mind they have to go together, being the same story from different perspectives, also brilliant and a wonderful concept
—- a big gap here —–
4. The Android’s Dream – fun but a tad bit silly
5. Redshirts – great concept, hilarious in parts but too meta for me
6. Sagan Diary – lovely, lyrical and moving
7. The God Engines – interesting concept, but meh
Unread:
Agent to the Stars – actually plan to read this someday
Fuzzy Nation – no plan to read, hated H. Beam Piper’s original
The Human Division – Only the first 5 chapters read, will finish at some point
On a personal note, listing a fondness for “Old Man’s War” on an online dating profile lead directly to meeting my wondeful girlfriend, which lead to us moving in together, which is leading us well on our way down the path to “happily ever after”. So I owe you one ;-)
I haven’t read one of your books yet I didn’t enjoy. It’s more accurately a measure of how many times I’ve re-read a book, from 5 or 6 times through to single reads. Of course, newer titles are disadvantaged by that metric, but I think the order holds regardless.
and the list…
The Android’s Dream
Old Man’s War
Zoe’s Tale
The Last Colony
The Ghost Brigades
Redshirts
Agent to the Stars
Fuzzy Nation
The Human Division
Let’s see, in order:
1. The God Engines (double-plus good)
2. The Last Colony (enjoyed it quite a bit)
Then, in no particular order (all reasonably enjoyable, but none of them really stand out for me, honestly):
Old Man’s War, Agent to the Stars, The Ghost Brigades, The Android’s Dream, Fuzzy Nation, Zoe’s Tale
X. Redshirts (meh — if not for the codas, I’d rate this as readable but not much more)
Haven’t read:
The Human Division
Honestly, my wife is the bigger fan. The main reason I’ve read everything is because she buys the books (and gets them signed, etc.)… With the limited amount of reading time I have I only manage to read a fraction of the books I’m interested in and I probably spend more time reading non-fiction.
I can only manage to divide them into two tiers:
Top tier, in rough order of preference but really all ranked very close together:
Old Man’s War
The Last Colony
The Ghost Brigades
Redshirts
The Human Division
Second tier:
Fuzzy Nation
Zoe’s Tale
Agent to the Stars
(I have not read The Android’s Dream nor The God Engines).
Zoe’s Tale
The Last Colony
Fuzzy Nation
Old Man’s War
The Human Division
The God Engines
Agent to the Stars
The Android’s Dream
The Ghost Brigades
Redshirts
This is not saying that Redshirts is bad by comparison; it was simply lighter and fluffier than the rest. I enjoyed it, but I wasn’t engrossed by it the way I was with Zoe’s Tale and The Last Colony.
I am fairly new to you, but here’s my list thus far:
1. Redshirts (first of yours I ever read)
2. Old Man’s War
3. Fuzzy Nation
4. The Last Colony
5. The Ghost Brigades
Once I read the others, rankings may change :-) (but I don’t think anything could possibly take #1 from Redshirts).
Only read three of your books, so far. OMW, TGB, and TLC, but I’m waiting on payday so I can order Zoe’s Tale, probably Redshirts, and The Human Division. So, I think I like Old Man’s War better than the other two because it holds out hope for us, not just for Perry and Jane. I liked The Last Colony slightly less, very slightly, though. Again, there’s hope for us, even if it comes from a direction we don’t expect (General Gau, General Szilard…). The Ghost Brigades was somewhat bittersweet, you root for Jared through the whole book, and while he accomplishes his “mission”, it’s at a terrible cost. What might have been? Anyway, John, I like all three of them, looking forward to the others. I don’t expect your stories to be universally popular, there are always those people who like this and don’t like that story. I have my favorite Heinlein books, and the ones I don’t want to pick up ever again. I’m sure there are people out there who feel the same way about your books. Thanks – Joe in Sidney.
Of the books I’ve read, this is my order:
1. The Android’s Dream
2. Redshirts
3. The Last Colony
4. The Ghost Brigades
5. Old Man’s War
Of the books I haven’t read, this is the order for what I’m most interested in reading:
1. The God Engines
2. Agent to the Stars
3. The Human Division
4. Zoe’s Tale
5. Fuzzy Nation
Doubt72’s wife here.
1. Old Man’s War (I consider the entire trilogy one work, but don’t count Zoe’s Tale)
2. The God Engines
Agent to the Stars was my Gateway Drug and has a special place in my heart for the zany. Same for The Android’s Dream.
Thought these were ok:
Zoe’s Tale
Fuzzy Nation
Redshirts
Haven’t Read (grad school ate my brain):
The Human Division
Here’s my list from favorite to least favorite, Including The Sagan Diary (why wasn’t this included in the list?).
~1. Zoe’s Tale
~1. The Last Colony
~2. Agent to the Stars
~2. Fuzzy Nation
3. The Android’s Dream
4. The Sagan Diary (I quite liked The Sagan Diary, though I switched from the audiobook to the text shortly after Scalzi’s intro concluded.)
5. The Ghost Brigades
6. Old Man’s War
7. The God Engines (I love ‘grimdark’ and really bleak atmospheres, but the tone here never quite worked for me.)
——–
[unread]
Redshirts
The Human Division
Old Man’s War
Redshirts
The Human Division
Zoe’s Tale
Fuzzy Nation
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
The Android’s Dream
The God Engines
I have not read Agent to the Stars
This is fairly difficult. I find myself recommending different books of yours to different people.
The Android’s Dream (The Androids Dream is the only book I’ve reread, although I have done both the reading and the audiobooks for the first three Old Man’s war stories and redshirts).
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony (Although these three are all very different, and your writing gets better as the series progresses I still tend to think of the first three as one creature, I’m unsure how to sort them.)
The God Engines (I finally read this a few months ago and was really impressed. You’re epic fantasy tone (might be the wrong term?) was so different from your fast quipy action scene wit that I’m used to. And it was full of awesome ideas. Reminded me of my favorite experiences learning to love reading with my dad’s old 60’s and 70’s scifi collections.
Redshirts (Really really fun, my copy has been lent out multiple times. When friends started a sci fi book club, we made this the first book. I found it less impressive then the previous 4. The universe building and philosophizing of the 4 above are more what I look for in my science fiction. Even the hilarious Android’s Dream had a well fleshed out world complete with fart assassinations, and sarcastic atheist sheep worshippers.
Zoe’s Tale (one that I think I respect the idea of more then I enjoy. I like the idea of a story retelling from a new POV. And I like the idea of making that retelling for a new target audience. I think I just wasn’t that audience. It’s also possible I read it too soon after I read the Last Colony. Probably should have taken a break.)
Agent to the Stars (A great beginning novel. It’s also a great premise. I could see this potentially being the most Hollywood adaptable of your stories. You can tell that you’re still trying to figure somethings out. There are pieces of plot points in here that I feel like you took, twisted and fully fleshed out in later novels. I’d compare it to Mel Brooks original Producers movie. It’s full of greatness but has problems. He’ll take the best gags and use them to better effect in later movies.)
Haven’t read Fuzzy Nation. The Human division was great but I have trouble reviewing things that I’ve just absorbed. I want to let it sit before I form a stronger opinion on it.
That was longer then I expected
Old Man’s War
The Last Colony
Fuzzy Nation
The Ghost Brigades
______
Zoe’s Tale (man, Zoe just annoys the piss out of me)
1. Old Man’s War (I tell everyone to read this as one of the standard works of SF)
2. Ghost Brigades (really liked)
3. Android’s Dream (really liked, more please)
4. Red Shirts (liked) (I loved, loved the part you read at appearances, but it didn’t sustain well for me, much like you warn us a novel-length version of Night Dragons might work. Coda two made me cry though).
5. (liked) Agent to the Stars
6The Last Colony. (kinda liked– it just didn’t grab me)
7?? I am reading Zoe’s Tale on and off now. My enthusiasm isn’t great since it seems to be not grabbing me in much he same way as The Last Colony.
I did really like the excerpt of The Human Division you read at an appearance, so I’m looking forward to it more than I am to finishing Zoe’s Tale.
1. Redshirts – this wins out as my favorite but strangely I don’t necessarily think its your ‘best’ work.
2. Fuzzy Nation – this one WAS my favorite, until Redshirts. Honestly, Scalzi, you keep raising your own bar.
2.5. Old Man’s War – I love this universe, and it’s honestly hard to rank it third. So I’m ranking it 2.5 instead. So there. Even though it’s lower on the list, I suspect this series, and this world, represent the best of your writing.
3. The Android’s Dream – this world never drew me in as much as the others, I’m not sure why. So that’s why it’s at the bottom.
In order from most-liked to least-liked:
The God Engines (which I consider to be your greatest work)
—–
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
Zoe’s Tale
The Human Division
The Last Colony
—–
Redshirts
In my humble opinion I feel like the universe from The God Engines is your strongest and most dynamic. It speaks to me very deeply and really resonated with me when I was finished. It would be fantastic to see more books written in that universe.
Redshirts was good, but not spectacular. There wasn’t anything in it that spoke to me in a solid fashion which meant that while I enjoyed the journey it took me on, it isn’t one I would choose to re-read at a later date.
All the others fall somewhere between those two at varying degrees.
Old Man’s War – the first thing I read, and it got me hooked.
Agent To the Stars – loved it for being great but in an entirely different way than the O.M.W novels
The Human Division
The Ghost Brigades
These middle ones are tough. I’m going to wimp out and call them all ties. I enjoyed them and I honestly can’t say one was better or worse than any other.
Last Colony
Redshirts – This had a bit of the “Number of the Beast” thing going on but I think you handled it better. Less fan-ficcy.
The Android’s Dream
And then we come to last place:
Fuzzy Nation – the book was somewhat entertaining but it seemed a bit too “Dances with Fern Avatars”. Here is my confession though (and please forgive me). At around two-thirds of the way through, I forgot the novel on the counter of an airport restroom and never felt the need to replace it. I like to imagine I missed some excellent twist or developement that would have taken it right to the top of the list.
DNR
The God Engines- it’s on the short list
Zoe’s tale – Zoe didn’t do much for me as a character so spending more time with her didn’t seem particularly appealing.
Old Man’s War
Fuzzy Nation
The Last Colony
The Ghost Brigades
Zoe’s Tale
The Android’s Dream
Agent to the Stars
Redshirts
God’s Engine
Your Hate Mail will be Graded
Your not Fooling Anyone when you take your laptop into a Coffee shop
Also, still haven’t read all of the The Human Division but it is awesome so far.
Now much of the list is only separated by minuscule degrees. For instance, I regularly say that Agent to the Stars is one of my favorite books. It is just hard to judge such an impressive list. Seriously, I am not even attempting to kiss ass, they are all really good.
As requested, ranking the ones I have read:
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
Redshirts
Agent to the Stars
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
Fuzzy Nation
It is very hard for me to rank the ones in the middle, as they are very close in my head.
And while I consider Fuzzy Nation the weakest of the lot, I did enjoy it.
Old Man’s War
Zoe’s Tale
The Android’s Dream
The Last Colony
The Ghost Brigades
The Human Division
Redshirts
The God Engines
Agent to the Stars
Agent to the Stars was the only one I actually disliked (and even then I only really had a problem with the ending), the others I all enjoyed, some just more than others.
1. agent
2.the god engines
3.the first 4 OMW, in order
4.fuzzy
5.androids
6.human div.
7.redshirts
maybe i’m weird, but i thought agent to the stars was so funny and original, i always come back to it. there are traces of that same unique scalzi humor in all the books, but that one remains my favorite.
human division seemed somehow out of sync with the first four of the series, which i really devoured as they appeared. they seemed to have more intensity. maybe it’s just the long time gap in between.
i’d be interested to see more dark fantasy novels.
i know you didn’t include short story collections, but the collaboration of metatropolis was a great concept.
1.Redshirts
2.Old Man’s War
There is a tie for third place. in no particular order
3.The Android’s Dream
3.Fuzzy Nation
3.Ghost Brigades
3.Last Colony
3. Zoe’s Tale
7.The Human Division – likely to move up once it is finished
8.Agent to the Stars
9.God Engines
Very little seperation between them. I really enjoy your writing. I’m more into silly than dark, so that’s why The God Engines is last. Agent to the stars has kind of a “trying to figure out what I’m doing” feel to it. As for The Human Division, I still respectfully disagree that it is actually a novel with an ending. For me it is a collection of excellent short fiction, which I really enjoy, and I’m looking forward to part two.
Top tier (read more than once):
1 – The Ghost Brigades (Elevates the OMW saga in the same way that “Empire Strikes Back” did for Star Wars.)
2 – Old Man’s War
3 – Redshirts
4 – The Last Colony
5 – Zoe’s Tale
Extremely readable and entertaining, but haven’t been re-read:
6 – Agent to the Stars
7 – Fuzzy Nation
8 – The Android’s Dream
9 – The God Engines (Compelling, but a little too dark for me to re-read and enjoy.)
Unread:
The Human Division
As you say, they’re very different. Here’s my best shot.
1. Old Man’s War – The Ghost Brigades – The Last Colony – Zoe’s Tale
(I devoured these in rapid succession and thus experienced them as one big narrative arc. OMW was probably best, but there was much more story to tell, and boy did you ever.)
2. Redshirts
(Only not 1st because it lacks the epicness and scale of the OMW series. Otherwise, simply amazing.)
3, Fuzzy Nation
(A great story told very well. I wasn’t familiar with the original but loved your take.)
4. The Human Division
(I waited for the full ebook, and I’m glad I did. Solid, if a bit schizophrenic.)
5. The God Engines
(Very good. Only ranked last because it was so. darn. weird. It was also fantastic, in a WTF kind of way.)
Haven’t read, but have friends who decide they don’t like your writing when my husband or I recommend you and it’s all they can find at the library:
The Android’s Dream
Just simply haven’t read:
Agent to the Stars
Agent to the Stars
The God Engines
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
The Android’s Dream
Fuzzy Nation
I first read ‘Agent to the Stars’ back when it was web-based, and it’s still the only one of your works I’ve read more than once. I enjoy your non-fiction more than your fiction, honestly.
I am quite interested in what conclusions you draw from this exercise. I imagine your sales numbers are the strongest feedback you have as to what the undifferentiated mass of fans want…but there will be a lot of interesting details here.
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
Redshirts
Agent to the Stars
The Android’s Dream
Fuzzy Nation
The God Engines
The Human Division
Commentary: These are all very closely grouped, IMHO.
I’d say the first four “tie” for number 1, and the second two “tie” for number 2, the next two tied for number 3, and then on from there. Even the last in the list is something I enjoyed… it’s mostly last because it feels incomplete to me (which is actually by design), and might bump up after “season two” comes out. And the “God Engines” was great for what it was, but it made me want a lot more in that universe.
1. The Android’s Dream (the Old Man’s War series and concept totally rock, but as an individual book, this is my favorite of yours)
2. Old Man’s War
3. The Last Colony (bonus points here for turning things on their heads–making the bad guys good and vice versa)
4. The Ghost Brigades
5. Redshirts (I know it was largely marketed as a “comedy,” and I understand why, but I honestly found it no more and no less funny than any of your other works–it was, however, more serious and poignant than I was expecting)
6. The Human Division (interesting idea with some good stories, although it does bother me that there was no “resolution” at the end–even within your other series books, each one was an individual story that got resolved while still advancing the series–I felt something of a letdown at being hung over a cliff at the end)
7. Zoe’s Tale (another interesting concept, but I never quite decided how I felt about reading a story I already knew but from a different point of view–there were places where it indeed gave some added insight and depth to the story, such as the death of the boyfriend, but there were other spots that just had me saying “yeah, I already read this”)
8. Agent to the Stars (I read this after reading some of your other works, and it had a “rougher” feel that made it clear that it was an earlier work, but it was still funnier than hell–just thinking about the scene where the dog first walks in and starts talking makes me laugh)
9. Fuzzy Nation (nothing “bad” about this, it was cute and all, just not something that made a long-term impression on me)
10. And then we finally come to The God Engines, which I absolutely, positively despised–I didn’t like it, I didn’t understand it, I didn’t see the point of it. Just yuck, yuck, yuck. I swear upon anything you like that I will read anything you see fit to publish next and forevermore, UNLESS it is a sequel to this. In that case, not a chance. :^)
Overall, I’d say a 50 percent “outstanding” rating, which is pretty bleepin’ good, followed by three “very goods,” one “worth a read,” and one “never again, please.” Which puts you solidly in the upper reaches of my personal author rankings.
1. The Ghost Brigades
2. Old Man’s War
3. Redshirts
4. The Human Division
5. Agent to the Stars
6. The Android’s Dream
7. Fuzzy Nation
8. The God Engines
9. The Last Colony
10. Zoe’s Tale
1. Android’s Dream
2. Agent to the Stars
3. Redshirts (with a special star to the codas– one of them made me cry, also you plug my alma mater which is awesome)
4. Old man’s war (first of your books I read, I think DH likes it best)
5. All the non-fiction stuff
I’m going to restart the Old Man’s War series tomorrow on my way to Boston– I own them because DH likes them, but obviously I do not travel enough.
I have read all of your books that I’ve read on planes, except Redshirts which I listened to in the car. You make good travel reading– speeds up trips. (You and Carrie Vaughn, in fact.)
Android’s Dream is higher quality than Agent to the Stars, but I have a special place in my heart for Hollywood science fiction/fantasy– a small genre that includes Revenge of the Rat God by Barbara Hambly and a book I’m forgetting by K.K. Beck, and possibly that one Alan Dean Foster with the rabbit aliens. In any case, I couldn’t put Agent to the Stars down, and I had to take mental breaks from Android’s Dream to process. I really like popcorn, but I can’t deny that Android’s Dream is brilliant.
Also, I’m one of those people who isn’t normally into Science Fiction (space operas = boring, misogyny = enh), but likes the broad appeal of yours (as you talk about in one of your non-fiction posts, possibly in Your hate mail will be graded). Therefore I liked and read Old Man’s War despite it being science fiction. In fact, I wouldn’t have picked it up at all, except DH kept reading bits to me when we were on a plane so I ended up starting it myself (I’d like to say after he finished, except I took control of his copy while he was asleep or otherwise busy).
1. Old Man’s War – By far the best. A great Read.
2. Zoe’s Tale
3. The Last Colony
4. The God Engines
5. The Ghost Brigades
6. Redshirts – Ok but I was disappointed. The idea was great but the story line just seemed
to contrived.
I just started to read The Human Division so the jury is still out.
I haven’t read:
The Android’s Dream
Agent to the Stars
Fuzzy Nation
Old Man’s War
Fuzzy Nation
Lost Colony
Zoe’s Tale
Old Man’s War
Fuzzy Nation
The Ghost Brigades
Redshirts
Zoe’s Tale
Android’s Dream
The Last Colony
Agent to the Stars
Loved the first three, liked the next three a lot. Last Colony seemed like a sequel that took me places I wasn’t especially interested in going. Agent felt like a writer learning his craft.
Old Man’s War
Redshirts
Zoe’s Tale
The Last Colony
The Ghost Brigades
The reason that I like Zoe’s Tale more than The Last Colony is because I read it after The Last Colony, so I knew the context of the story. I don’t think I would have liked it as much without that.
I really loved OMW and Redshirts, they are far above the rest, in my mind. I actually haven’t ready anything of yours that I haven’t liked, yet. To your point, I love most of Heinlein, but couldn’t stand The Puppet Masters and stopped reading his work after I read that. I do plan to read more of it, but there’s so, so much to read out there!
#1 Agent to the Stars (way before it was in print). The humans and the named aliens all had distinct and believable personalities, and the dialogue had great humor. The alien species and culture were novel.
#2 Redshirts: Clever and fun. Chapter 24 was my favorite. Tickled my geek funny bone.
#3 Old Man’s War: The world-building and the technology were engaging.
#4 The Ghost Brigades: I found the characters less engaging than I had expected, coming as the sequel to OMW. Still a good story.
Old Man’s War
The Last Colony
Redshirts
The Ghost Brigades
Zoe’s Tale
The Sagan Diary
These are what i have read
The Human Division, just finished the 1st part.
1. Old Man’s War
2. The Android’s Dream
3. Zoe’s Tale
4. The Human Division
5. The Last Colony
6. Agent to the Stars
7. The Ghost Brigades
HUGE GAPING GAP
8. Redshirts
Haven’t read:
The God Engines
Fuzzy Nation
Old Man’s War
Agent to the Stars
The Android’s Dream
The God Engines
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
The Human Division
Fuzzy Nation
Your hate mail will be graded (you didn’t ask, but I reject the plebian fiction/non-fiction thing)
Redshirts
I should say I liked them all and it is a shame that one has to be last.
*ack, correction: Bride of the Rat God. I think the KK Beck is Revenge of Kali Ra.
1) Old Man’s War – The concepts (Quarantined Earth, Army of Retirees, etc.) Were intriguing the the writing was spot-on.The notion of the Entire univers constantly at war was new and interesting to me, and the POV character made for an interesting change from the usual.
2) Androids Dream – The pacing was even quicker with this one, and the wit was great.
3) Fuzzy Nation
4) Ghost Brigades
5) Last Colony/Zoe’s Tale
6) Agent to the Stars – Actually the first thing of your’s I’ve ever read, waaay back in 2000 when it was online. Some of the plot-points seemd a little contrived, but as a first work, absolutely Stellar.
7) The God Engines – Cool, but a little GrimDark ™ for my taste.
8The Human Division – This would be higher, except that I listened to it as an Audiobook, and the Narrator, after EVERY line of dialog, would pause and say in a monotone “He said.” EVERY. TIME. If it was a question, if it was flirting, if everything was exploding and limbs were flying through the air, “He said.” It KILLED the pacing and made me want to stab myself (or Mr. Duphries) in the ear.
9) Redshirts -Honestly, kind of bland. The dialogue was snappy, but didn’t really engae me. The characters were entertaining, but they felt like retreads of characters from previous books (which may have been the point.) It just didn’t grab me.
My Rankings (figured it was the least I could do since I missed you when you were nearby in Mountain View, CA)
1. Old Man’s War
Why? Popped my Scalzi cherry. You always remember your first time.
2. Redshirts
Why? So freakin’ funny!
3. The Human Division
Why? Enjoyed the format + the spinoff-i-ness. It was also funny.
4. The Ghost Brigades
Why? One word: coolness.
5. Zoe’s Tale
Why? Perspective. Getting The Last Colony from Zoe’s perspective really changed the story for me.
6. The Last Colony
Why? Its basically the same story as Zoe’s Tale. The tie breaker was the perspective change.
I am currently reading The Android’s Dream.
I’ve enjoyed every Scalzi book I’ve read to date. Keep up the good work.
I’ve only actually read two, Old Man’s War and Redshirts, plus a couple short stories, but you’re in my top ten for authors. How I’d rank the two?
1. Old Man’s War was awesome; I recommend it regularly, and can’t wait to get to read on in the series.
2. Redshirts was okay. I enjoyed it well enough, and blew through it, but its not one I’ll be reading again by any means, and I wouldn’t bother if it got sequeled.
I can’t wait to dig into the rest of your stuff, and I have to say your Twitter presence is entirely what got me to read your stuff in the first place.
1. Android’s Dream – I still talk about this book. Kind of surprised myself how it has stuck with me.
2. The Ghost Brigades – my favourite OMW book.
3. Old Man’s War – hard to imagine it down at #3, but there you go.
4. Redshirts – love your sense of humour.
5. Agent to the Stars – ditto above
6. Zoe’s Tale
7. Last Colony
8. Fuzzy Nation – was OK
Haven’t read the others…yet.
1. Redshirts
2. The Android’s Dream
3. Old Man’s War
1. The Ghost Brigades. For some reason, I found Jared Dirac to be the most interesting POV character in the series, maybe because of the nature of his predicament.
2. The Last Colony, for the interesting things it did to the politics of the OMW series, and the Mennonites.
3. Old Man’s War. It sets up the series, but it’s a little thinner than the others.
4. The Android’s Dream. Amusing but relatively slight.
The Last Colony
The Ghost Brigades
Old Man’s War
The Human Division
Fuzzy Nation
Redshirts
To calibrate, I adored The Last Colony, and I think of Redshirts as being an uneven book with a few really strong points and a few, for me at least, noble failures.
I’ve definitely enjoyed your OMW work better than any of your stand-alone novels. (I also think I enjoy your blog more than your stand-alone novels.) I really enjoy your deft weaving back and forth between gritty dystopia and snarky humour – and I like that they’re mostly two separate elements. (i.e. not in the style of the movie “Brazil”, for example.)
I also appreciate there seems to be an experimental quality to your stand-alone novels – which makes them a less guaranteed win, but is always interesting.
The Human Division was a really awesome experiment, but its experimental nature shows through. (I also don’t tend to respond as well to short stories / anthologies as I do to novels.) I liked the idea of a “TV season” structure, and I *loved* the communal experience of everyone reacting to the new “episode” each week, but most of the episodes felt like fragments rather than complete stories, and most of them didn’t do much to build momentum for the metaplot.
Fuzzy Nation is a weird case. I really liked the book, but I read it right after I read Little Fuzzy, and… they kind of felt like the same book. I realise there were profound differences in characterization, but characterization was never really the selling point for me in either book – it was the first-contact porn. And the first-contact porn played about the same for me in both cases.
Ghost Brigades (the moral conflicts got me)
The Android’s Dream (great payoff)
Old Man’s War (good world building)
The Last Colony (again with the moral conflicts)
Zoe’s Tale (great exploration of The Chosen One in a humanistic setting)
Redshirts (still haven’t quite worked out the epilogues)
Fuzzy Nation (Wheaton!)
Agent to the Stars (Didn’t connect with the characters much)
The God Engines (Elegant, but I had too much hate for the characters/world)
Old Man’s War — Still one of the most effectively self-contained sci-fi books I’ve ever read. Great characters, great plot, great setting with lots of room to grow (obviously), yet works entirely on its own.
The Last Colony — Revisiting old friends in a new situation is the best of both worlds: You get to read more about favorite characters, but there’s no rehash. Resolution follows logically from events of The Ghost Brigades without being obvious beforehand.
The Ghost Brigades — A close examination of things only hinted at in the first book, and lays the groundwork for future developments. Does a great job presenting a very different way of going through life.
The Android’s Dream — Hits some great action and comedy beats. Real sci-fi absurdism here. Resolved audaciously. Sequel! Sequeeeeelllll!
The Human Division — Great story, but “seasonal” structure leads to a lack of resolution; it’s obviously meant to continue, with a big mystery left unsolved for now, but by that detail feels incomplete.
Zoe’s Tale — A bit of rehash here by design and necessity, given the structure, but well-done. Fleshes out the details of a very eventful story. When I recommend the series, this is the one I say is optional (but still recommended).
Redshirts — For such a quick read it has surprising emotional and thematic weight. Very fun examination of tropes we hold for granted.
The God Engines — Really interesting setting with some fantastic horror. Still don’t think that first line works right. Technically correct but doesn’t flow smoothly.
Agent to the Stars — Read it when it was a “shareware” book. Funny and light then and now, with some twisty moral issues.
Fuzzy Nation — Not familiar with the original work, but enjoyed this re-imagining nonetheless. More talk than action, but good talk.
1. The Last Colony
2. Old Man’s War
3. the Human Division
4. The Android’s Dream
5. Zoe’s Tale
6. Redshirts
7. Agent to the Stars
8. Fuzzy Nation
1. Old Man’s War – Couldn’t stop reading. *****
2. Ghost Brigades – Just burned through it. *****
3. The Android’s Dream – Funny and a great palette cleanser after sturm & drang books. *****
4. Last Colony – Loved it. ****
5. Agent to the Stars – Great & simply fun. ****
6. Redshirts – Clever & fun – especially the codas. ****
7. Fuzzy nation – Good beach book. ****
8. Questions for a Soldier – Good short followup. ****
9. God Engines – I like the darker tone but it won’t be a multiple read. ***
Haven’t gotten through Zoe’s Tale yet and won’t open my copies of the Human Division episodes until I am through ZT & the other OMW shorts.
Favorite:
Zoe’s Tale
Roughly tied for 2nd place:
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
Redshirts (audiobook)
Fuzzy Nation (audiobook)
Least favorite:
The Last Colony
Of those I have read:
1. Fuzzy Nation
(Compares favorably with the original which had this more modern reader flinching at some of the unexamined colonialism. I had some other thought about this one but can’t remember what it is now. Am still trying to convince my father, a fan of the H. Beam Piper novels, to read this one.)
2. The God Engines (a novella, but worth including in these rankings)
(I agree with its worthiness for inclusion; I liked the conceit and while I found the execution just a little bit clunky it wasn’t off-puttingly so. This was the first thing I read of yours other than the blog.)
3. Old Man’s War
(This is another one where I liked the idea, and a lot of the concept, but it just didn’t “zing” for me the way Fuzzy Nation did. That said, I have recommended it to both my father and other sci-fi reading friends of mine [and once a total stranger who walked up to me in a bookstore and randomly asked for hard sci-fi recommendations, possibly because of the books I had in my hands at the time but if you were flirting, random stranger, sorry. I missed it], so I certainly didn’t hate it.)
3a. I haven’t read it yet, but the first book of The Human Division is on my Kindle. I’ll get to it probably after “How to teach physics to your dog.”)
4. Agent to the Stars
(An entire book essentially dedicated to a long fart joke isn’t really my cup of tea, but I was curious, it was free, and I did enjoy it when I was reading. Also, I have recommended it to friends of mine who like reading things a bit on the lighter side. And I thought interesting things were said about appearances and our reliance on them. So, you know. I didn’t hate it, but I probably won’t be re-reading it.)
Old Man’s War
Agent to the Stars
Redshirts
The Last Colony
The Ghost Brigades
The Human Division
The Android’s Dream
The God Engines
Zoe’s Tale
Fuzzy Nation
It’s really hard to rank them. I love all of your novels(and short stories). I tend to lump the OMW stuff all in one because I absolutely love that universe.
1) Redshirts — Made me laugh out loud many times as I walked home listening to the audio.
2) Ghost Brigade — This is virtually equal to Redshirts, but the books being so different, I gave Redshirts the edge.
3) Human Division
4) The God Engines — Thoroughly enjoyed this
5) Old Man’s War
Last Colony — Enjoyed both of these, but neither stands out above the other
6) Zoe’s Tale — Still liked this fine, just a bit less than others in the series.
I started listening to Agent of the Stars on audio… and never finished it (but loved the audio of Redshirts). Not sure if it was wrong book/wrong time, or just not the book for me. Will likely try it again in written form.
Agent to the Stars
Android’s Dream
Redshirts
Zoe’s Tale
Fuzzy Nation
OMW, Ghost Brigades, The Last Colony
The golf chap book with the judge from Androids Dream
Your Hate Mail will be Graded
I haven’t read, but do own, The God Engine because I’m not ready to read a dark Scalzi book
Agent to the Stars – I put this first because it’s an extremely original idea, and friggin’ hilarious to boot.
The OMW series I basically group together. I don’t know I could really rank one higher than the other, because they’re all exploring something different from different perspectives about a setting I really like to read about. Though when I recommend it to people, obviously I tell them to start with Old Man’s War. The rest of the books make a hell of a lot more sense that way.
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
The Human Division
I didn’t dislike these books. I even found them enjoyable reads. I just don’t consider them as strong as your other work. But they were definitely worthy experiments.
Redshirts
The God Engines
Unread:
The Android’s Dream
Fuzzy Nation
Old Man’s War
The Last Colony
The Ghost Brigades
The Human Division
Zoe’s Tale
Redshirts
Old Man’s War is my clear favorite. I’m less sure about the order of the others. I enjoyed The Human Division, but I read it in weekly installments, and it’s hard to judge it the same way as a book that I read straight through in a couple of days. Redshirts didn’t do much for me, but I didn’t read the codas. Since I’ve seen good reviews of them I’ve been meaning to go back and read them.
1. Old Man’s War
2. The Android’s Dream
3. Fuzzy Nation
4. Agent to the Stars
5. Redshirts
6. The Ghost Brigades
1) Old Man’s War
2) The Android’s Dream
3) Agent to the Stars
4) Redshirts (this got a 2 slot bump because Jer’s a dick :)
5) The Human Division
6) The Ghost Brigades
7) Zoe’s Tale
8) The Last Colony
9) Fuzzy Nation
I’ve not yet read The God Engines…although it’s on my bookshelf. I didn’t notice that I hadn’t read it until I saw it on this list, so that’s a bonus.
1. Redshirts (One of the codas really got to me as I am also a person named Matthew who rides a motorcycle. Also studied philosophy in college and loved the meta-narrative ideas. It reminded me of a sci-fi version of Sophie’s World, the book that got me into philosophy. Redshirts is one of my favorite novels of all time.)
2. Zoe’s Tale (This was the first Scalzi book I read and set me on the path. Zoe is awesome.)
3. The Human Division (I went into this book thinking I wouldn’t enjoy it. Then I stayed up all night reading and didn’t sleep. At all.)
4. The Last Colony (Even though it was written before Zoe’s Tale, due to the order I read them, this was the book that filled in the details for me. I think John Perry is at his best here.)
5. Agent to the Stars (Quirky, interesting, and the kind of book that makes me hope my first novel will be even half as good.)
6. Old Man’s War (I feel bad ranking it so low; it’s a great book, but I feel the series really gains steam which pushes this one down the ranking.)
7. The God Engines (My main complaint about this book was it ended far too quickly; that universe is strange and interesting enough to warrant its own novel.)
8. The Ghost Brigades (Out of all the OMW novels, this is the one that stands out the least for me.)
9. Fuzzy Nation (Haven’t read Little Fuzzy and while I enjoyed this one, it didn’t grasp me the way Redshirts and Zoe’s Tale did.)
10. The Android’s Dream (Same thing; read it, enjoyed it, didn’t love it.)
From best to least liked
Redshirts
Old Man’s War
The Human Division
Fuzzy Nation
The Android’s Dream
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
I’ll note that even among those I don’t like as much, I still quite like them and I’ve never finished a novel feeling as if I’ve been duped because I liked another of your novels better. I will admit I will probably not read Agent to the Stars while Zoe’s Tale is still a little far down on the to-read shelf because I don’t always finish off a series right away.
From most to least – Old Man’s War Human Division The Ghost Brigades Redshirts Fuzzy Nation Android’s Dream The Last Colony ….big gap… Zoe’s Tale, which is the only Scalzi novel I actually don’t like, and that is because the plot is 80% redundant with The Last Colony
I was surprised to find that I’d read them all. Rats, now I have to wait for the next one.
Agent to the Stars
The Android’s Dream
Redshirts
Old Man’s War
The Human Division
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
Fuzzy Nation
The God Engines
I found the last one just not so much my cup of tea. I enjoyed it enough to finish it, mind, but I doubt I’ll pick it up again. I think I’d put a bit of a gap between Zoe and Fuzzy. Looking at my ranking I see that I seem to prefer the lighter side of things.
Since you are making me list them:
1. Android’s Dream (in particular the audiobook version)
2. Zoe’s Tale
3. Agent to the Stars – love it, but not nearly as re-readable as the others.
4. OMW trilogy – I don’t really have a favorite among the three, I usually read them all. Ghost Brigades is the most interesting of the three if you’re making me pick one.
5. Redshirts – Still very good, but very little re-readability, and a bit to much meta. I loved it when I read it, but I don’t think I’m going back.
It should be noted the difference in terms of preference between the books is very small. I find all the books to be enjoyable and well crafted.
1. The Android’s Dream – by a significant margin. For me, this book hit the perfect balance of really good humor and really good drama. It’s among my favorite SF books of all time.
2. Old Man’s War
3. The Last Colony
4. The Ghost Brigades
5. Fuzzy Nation
6. Redshirts
7. Agent to the Stars
All of the above I really enjoyed quite a bit. I also started reading Zoe’s Tale, but it felt like just a re-hash of The Last Colony, but from a ditzy teen-aged girl’s PoV, which was unappealing enough to me that I didn’t finish the book. There probably was new content, and hopefully she gets over being a ditz, but I didn’t get that far.
1. Redshirts – I’m a Trekkie and love both humorous and meta SF
2. Agent to the Stars – I am a sucker for Kornbluth-type satire
3. Fuzzy Nation – Very fun. Never read the originals but liked Piper’s Paratime a lot
4. Old Man’s War – Interesting spin on some familiar themes, strong character writing
5. The Ghost Brigades – A little less coherent than OMW but more ambitious. I’m kind of burned out on military SF though
Unread:
The Android’s Dream
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
The God Engines (a novella, but worth including in these rankings)
The Human Division
Old Man’s War
The Last Colony
Agent to the Stars
The Ghost Brigades
Fuzzy Nation
The Android’s Dream
The Human Division
Zoe’s Tale
Redshirts
Didn’t read The God Engines so it’s not making my list. I also notice you left “The Sagan Diaries” off the list but that’s for the best IMO. The bottom half is all very close in my book really. I enjoyed them all so putting any of those in a proper order is difficult for me.
Hi Mr. Scalzi,
Here is my list. I really cannot discern between my enjoyment of some books, so I grouped the books I liked about the same. Thus, the first three books I enjoyed roughly equally, Fuzzy Nation I enjoyed a lot, but a bit less than the first 3, etc. Note that I liked Redshirts, but in a very different way than I liked all your other books. I found Redshirts more philosophical, wistful, or challenging than other of your novels. Anyway, thanks very much for all of them.
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Fuzzy Nation
Zoe’s Tale
Agent to the Stars
The Android’s Dream
Redshirts: A Novel With Three Codas
Old Man’s War- I don’t know that its better than some of the others since I love them all, but its the one that I have read again and again.
The God Engines
The Ghost Brigades
The Human Division
Redshirts
Zoe’s Tale
The Last Colony – Still great
The Android’s Dream – Liked but didn’t love it
Agent to the Stars – Liked but didn’t love it
Fuzzy Nation – Didn’t really like it
Android’s Dream (loved, loved, loved)
Agent to the Stars (re-read)
The God Engines, Redshirts (close in rank and liked for entirely different reasons)
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades, The Last Colony, Zoe’s Tale (forgettable, I’ve forgotten them)
Unread books in order of likelihood I will eventually read them:
The Human Division
Fuzzy Nation
Sagan Diaries
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades, The Last Colony, Zoe’s Tale, The Human Division (shared 2nd place)
Redshirts
Fuzzy Nation
The Android’s Dream
Agent to the Stars
Unread:
The God Engines (a novella, but worth including in these rankings)
Big fan. I’m in a not reading sci-fi mode right now, and just realized that Human Division has been released, so I think I’ll be taking a trip to my neighborhood Amazon.com shortly.
1. Zoe’s Tale – proof positive to me that you are one of the most talented writer’s of our generation
2. The Ghost Brigades – The middle books of trilogy’s tend to be the worst, but this one, I thought, was at least as good as the other two.
3 (tie) Old Man’s War – Awesomeness in a paperback
3. (tie) The Last Colony – Super happy, awesome conclusion. Exactly what you wanted to have happen, but not what was expected.
5. Fuzzy Nation – Read this one summer day and was so pleased with it, I read it again over the next two evenings.
6. Agent to the Stars – Can’t wait until you decide to do the sequel to this.
7. Android’s Dream – This was very good, but didn’t really seem like a ‘Scalzi’ novel. Still it’s one of my top 200 novels.
8. The God Engines – very creative universe creation, but I really didn’t love any of the characters.
9. Redshirts. This may be an unfair ranking, but I never finished it. Which is weird with one of your books. I’m sure I’ll hit it up again after Human Division. [Would you like me to re-rank after I’ve read those two?]
You asked, so I told. Please never stop writing. Write more if you can. Thanks for being you. Really. Even though I know that sounds weird. If you knew me, you find it to be a very weird statement.
1. Old Man’s War (loved it, maybe just because it was my first of your novels, but it’s still my favorite.)
2. Redshirts (love the parody that is also not parody that is actually awesome in its own right).
3. Fuzzy Nation (I don’t know, I just really like this one).
4. The Last Colony (really liked how this wrapped up the series . . . at the time).
5. The Ghost Brigades (I missed John’s POV a lot).
6. Agent to the Stars
7. The God Engines (scary)
8. The Android’s Dream
9. Zoe’s Tale (I prefer the version of this story that is The Lost Colony).
Haven’t read The Human Division yet. I pre-ordered it on Amazon but I had to cancel the order because of being poor and having no money. Really need to get on that.
The Android’s Dream
Old Man’s War
Redshirts
The Human Division<–I rank this one higher than any of the other sequels because of the multifaceted nature of the story. It just added something to my overall enjoyment.
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
The God Engines <–This was just okay reading. I felt like it was a little incomplete even for a novella. It almost felt like there was information that should have been known or was inferred, but I never quite grasped completely.
Haven't Read
Agent to the Stars
Fuzzy Nation
I don’t normally rank books in my mind unless they really excite me (Anathem, Dune, LOTR, most of Bujold) or I absolutely despise them. I like all of your books. They have all been worth or more than worth the time I’ve invested in them. Anywaty, here are some impressions of the books more or less in the order I read them.
Zoe’s Tale was the first book of yours I read (in my binge of reading all the 2009 Hugo nominees prior to voting). It was meh for me, and even more meh after I read The Last Colony. I’m not fond of books that tell the same story from other points of view (I’m looking at you, Anne McCaffery) and even on that first read, I could tell this was a book telling the same plot of another book I hadn’t read.
However, it was, combined with the Whatever which I was already reading from time to time, the reason I started reading the rest of your books. So it was good for that!
Old Man’s War was really interesting. I liked the set up. I’m not much of a fan of shoot-em-up SF Mil Fic (despite liking early Tom Clancy) but this book was great. And not so much shoot-em-up. I like character in my SF (hello, Bujold). This had good characters.
The Ghost Brigades was less interesting to me than Old Man’s War but mostly because I love the whole figure-out-the-world experience of reading SFF (hello, Anathem). So the second book in any series is usually not as interesting to me as the first one. It was more shoot-em-up; but also more character so yeah!
I’d already read the plot in The Last Colony so it wasn’t as interesting as The Ghost Brigades.
I then went back to pick up Android’s Dream and Agent to the Stars. I liked Agent the better of the two. Both were really enjoyable reads. Your humor writing is more in line with my humor appreciation than some writers. I had a good time with both of them.
That caught me up with your output to date and I read the rest as they came out.
I very much liked The God Engines and am interested in more fiction in that universe. (Though gotta agree with Mary Sue above. Shiver!)
I’m not a very big H Beam Piper fan, though I liked Little Fuzzy. I liked Fuzzy Nation also and have no beef at all with your re-boot.
I wasn’t as wildly enthusiastic about Redshirts as so many others were. I don’t think it’s your best book. Though I love the point behind the book and laughed at a lot of the in jokes. My wife, who isn’t into humor, didn’t like it much at all. I don’t think she finished it. I thought it was a fun read and had a great time with it.
I haven’t read The Human Division yet. My wife brought it home from the library this week (unprompted by me!) but she has first dibs and reads a lot slower than I do. So probably by August I’ll start it.
1) The Ghost Brigades – LOVE!
2) The Last Colony – Love!
3) Old Man’s War – Didn’t hate it or love it but I appreciate that it set up the world/conflict for my 2 fave books.
That’s all I’ve read of yours so far.
1. The Android’s Dream – hilarious, delightfully madcap, and with engaging characters
2. Redshirts – Clever, funny meta
3. Fuzzy Nation – I love what you did with the Fuzzies, and there were some excellent Chekov’s guns. But the main character is an obnoxious jerk and I get tired of hanging out with obnoxious jerk main characters. Still a very enjoyable read, though!
4. Old Man’s War – There was nothing about it I disliked, I just was personally very bored by it.
Unread:
Agent to the Stars
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
The God Engines
The Human Division
Of what I have read of yours:
(1) You are not fooling anyone when you take your laptop to a coffee shop: Scalzi on Writing (not a novel, but it is my favorite of your works that I have read).
(2) Old Man’s War
(3) Redshirts
(4) The Last Colony
(5) The Ghost Brigades
(6) The God Engines
I have them all, have read them all.
For me, these are hard to beat. I originally bought the paperbacks, and have read them to tatters. I bought the hardcovers of these and I’m proud to put them on my bookshelf.
1. Old Man’s War
2. The Ghost Brigades
3. Zoe’s Tale
4. The Last Colony
These are great too, but I have to put them after the first set. I’ve read these multiple times.
5. Agent to the Stars
6. Fuzzy Nation (hard cover)
7. The Android’s Dream
I probably won’t read these multiple times.
8. Redshirts (hard cover)
9. The Human Division (hard cover)
10. The God Engines (hard cover)
I bought and read Little Fuzzy too. Even though it isn’t a Scalzi novel, I’d put it before Redshirts. I’m a little worried about the Human Division series… worried that you are going the way of Stephen King where the early books had extremely clean and interesting plots where nothing is wasted to his deciding that he could go without significant editing and the plots end up going to strange dead ends…
1. Agent to the stars
2. Androids Dream
3. The Human Division
4. Old man’s war
5. Zoe’s Tale
6. Fuzzy Nation
7. The Last Colony
8. Redshirts
9. The Ghost Brigades
I haven’t read The God Engines, but I’m not a fan of grim, dark fantasy so I suspect it would fall to the bottom of my list.
Note that 2-4 and 6-9 all recall at the same level of likability for me and would probably end up being shuffled if you asked me again in a month; I read each more or less when it came out (except for Agent and OMW) so recall is failing a bit.
1) Old Man’s War
2) Redshirts
3) Fuzzy Nation
4) The Android’s Dream
I didn’t dislike any of them, though there is a huge drop off between how much I loved #3 and #4, and not as much of a drop off between the top 3.
The Android’s Dream
Old Man’s War
Agent to the Stars
Zoe’s Tale
Fuzzy Nation
The Last Colony
The Ghost Brigades
Redshirts
The Human Division
The God Engines
Let me post this before I read anyone else’s comments.
1. Old Man’s War
2. Ghost Brigade
3. Agent to the Stars
4. Android’s Dream
5. Zoe’s Tale
6. Redshirts
7. Fuzzy Nation
8. Human Division
Not included: God Engines (I don’t think I’ve read that one. Yet. Give me a day or two).
1) Red Shirts
2) The God Engines
3) Old Man’s War
4) The Android’s Dream
5) The Human Division
6) The Ghost Brigades
7) The Last Colony
I found myself less interested in the Old Man’s War universe as it went on, in fact I skipped Zoe’s Tale. Then comes Human Division and I ate that book up.
I put Red Shirts and The God Engines on top because they are, to me, more serious novels.
1) The Last Colony
2) Old Man’s War
3) The Ghost Brigades
4) Agent to the Stars
Loved the first three – very closely ranked. Didn’t like Agent enough to finish it…
Of what I’ve read so far (currently reading The Human Division):
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
Old Man’s War
Fuzzy Nation
Redshirts
Agent to the Stars
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony is my favorite, but the next four might change order depending which day you ask me — I thoroughly enjoyed Fuzzy Nation, and Redshirts had me cackling at times. Agent to the Stars was enjoyable, but not quite in the same league.
I read The Ghost Brigades after the other three OMW books above, and the reason it’s at the bottom is probably one you can take pride in. It’s that I don’t like knowing that Jane did that.
Read and ranked:
1. The God Engines (Creeeeeepy awesome. Had to go out to the pub for a little human company after finishing it)
1.5 Fuzzy Nation (Excellent reboot – I’m a big fan of the original work so I went and reread Little Fuzzy right after Fuzzy Nation)
2. Old Man’s War (Good, solid Old School Sci-Fi feel without Old School Sci-Fi problems)
3. The Ghost Brigades (Liked learning more about these characters)
4. Zoe’s Tale (solid but I read it and Twilight – no judging – at the same time and the difference in teenager portrayal kinda melted my brain)
4.5 Redshirts (solid but the format (?) wasn’t my cup of tea)
Not listed but read and enjoyed quite a bit while shuttling around airports (and imho and excellent book for this sort of fragmented reading): Your Hate Mail will be Graded.
In order:
Redshirts – One of the best books I’ve ever read. It should be mandatory reading for every sci-fi geek.
Agent to the Stars – My introduction to your work. It really made me wonder about the dog next door…
The Android’s Dream – Read this for the first time a couple of weeks ago and LMAO.
Old Man’s War – Probably the closest anyone’s come to Heinlein since the masters passing.
The Human Division – I didn’t think I could have emotions about a brain in box, but I did.
Fuzzy Nation – Not quite as good as HBP (but that may be because Little Fuzzy was one of my first SF novels as a kid and has a special place), but still very good.
The Ghost Brigades – Very entertaining, but I had to look up a synopsis for this post, so I guess it didn’t really “stick”. Once I was reminded though, I remembered enjoying it.
The Last Colony – I had trouble getting into this one for some reason, but once I was into it, completely enjoyed it. This and Ghost Brigades are pretty much a tie for me.
Zoe’s Tale – It just didn’t click with me. Perhaps it was because it wasn’t what I expected when I bought it and perhaps that’s why I didn’t really enjoy it a whole lot.
1. Redshirts
2. Old Man’s War series (haven’t read HD; don’t remember enough to distinguish between the others individually)
3. Little Fuzzy
4. Android’s Dream
5. Agent to the Stars
7. The God Engines (skipped 6 as I really liked all of 1-5, but this one really wasn’t too my taste)
The first two and the last one are about right; the rest could easily move up or down if I looked at them again.
Old Man’s War (though on a recent reread I skipped a lot of the early battles)
The Human Division (plus Hafte Sorvalh dropped a tiny comment to herself while eating churros that interested me greatly)
The Last Colony
The Ghost Brigades (though I liked it better on reread)
The God Engines (has a moment where I literally screamed “Oh my god I can’t believe you did that!” That was the BEST moment.)
Redshirts
Zoe’s Tale
The Android’s Dream
This is actually pretty hard.
1. Old Mans War
2. Redshirts
3. Last Colony
4. Zoe’s Tale
5. Human Division
All of them were enjoyable BTW!
Old Man’s War/Zoe’s Tale
Last Colony
Android’s Dream/Fuzzy Nation
Ghost Brigades
Human Division
Agent to the Stars
…….
Redshirts
God Engines
OMW seems to me to be at heart a love story, one that goes beyond death. It resonates so strongly with me as to actually ache. It might run in the family, from my youngest(36!) up through three aunts and an uncle all north of 80, they all DEVOURED the series. I think that generational spread is rare.
AD/FN for the humor and seriousness combination
GB just because it’s OMW universe, less rereads than the others, might be above AD/FN along with HD
HD may rise up the list as it ages but not yet, it reminded me of why I don’t like (detest) TV shows and the ending made me want to throw it out the window if for no other reason than the “hangy-ness.” With that said, the book is worth getting for Harry and Hafte alone. They are priceless, simply marvelous. Feel free to add more superlatives…..
Nothing above less than four stars out of five. OMW/ZT would be at least six or seven.
RS/GE both just missed with me. That’s fine, have them, read once, probably not going back.
So, in short, well done you. Can haz more? …..NOW would not be too soon.
Read and loved/liked in this order
1. Old Man’s War (read more than once and recommended to my book group, which also enjoyed it)
2. The Ghost Brigades
3. Redshirts (fun)
4. The Last Colony
4. Fuzzy Nation
Read and disliked
1. Zoe’s Tale (learning that main character withheld critical info in the other book; teenage girl with Scalzi voice/sense of humor not believable)
2. Sagan’s Diary (felt like stream-of-consciousness)
Started but didn’t finish
1. The Android’s Dream (excessive meat jokes/focus — panda?! — then sheep sacrifice. A tough sell for anyone who loves animals)
Unread
1. The Human Division (plan to read)
2. Agent to the Stars (plan to read)
3. The God Engines (unsure)
Here is my ranking list:
The Android’s Dream – So much fun I’ve read it twice.
Redshirts – Really appreciate the humor. The codas were a nice touch and added a lot to the story.
Agent to the Stars
Old Man’s War
Fuzzy Nation
The Ghost Brigades
Books I haven’t read yet and appreciate the reminder that I have books to read.
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
The God Engines
The Human Division
Well, here is what I think, Old man’s war, numuro uno, followed by Agent to star’s, then Fuzzy Nation, and then Red shirts, which I thought was a decent effort, though not your best work. Finally Ghost brigade, which I did’nt finish, because it didn’t seem to have a clear protagonist, since I could be wrong on that, I will go back to it this weekend and read the rest of it! The others I have not read so, I do not know, I am a Science fiction writer myself, though, I have never been published. I write under the name of Rutger McManus, perhaps you would like to read one of my short stories, or……..or maybe, my book, hmmmm, yes? The…….um…… Book of the Duchess, yes…….no?
1. The Android’s Dream (the first of your books that I read and still my favorite)
2. Old Man’s War
TIE:
3. The Ghost Brigades
3. The Last Colony
3. Zoe’s Tale
4. Agent to the Stars
BIG SPACE here
5. The God Engines (couldn’t get past the first few pages for some reason; just not to my taste)
Purchased but unread so far:
Redshirts (next in my “to read” stack)
Sagan’s Diary
Haven’t bought these yet:
Fuzzy Nation
The Human Division
1a. Agent to the Stars I loved both Agent to the Stars and Android’s Dream. Fun, good characters. I guess I’d give an edge to Agent, but both were very good.
1b. The Android’s Dream
2a. The Human Division — Really all of the OMW universe books have been good. I’ll keep reading the series, and I really enjoyed the serialization of HD. The only reason that they are second to Agent to the Stars and Android’s Dream is they have a bit more bangbang you’re dead than I care for. I really enjoyed Human Division, maybe because I savored each episode.
2b. The Ghost Brigades. I loved Jared and the questions he had to face about his life and his choices.
2c. The Last Colony
2d. Zoe’s Tale
2e. Old Man’s War – I had a hard time getting into this one, but once I did, I was hooked. But way too many senseless deaths for my taste (I understand that that was the point…
3. Fuzzy Nation – nothing wrong with either Fuzzy or Redshirts. Both were amusing, but I don’t go back and reread them just for the joy of it. I didn’t find that the characters in either book were as strong as some of the other books.
4. Redshirts
956. The God Engines — hated it. Could not finish.
Tie between Old Man’s War (really, the whole series of those books) and Android’s Dream for most loved, because of a combination of heart, freshness, imagitive plot turns, humor, and voice. I don’t know why Fuzzy Nation didn’t do it for me — certainly not because of any problem with the writing, probably just my mood at the time. I suspect I will go back to it later and enjoy it.
Several quick points:
1. The God Engines is possibly your best book, observe the passion pro or con.
2. I liked OMW because it was Heinlein without the politics, Then the politics started creeping in.
3. The Human Division: Has nobody noticed that you are rebooting Keith Laumer’s Retief stories?
4. Serialization made an inferior book this time, in my opinion.
5. Agent to the Stars: Great play on words, of course the alien needed a PR firm, not a talent agent, but so what.
6. Redshirts is a little too close to Heinlein’s “world as myth” for my tastes.
I suppose it depends on my mood. Redshirts is great comedy. The Human Division depicts a vast universe of human factions and alien races.
Old Man’s War
Redshirts
The Human Division
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
I have no immediate plans to read Zoe’s Tale. I’m not a big reader of YA. I’m glad that YA exists because young readers should be encouraged to read and it helps if there are novels written for them. But it was written for young people, and not for me. I’ve began reading a couple YA books, but for me to read a such a book it must really speak to me.
It feels awful to rank any of these “last” as they’re all on the “will totally read again and again” list, but here goes:
Read:
1 – Old Man’s War
2 – The Human Division
3 – Zoe’s Tale
4 – The Last Colony
5 – Redshirts
6 – The Ghost Brigades
7 – Fuzzy Nation
Unread:
The God Engines
Agent to the Stars
The Android’s Dream
Listed from first to worst:
The Android’s Dream (love the characters, love the universe, love the writing, love re-reading this book)
Old Man’s War (You do not need me to tell you how good this is)
The Last Colony (Fantastic character flow)
The Ghost Brigades (Another good time in the OMW universe)
Agent to the Stars (Great idea, fun read and then dies at the end)
Redshirts (only read the sample as of this time, what I read I enjoyed)
The Human Division (I thought the serialization format was neat, but the story itself not good.)
Have not read these:
Zoe’s Tale
The God Engines (a novella, but worth including in these rankings)
Fuzzy Nation
1. Old Man’s War
2. The Ghost Brigades
3. The Last Colony
4. Zoe’s Tale
5. Redshirts
I read the OMW series fresh from a reread of Bujold’s Vorkosigan books, so I wasn’t entirely sure I would like the stylistic differences. I was pleasantly surprised, though. I wouldn’t say any of your books are my favourites of the genre, but they’re all good solid reads that I’d generally be willing to reread when I’m not immersed in something else. Also, most of your books are on my “made-me-cry” shelf on Goodreads, so there’s that – I find that in your books, I can generally look forward to characters that are easy to empathize with.
Zoe’s Tale is by far my least favourite of the OMW books I’ve read (still haven’t gotten around to The Human Division, and looking forward to it quite a bit), mostly because it feels like what it is – a rehash of The Last Colony from a different perspective. The two pieces of story that were new to Zoe’s Tale were the bits I enjoyed most, both from a plot perspective and from a character-development one.
Redshirts isn’t one of my favourite books by any stretch of the imagination. It’s good, but predictable; it fulfils its “humor and entertainment” destiny quite well.
My ordering is 1) Android’s Dream and 2) Redshirts. Haven’t read the others yet but Android’s Dream is actually my favorite book that I’ve read by ANYONE to date.
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
The Human Division
The Android’s Dream
Agent to the Stars
Redshirts
The God Engines
Fuzzy Nation
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
1. The Android’s Dream – WW’s reading was definitely a factor
2. Old Man’s War
3. The Ghost Brigades
4. Redshirts
5. The Last Colony
6. Agent to the Stars
7. The Ghost Brigades
8. The Last Colony
9. The God Engines
10. Fuzzy Nation
11. Zoe’s Tale
Unread so far: The Human Division
1. Old man’s War
2. Human Division
3. Ghost Brigades
4. Android’s Dream
5. Fuzzy Nation
6. Redshirts
7. Zoe’s Tale
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
The Android’s Dream
The Human Division
Agent to the Stars
Fuzzy Nation
Redshirts
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
The God Engines
Redshirts
Fuzzy Nation
Agent to the Stars
The Android’s Dream
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
Haven’t yet read:
Zoe’s Tale
The Last Colony
The God Engines (a novella, but worth including in these rankings)
The Human Division
I’ve read two.
I liked AGENT TO THE STARS lots, because I’m not a sf reader, and it was mostly a Hollywood satire.
I didn’t like OLD MAN’S WAR, because it was sf, and I’m not an sf reader. (I try it once in a while, as I did here; but it’s just not for me.)
1. Redshirts
-Good at what it was.
-Funny most of the time
-Characters were developed and unique
-The nature of the subject matter makes you nearly immune to plot holes
-Characters acted intelligently / were internally consistent.
-Lacked that one chauvinist dude who bangs aliens. Also, someone at some point should’ve gotten pissed at some dorky kid for being on the bridge.
2. Old Man’s War
-First 1-2 chapters had good dialogue
-Supporting cast was bland, dialogue was forced for info-dumping
-Not much actual cool Science info, just a twat repeating ‘you don’t have the math’.
-Sci-fi elements were implemented in dumb ways, or actors made dumb decisions that didn’t fit the tone. E.g. Consiousness transfer process was designed to scare the subject unnecessarily, Stomping tiny aliens actually happened, (did their battle fleet get eaten by a small dog, too?), Dyson-Sphere wielding aliens who prize CQ combat skill are beaten 2/3 by characters with no memorable CQ experience – might’ve been better if your fight choreography was good.
I’m one of those people who disliked OMW, but for context I was looking for something more akin to Joe Haldeman’s ‘Forever War’, which is a hard ride on your first rodeo.
That’s all I’ve read.
1. Android’s Dream (I fucking love it, I dunno if there’s any interest on any side of making a movie out of it but I think this novel is perfect for it)
2. Old Man’s War
3. Last Colony
4. Fuzzy Nation
5. Ghost Brigades
6. Redshirts
With numbers to indicate relative merit, not just position:
1 The Android’s Dream
2 Redshirts
2 Old Man’s War
2 Agent to the Stars
2.1 The Ghost Brigades
2.1 The Last Colony
2.1 Fuzzy Nation
2.5 The Human Division
3 Zoe’s Tale
5 The God Engines (a novella, but worth including in these rankings)
1. Old Man’s War
2. The Android’s Dream
3. Ghost Brigades
4. Zoe’s Tale
5. The Last Colony
6. The Human Division
7. Fuzzy Nation
8. Agent to the Stars
9. The God Engines
10. Redshirts
I liked all of them except Redshirts.
1. Android’s Dream (enjoyed it more the second time through, on audiobook. I don’t credit this to Wil Wheaton. I like him as a person – we met once on a TV show when we were both teens – but I’ve never been particularly impressed with his acting.)
2. Old Man’s War
3. Redshirts
4. The Human Division
5. Fuzzy Nation
6. The Last Colony
7. Agent to the Stars
8. The God Engines
9. Zoe’s Tale
10. The Ghost Brigades (Kind of a non-sequel, and the first chapter still feels like cheating. I have never forgiven Azimov for doing basically the same thing in Prelude to Foundation)
1)Old Man’s War
2)The Android’s Dream
(If I were doing a top 50 Sci-Fi list both of the above would make mine)
3)The Last Colony
4)The Ghost Brigades
5)Redshirts
(Enjoyed all of the above, just not nearly as much as 1&2)
6)The Human Division (Read this in the complete book form and am just not a fan of it)
1. Old Man’s War
2. The Last Colony
3. Zoe’s Tale
4. The Human Division
5. The Ghost Brigades
6. Redshirts
All others are unread. Cheers.
Of those I’ve read:
Loved:
Agent to the Stars
Liked very much:
The Android’s Dream
Liked:
Old Man’s War
Did not particularly like:
Fuzzy Nation
Disliked:
Redshirts
I may read the other OMW books, but they are not high on my list. We own them, and I don’t regret the purchases at all.
I found the two most recent books too bare-bones in terms of description and milieu for my personal taste. No writer is required to tell me what things look like, but I enjoy it when they do.
Fuzzy Nation sent me back to Piper for a pleasant re-read of the originals: I thought the reboot was, if you’ll forgive the expression, dumbed down.
Redshirts was certainly competently written, but as a regular reader of fanfic, I found it sorely lacking in genre-savvy; the meta theme has already been done too many times for me to find it fresh or original. Instead, I was annoyed by the staleness of the concept. I also found the characters irritatingly bland and the gender imbalance infuriating, especially in contrast to the books I had enjoyed so much.
I’ve generally concluded that I like your non-fiction better than your fiction, especially the recent fiction. I continue to be an avid reader of your blog, and I’m looking forward like crazy to the upcoming second collection!
1. Old Man’s War (First of yours I ever read…made me a fan.)
2. The Ghost Brigades (Excellent!)
3. The Last Colony (Also excellent!)
4. The God Engines (I’d like to see more in this vein.)
5. The Human Division (Read it in serial form and really enjoyed the experience. Now to try it cover-to-cover and see what, if any, difference that makes.)
6. Zoe’s Tale (The only one of yours I’ve read that didn’t really work for me. The whole retelling thing is, apparently, not my cup of tea.)
I’d put The Sagan Diary somewhere around The Last Colony but since you didn’t include it in the list to rank, I’ll just sneak it in here because I can be really good at rationalizations and I figure it’s about the same length as The God Engines. (Also, I suck at following directions.)
Hmm. Seems I’m kinda stuck in the Old Man’s War universe (which is a bit odd since I’m not really a big military SF fan). Must diversify.
Ranking:
1.Old man’s war
2.The last colony
3.Ghost Brigade
4. Fuzzy Nation (not finish with it yet)
Next on readlist Redshirts
Ranked from most favorite to least:
Redshirts
Fuzzy Nation
Agent to the Stars
The Android’s Dream
Old Man’s War
The Human Division
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
Your Hate Mail Will be Graded
The God Engines
Given my top four, I can say that, gosh, evidently I like a bit of humor mixed in with my science. That might explain my lukewarm reaction to the God Engines (well-written, but not my cup of tea). My lower ranking of Hate Mail might seem odd as it was quite funny, but didn’t grab me the same way (possibly due to the lack of a narrative, possibly because I had read some of the entries here on the blog previously).
I have a nostalgic connection to Old Man’s War, as the first Scalzi work I ever read, but I want to note that I thought that the format of the Human Division worked very well, and I almost listed it next. I did NOT read it as each episode was released starting in January, but grabbed all of them before my vacation at the end of April and read them on the plane in order (waiting took some willpower, I don’t mind admitting). I liked that they seemed more like a tightly interconnected series of short stories (which I supposed they are). I will say that my far away favorites of the episodes were The Dog King and the conclusion, and my least favorite was Voice in the Wilderness. VitW just seemed a bit out of place (although I think you were setting up future events in that one – or at least letting us peek at the shadowy conspiracy).
Very interesting to see folks’ opinions – clearly lots of love for the God Engines here which is good because it would be boring if everyone were like me. Nice to see the broad range of what folks enjoy.
1)The Ghost Brigades – far and away my favorite thing you’ve written, and the only one of these I’d be likely to name as one of my handful of favorite books in general. It’s funny, as expected, but I also find the things it has to say about identity and autonomy profoundly moving.
2)The Human Division – a lot of my affection for this one is down to the serialized release, so it’s possible this ranking would shift on a reread.
3)Old Man’s War – I want to like Heinlein more than I really do; this is a wonderful happy medium.
4)Redshirts – edges out the remaining OMW-verse books by virtue of the 2nd Person POV coda.
5)The Last Colony & Zoe’s Tale – ranked together because of their interconnectedness.
I don’t think I’ve actively disliked any of your books I’ve read; I think I’ll try The God Engines next, as my glance at earlier responses suggests that opinions about it are pretty polarized.
Redshirts — Hilarious and thoughtful
Old Man’s War — I thought this was a genuinely original idea with an engaging main character
Ghost Brigades — a compelling story
Human Division — I love all of these. Because this one was originally published in installments, I was irked by some repetition. Since something has to go last on the list, this is it.
The Human Division
Old Man’s War (the series minus Zoe’s Tale which I haven’t read)
The Android’s Dream
Fuzzy Nation
Redshirts
I really enjoyed the first half of Redshirts, it felt like a cross between Star Trek and Galaxy Quest. I didn’t like the blog entries of the second half, actually I didn’t get more than a 1/2 of the way through those.
Android’s Dream reminds me more of Douglas Adams than your previous writings. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The Human Division and Old Man’s War series were (to me) a traditional scifi that has almost become extinct. It was refreshing to read them.
Most to least favorite, based on what I’ve read by you:
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Fuzzy Nation
Zoe’s Tale
Agent to the Stars
Redshirts
I also read The God Engines, but can’t quite pin down where it fits on this list. I liked it (I think…) but it’s very different from all of the above, and much darker than what I would usually read..
Now let’s see, from most to least favorite:
1. Android’s dream – it is often hilarious, sometimes philosphical and action-packed. There are a few lulls, but still definitely a great work. My main gripe is that the paperback edition I bought is filled with annoying typos. I’m still hoping for some follow-up in that universe, by the way (wink wink, nudge nudge). You know, once you’re done with the million other projects you’re running with now.
2. The God Engines – I hesitate on whether this one comes before or after Old Man’s War, because they are so different. It’s shortness probably helps it here, since it is densely packed, there is no time to get bored at all. I find it wildly original (both compared to your other work and to my experience of the field in general), and it plays to my world-outlook in some ways I rarely find elsewhere.
3. Old Man’s War – Where it all began (actually I’m not quite sure, I think I might have read Agent to the stars online first. Accursed (lack of) memory. Still, it is definitely what made you an author to follow in my eyes (quite independently from your blogging activities, which I was already following). Good world building, nice cast of characters, your trademark snarky dialogue, plenty of action, what’s not to like.
4. The Human division – I liked the novelty of the format (even though I waited for the print edition), and the variety of reading experiences it allowed.
5. Ghost brigades and Last Colony – I like both about equally, although they have fairly different subjects and styles. They also get a boost from allowing us to check up on existing Old Man’s War universe characters.
6. Redshirts – Once again a fairly original work, and plenty of humor. It loses some points for the impression it makes at the end, which feels a bit preachy.
7. Fuzzy Nation and Agent to the stars – Both are fun reads, but not quite as good as your other offerings in my opinion, for diverse reasons.
8. Zoe’s Tale – Its last place is not especially surprising since I wasn’t necessarily the target audience. It offers some insights into the OMW’s previous stories, but the writing tone sometimes annoyed me.
Old Man’s War
Fuzzy Nation
Redshirts
The Last Colony
The Ghost Brigades
The Human Division (low ranking partially due to format)
Zoe’s Tale
unread:
Agent to the Stars
The God Engines
The Android’s Dream
I can’t do this in a linear ‘best, second best, etc’, so will divide the books into “equivalence classes” instead :)
1. The Android’s Dream
I didn’t have any particular expectations for this one, but found that I absolutely loved it.
And this, in a sense, is in spite of the first line, not because of it ;)
It was just a very, very fun, enjoyable read. I think it’s the most original of the ones I’ve read, with less obvious (to me, at least) heritage of pre-existing works in its wake. Or maybe it just tickled me in all the right places.
2. Old Man’s War, The Ghost Brigades, Red Shirts, The Human Division
Like these quite a lot. OMW and GB where the first Scalzi books I’ve read, and I obvously went on to read more. In hindsight, they didn’t make *as* much of a ‘splash’ for me as The Android’s Dream did later, but they are fun and solid. I’d probably consider these the ‘Scalzi Core’, and use one of these to introduce Scalzi books to others.
3. Agent to the Stars, The Last Colony
These were enjoyable enough, but felt weaker than the others. I doubt I’ll be re-reading them any time soon.
4. Zoe’s Tale, Fuzzy Nation
Ditto, more so.
I had not yet read God Engines, so won’t comment on that yet.
Old Man’s War – I’m probably overrating it slightly because it was the first one I read.
Little Fuzzy – I’d read the original, but this was a worthy redo.
The God Engines – Interesting change of pace.
The Last Colony & Zoe’s Tale – Plot holes in TLC confused me. Zoe seemed less like a teenaged girl to me than a middle aged man’s perception of a teenaged girl. Still, an enjoyable effort.
Ghost Brigades – I remember liking it at the time, and I can remember very little about it
Redshirts – Funny, but slight. I’d have prefered a more fleshed out main story than the three codas, to be honest.
The Android’s Dream – Just didn’t work for me on any level
Agent to the Stars – I felt the holocaust connection to be in extremely poor taste. Junvenile humor
Unread – The Human League
One thing I noticed in Ghost Brigades (I think) is that you always seem to have one character (sometimes minor) whose gender is not given. They might refer to their husband or wife, but it’s never clear if they themselves are male or female.
Have read:
The Android’s Dream – first one I read, made me want to read more. Still my favorite.
Old Man’s War / The Ghost Brigades / The Last Colony – read these as a series and enjoyed them.
Zoe’s Tale – also good, about on par with the series, though it feels separate.
Redshirts – I just didn’t get into this one. I can see why people like it, but it just didn’t do it for me. Perhaps a little too meta- on a subject that didn’t feel deep enough to support meta-.
Agent to the Stars – I read this. I don’t remember enough about it to comment further. That de facto puts it at the bottom of the list.
Haven’t read:
The Human Division – early on my to read list.
The God Engines – later on my to read list
Fuzzy Nation – probably won’t read. I generally don’t like reboots, and I didn’t like the series being rebooted.
1. The God Engines – Love the setting and the difference in tone from your other stuff; also very compelling to someone who loves Warhammer 40k (ever think about taking on that universe? No? Ok, had to try!)
2. Redshirts – Accomplished in a way that sets my heart alight
3. Agent to the Stars – Funny and lovely, made me laugh and cry
4. Old Man’s War – Fun in a way that only military science fiction really can be
5. The Ghost Brigades
6. The Last Colony
7. Fuzzy Nation
1. Old Man’s War (immediately added to my Top 5 All-time List upon the first of many [annual?] readings)
2. The Android’s Dream
3. Ghost Brigades
4. The Last Colony
5. The Human Division
6. Redshirts
7. Zoe’s Tale
1) Old Man’s War — First and favourite. That first step into a fascinating new universe, like a first kiss… always remembered.
2) Zoe’s Tale — Just worked for me, dunno why. I enjoyed the “sarcastic teenager” voice of the narrator.
2) Redshirts — Loved the structure, the “play within the play”, and the 3 codas.
4) The Human Division
4) The Last Colony
6) The Ghost Brigades
6) The God Engines
8) Fuzzy Nation — Enjoyable read, but didn’t knock my socks off. Liked the “corporation versus the good guy” theme, but didn’t really relate to the good guy.
9) The Android’s Dream — Not my thing. I enjoy humour, but this one struck me as trying too hard to be funny, as opposed to allowing the funny to happen.
The Ghost Brigades
The Android’s Dream
Old Man’s War
The Human Division (would be higher if it didn’t need a second season)
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
Redshirts
The God Engines
Agent to the Stars
Old Man’s War
The God Engines
The Last Colony
The Android’s Dream
The Human Division
The Ghost Brigades
Agent to the Stars
Fuzzy Nation
Redshirts
not read: Zoe’s tale
The whimsy in Redshirts sometimes seemed out of place and while enjoyable, I never really felt captured by the story
I have ties.
1)Old Man’s War
1)Fuzzy Nation
3)Redshirts
3)Agent to the Stars
5)The Ghost Brigades
5)The Last Colony
5)Zoe’s Tale
6)The Android’s Dream
7)The Human Division
8)The God Engines
1) The Ghost Brigades
2) The Last Colony / Zoe’s Tale (since I think of it as one novel in two pieces)
3) The Android’s Dream
4) Old Man’s War
5) The God Engines
Partially read:
Fuzzy Nation
Unread:
Agent to the Stars
Redshirts
The Human Division
I had strong emotional reactions to three of your novels (two had scenes that made me cry, one made me laugh so hard I cried) and can’t differentiate between them. So in the order that I read them
1a. Redshirts
1b. The Android’s Dream (The only book of yours I’ve reread, and the first chapter I’ve reread multiple times)
1c. Zoe’s Tale
Very good, but not write home to mother good.
4. Agent to the Stars
5. Old Man’s War
6. Fuzzy Nation
7. The Last Colony
Meh to meh minus
8. The Human Division (If your goal was to make it seem like a season of a TV show, you succeeded there, but as a book I felt it was lacking somehow)
9. The Ghost Brigades (The only book of yours I just didn’t like. Might have made a strong short story)
I’d put your short stories “The election” and “Judge Sn goes golfing” pretty high on my list as well.
Everything in the Old Man’s War universe (except Human Division, which I’ll certainly read very soon)
= Super awesome!
Agent to the Stars
The Android’s Dream
= Reasonably entertaining
The God Engines
= Pretty meh.
Old Man’s War
Fuzzy Nation
Agent To The Stars
The Human Division
The Ghost Brigades
Androids Dream
The Last Colony
Out of all the books I have ever read Old Man’s War is among the top two, tying for me only with Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere.
The other books were all really good, but they do not rank anywhere near as high. The stories are fantastic and your writing has me doubled over from laughing so much, but I feel there isn’t very much character development or the same characters are reused. As much as I love the sassy, witty secretary, she seems to be in every book. Redshirts is next on my reading list. Even if what I said was critical, I really do love your books! Thank you so much.
I’ll admit I do less reading and more listening to audiobooks. So I’m mostly ranking these by audiobook.
Ones I love, in order of fondness and not coincidentally replays:
Fuzzy Nation (41 plays)
Human Division (8 plays for collected edition, 14-18 each for separate episodes)
Old Man’s War (4 plays)
Redshirts (4 plays)
Ghost Brigades (2)
Below this line, not so much (and only listened to, once)
Agent to the Stars
Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
Sagan Diary
1) The Ghost Brigades
2) The God Engines
3) The Android’s Dream
4) The Last Colony
5) Old Man’s War
Old Man’s War
Agent to the Stars
The Android’s Dream
Zoe’s Tale
The Human Division
The Last Colony
The God Engines (a novella, but worth including in these rankings)
Fuzzy Nation
The Ghost Brigades
Redshirts
LIKED
1. Old Man’s War
2. Redshirts
3. Fuzzy Nation
DISLIKED
None
Only real reasons I ranked them that way are that Old Man’s War has been the only military scifi that I’ve actually enjoyed (haven’t read much else, but the others I actually stopped part way in because they really felt boring and didn’t work for me so it really stood out) plus it’s an interesting concept behind it all.
Fuzzy Nation ranked last really only because:
– It seemed to resolve a bit too fast for me compared to the rest of the story
– The “cocky always ready with the perfect quip” characters get kind of old for me. Redshirts was sliding into this for me, too, but the emotional impact of the stories, especially the codas, lifted it up.
However, I thoroughly enjoyed all of them, and the comments aren’t so much dislikes as “well, if I *have* to decide” factors. Or like my wife and I say when we really don’t care either way on something but need to make a choice “I’m 51/49 [fill in the blank] so either really is fine.”
Overall, this list shows me that I really need to get around to reading more of your books! Well played, Scalzi. Well played. *tips hat*
It’s really difficult to rank your books. They all fall into a “love” category. My favourite, however, is The Last Colony. The one I rave most about, though, is Zoë’s Tale. I like The Last Colony better because it contains lines like “I don’t have a problem with treason, I can stop anytime” and more witty banter between John and Savatri. I also appreciate the dialog between General Szilard and John. So even though I named my laptop Zoë Boutin Perry, The Last Colony is the book I have read most, and the one I always go to for a pick-me-up.
Agent to the Stars
Redshirts
The Android’s Dream
Old Man’s War
The Last Colony tied with Zoe’s Tale
The Ghost Brigades
The God Engines
Not yet read
Fuzzy Nation
The Human Division
Books I’ve Read, Ranked:
1. The Ghost Brigades
2. Old Man’s War
3. Redshirts
3. The Last Colony
A caveat: I *hate* ranking books. I used to be in the Brown Ajah in The White Tower at tarvalon.net (yes, I know, my nerd is showing) and everyone always wanted everything RANKED. Ugh. Anyway–that’s why I have Redshirts and The Last Colony both ranked “3”. I like them equally well, but honestly, so far I’ve liked *all* of your books quite well, Mr. Scalzi. :) (For science fiction. *cough cough*)
Books I Would Read *Right Now* If Someone Would Hand Them to Me ;):
Agent to the Stars
The Android’s Dream
Zoe’s Tale
The God Engines (a novella, but worth including in these rankings)
Fuzzy Nation
The Human Division
I wish I could afford more books. :(
* Zoe’s Tale (the only book you’ve written that made me cry)
* The Android’s Dream (primarily for the first chapter, oh my GOD)
* Old Man’s War
* Redshirts (okay I guess I teared up in this one too)
* The Human Division (this was hard to place, given the wide variation between chapters)
* Fuzzy Nation
* The Ghost Brigades
* The Last Colony
* Agent to the Stars (shallowest characterization of any of the books, but hey, it’s a first effort)
Redshirts
Zoe’s Tale
The Human Division
Old Man’s War
The Last Colony
Agent to the Stars
The Ghost Brigades
Fuzzy Nation
I have yet to read a novel of yours that I didn’t enjoy and wouldn’t recommend. But I enjoy the writing on this blog even more.
I also liked the short story about yogurt. If you published a book full of snarky, silly short stories like that, I would buy it.
I think the God Engines is my favourite.
And then Metatropolis (which I see you don’t list)
Both of those because I think they are really new, shiny, cool ideas (well executed).
I liked Zoe’s Tale best of all the OMW universe stuff, because of the POV choice. And then the Human Division, because of the format. Followed by the other OMW universe stuff.
I really *wanted* to like Redshirts but felt it fell a bit flat.
I’ve not read Fuzzy Nation, Agent to the Stars, or the Android’s Dream.
Ranking for books I’ve read:
Old Man’s War
The Android’s Dream
Redshirts
Fuzzy Nation
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
The Ghost Brigades
The Human Division exists in limbo until you see fit to end it (I really like it, but the non-ending was really unsatisfying. If it ends well, I could see slotting it relatively high on the list.)
I don’t actively dislike any of the novels I’ve read (again, potential exception for Human Division’s non-ending, but I enjoyed the rest of the book so much that it’s hard to say that I dislike it). Ghost Brigades comes in last due to what I perceive to be a galactic sized plot hole at the core of the story, but even then, I really enjoyed the book.
(I’ve not read Agent to the Stars or The God Engines. I should probably get on that.)
I listened to most of these on audio
Agent to the Stars. My favorite. It was hilarious. I loved the idea of aliens needing an agent.
Old Man’s War
Fuzzy Nation
Red Shirts
Human Division
Android’s Dream
After Agent everything else could tie for second place.
The one I didn’t care for was The God Engines. It was just too dark, I think. Interesting premise but disturbing, very disturbing.
Your other books are on my wish list just waiting for time. I love the humor in your writing, and I love the aliens.
As a teacher I should edit my own post and stop using the word “love” so much. But it’s summer, so there you go.
Fuzzy Nation
Shadow War of the Night Dragons (would go here if it were a novel)
The Human Division
Old Man’s War
Redshirts
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
I have not yet read, but plan on reading:
The Android’s Dream
The God Engines
I started, and may start again, but I’m just not quite sure about:
Agent to the Stars
Old Man’s War
The Android’s Dream
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
Agent to the Stars
Fuzzy Nation
The God Engines (I Iiked the Darkness)
Redshirts
The Human Division
And I also liked:
The Tale of the Wicked
Judge Sn Goes Golfing
The President’s Brain is Missing
Questions for a Soldier
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The Sagan Diary
To start with, I haven’t disliked anything I’ve read by you.
Zoe’s Tale – Just about pitch perfect in voice. I prefer this version of the events to The Last Colony.
Fuzzy Nation – I got it at a signing and it sat on my shelf for over a year. When I got around to it, I was surprised by how well it worked, particularly the courtroom climax. Some fist-pumpingly good stuff there.
Agent to the Stars – This may be unfairly high, but I remember liking this a lot. I read it rather furiously, perhaps in one session, on my computer back when it was still up on your site. I really dug it with parts of my more esoteric geekery, like box office numbers analysis, which was far less prominent back then.
Old Man’s War/The Ghost Brigades/The Last Colony – Stuffed together because it’s been several years since I read any of them, and I’m not entirely clear which bits were in which novel. I did enjoy them all, however.
The Android’s Dream – I read it, I enjoyed it, but it’s been so long I don’t remember it terribly well. Perhaps time for a re-read if I can slim down the stack.
The God Engines – Clever and well executed, but didn’t leave me asking for more.
Redshirts – This is weird. I like this conceptually more than I like it on execution. I appreciate the book and all, but I’m unsure if I like it as a novel. However, the third coda is fantastic and makes me wonder if I need to bump it up in the rankings.
1. Old Man’s War
2. The Ghost Brigades
3. The Android’s Dream
4. Redshirts
5. The Last Colony
6. Zoe’s Tale
I think OMW was definitely the best. #s 2, 3, and 4 are all very close and might easily be switched. And 5 and 6 would be a bit further down were the list spatially oriented as well.
You were introduced to me by the Penny Arcade link way back when to the serialized Old Man’s War, and Agent to the Stars. I have very much enjoyed all of your SF to date, which means it’s difficult to give them preference. All of my ratings are based on hard copies I own; I’ve never listened to an audiobook version and I did not get the weekly chapters of THD. After much thought, however:
1. The Android’s Dream – to me, this one was the complete package with the best writing and I will include Judge Sn Goes Golfing with it; I hope that there will be a sequel someday.
2. Fuzzy Nation – I’m a serious fan of Piper’s work and was kind of dreading this one, butI really think you pulled it off. My only complaint would be that it was too quick a read – a complaint I have with most of Piper’s work as well, so I guess that just confirms the good job.
3. Agent to the Stars – not as polished as your later work, for obvious reasons, but lots of fun and still well-written; for me, it didn’t hurt that I had just read Greg Costikyan’s First Contract and was much in the mood for new takes on first-contact stories.
4. The Ghost Brigades – because it was all of the great stuff from Old Man’s War with lots of new coolness!
5. Old Man’s War – Shades of Haldeman and Heinlein made very much your own.
6. Last Colony/Zoe’s Tale – tied; to me they’re just an extra-long novel broken up into two conveniently-sized sub-books. Slightly lessened interest because now we’re at lots of OMW Universe and feeling a bit oversaturated. Still great reads, though.
7. The God Engines – I think my interest here is lesser because it’s “not the usual Scalzi”, but at the same time it’s a fascinating (and frightening) universe. Out of my comfort zone, which is good but still slightly off-putting.
8. The Human Division – still feeling a bit over-saturated with the OMW Universe, but I actually like the short-story format better.
9. Redshirts – Now, I’m personally a Star Trek fan who has been REALLY over-saturated with Trek and who would love it if the franchise would lie fallow for about twenty years, and I think this very much lessened my enjoyment of Redshirts. Not your fault, obviously. I knew what a coda was going into the book, so I wasn’ confused or upset or disappointed at the “multiple endings” or anything, and actually rather liked them. I enjoyed reading the whole book, really. But of all of these books, it was definitely my least favorite. And again, most probably because of issues on my end of things.
Old Man’s War – I loved the humor, it teased out many things I liked about Starship Troopers and Forever War.
Zoe’s Tale – was like reading Ender’s Shadow – refreshing change of POV in a familiar universe. (I didn’t enjoy Sagan Diary, but do want to give it another try.)
The Last Colony
The Ghost Brigades
Fuzzy Nation – this turned into a page-turner.
The Android’s Dream – admire the opening (cough) salvo, but got lost in the middle; I probably need to reread it.
The God Engines – not really my genre, but interesting enough that I stuck with it.
Redshirts – Hilarious idea, love the Codas, but I think it would ultimately be impossible to have met my expectations.
Haven’t read:
The Human Division – was waiting for it to be released all at once and… got distracted.
Agent to the Stars
Old Man’s War
Agent to the Stars | The Android’s Dream
( I really couldn’t decide, moved them back and forth until I think they should belong on the same line.)
The Ghost Brigades
– as an aside – I think most of your non fiction and other assorted short stories go around here somewhere
Fuzzy Nation
The Human Division
The Last Colony (Right about here, I started to get burned out on John Perry)
Zoe’s Tale
The God Engines –
Redshirts – it didn’t really do a whole lot for me.
That said – and acknowledging that you don’t need any more ego boosting, I’d read your shopping lists if you published them.
LIKE
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
Zoe’s Tale
The Last Colony
Redshirts
Fuzzy Nation
Agent to the Stars (Poor ending)
Not Like
The God Engines
To Be Read
The Android’s Dream
The Human Division
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
Redshirts
The Android’s Dream
The Human Division
Agent to the Stars
Fuzzy Nation
Unread, though I own a copy:
The God Engines
Old Man’s War
The God Engines
The Android’s Dream
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
The Human Division
Redshirts
Fuzzy Nation
Zoe’s Tale
Unread:
Agent to the Stars
The Human Division (listened to audio)
Old Man’s War/The Ghost Brigades/The Last Colony
Redshirts (listened to audio)
Agent to the Stars (listened to audio, but I don’t think I would have liked it quite as much in print or without Wil Wheaton’s narration)
The God Engines (interesting premise, but I don’t think I’d ever reread it)
Haven’t read:
The Android’s Dream
Fuzzy Nation (I have zero interest in reading this – sorry!)
Zoe’s Tale
Old Man’s War
Fuzzy Nation
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
The Human Division
The Androids Dream
Red Shirts
I found that after I had a chance to reflect a bit on Red Shirts it was a much better read than I first thought. It was different than I expected. You had made fun of one of the most sacred TV shows of my late teen age years.
Piper’s Fuzzy books have always been some of my favorites and you did a great job!
The Old Man series are the kind I like best: Military Sci-Fi. RAH started me on it and so many others have kept me going.
thanks for these great reads!
Unread-Android’s Dream, The God Engines
1. Human Division- I loved how the world was expanded and grown. I liked the little things in the book, from the title, to the chapter titles, to the different personalities to the growing mystery of the book.
2. Old Man’s War- A pleasure escaped during a difficult part of my life.
3. The Ghost Brigades-Loved the follow-up with the change in characters
4. Fuzzy Nation- I read it on the heels of finishing H. Bean Piper’s books so seeing the new take was better, although having the comparison hurt this book in my head.
5. Last Colony- I still loved this book, but was a pretty big departure from the series.
6. Agent to the Stars- I loved the beginning but I felt the ending was rushed.
7. Redshirts,-I thought it was short and hated that the story abandoned its premise before I was ready.
8. Zoe’s Tale- Being an 30 something male I struggled with re-reading the story from this point of view. I plan to give it a try again when I am in a different place in life.
In terms of a ranking, I really think of them in three different categories based on how often I re-read them. Then, within each category, a rough ranking.
The Android’s Dream
Old Man’s War
Zoe’s Tale
The Last Colony
Agent to the Stars
The Human Division
The Ghost Brigades
The God Engines
Fuzzy Nation
Redshirts
1. Old Man’s War
2. The Human Division – (this may be higher than it should due to it being recently finished)
3. The God Engines
4. Redshirts
5. The Android’s Dream
6. The Ghost Brigades
7. Agent to the Stars
8. Fuzzy Nation
9. The Last Colony
10. Zoe’s Tale
I am surprised at how high The God Engines ranked for me. I was pretty easy to rank the top half and the number ten slot was a run-a-way the rest were closely grouped.
Loved In No Particular Order:
Old Man’s War
Agent to the Stars
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
Fuzzy Nation
Redshirts
The Human Division
Abandoned:
The Android’s Dream: I couldn’t deal with the fart machine
Not Yet Read:
The God Engines (a novella, but worth including in these rankings)
Old Man’s War (made me cry)
The Last Colony (made me cry)
Zoe’s Tale (made me cry)
The Ghost Brigades (made me cry)
The Android’s Dream
Agent to the Stars
All others are unread, with Human Division and Fuzzy Nation at the top of my to-read. I’m a combat vet and a huge romantic/sentimentalist.
My favorite remains Old Man’s War, followed by The Ghost Brigades and The Last Colony. Also loved Your Hate Make Will Be Graded.
Want to read Redshirts eventually, as I’ve been told it’s really good too. Haven’t taken too much of a look at the rest of your books though, and I really should.
My list:
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
Redshirts
I really liked the Old Man’s War related books. They are among my favorite sci-fi novels. Redshirts, however, was kinda ‘meh’ for me. It was a decent book and I did not dislike it, but I’m less likely to be pushing it on my friends.
Not sure I can gives straight rankings, since it’s been a while since I’ve read some of these:
Really liked/enjoyed in rough order, but they’re all grouped pretty closely:
Old Man’s War
Android’s Dream
Fuzzy Nation (especially since it led me to Little Fuzzy, which I found delightful)
Zoe’s Tale
Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Disappointed by Redshirts – I wanted to like it more.
Agent to the Stars & The Human Division are on my massive To-Read list
No intention of reading the God Engines – just not my thing.
1. Zoe’s Tale (by far and away my favourite)
2. The Last Colony
3. The Ghost Brigades
4. The God Engines
They’re all I’ve read so far I’m afraid (other than a couple of short stories) – and yes, I’ve read OMW books without actually reading Old Man’s War! I do plan to rectify that eventually.
Old Man’s War
God Engine
Ghost Brigades
Redshirts
Android’s Dream
—————————– Liked/Disliked Threshold
Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
I was annoyed for a while that you didn’t keep cranking out OMW novels. But considering I liked your last few non-OMW books, and didn’t like the last two OMW books, then maybe I should just encourage you to write what you think will work…
My request would be something else in the God Engine universe.
Zoe’s Tale
Fuzzy Nation
Android’s Dream
Redshirts
Zoe’s tale is my favorite because as a woman, and a youngish one at that,(in my mid twenties) the way it captured the voice of a teenage girl was PHENOMENAL. Especially seeing as you know, you’re NOT a teenage girl. Also it made me cry the hardest. Fuzzy nation was a delight with an intriguing twist that also made me cry. But anything with fuzzy things that get hurt usually does. Androids dream didn’t make me cry but the twist was fantastic and the fart joke at the beginning was so artfully crafted, well, I bow to the master. Finally, I loved Redshirts. It’s ranked the lowest only because it had a certain amount of enigma about it that made it a little less human and relatable to me personally. But I’ve still recommended it to about two dozen friends.
I’m still hunting down more of your books from the library and I’m sure I’ll enjoy them all. I just enjoy your voice and style as an author.
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
Redshirts
The Human Division <– A celebration of diplomacy? Unusual for genre fiction, but It works.
The Android’s Dream <– gotta love that opening
The Last Colony
Fuzzy Nation <– haven't yet read the original
Agent to the Stars <– too damn short
Zoe’s Tale <– enjoyable, just too much of a retread for my tastes
1. Old Man’s War // The Android’s Dream (can’t decide)
3. The Last Colony
4. The Ghost Brigades
5. The Human Division
6. Redshirts
7. Fuzzy Nation
8. Agent to the Stars
9. Zoe’s Tale
10. The God Engines (this is the only choice that wasn’t difficult; just not my cup of tea)
The Android’s Dream
Agent to the Stars
Fuzzy Nation (rereading this right now)
Old Man’s War
Red Shirts
The Last Colony
The Ghost Brigades
:)
Here is my ranking:
You haven’t written anything I disliked so here is my list in order of what I liked:
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
Redshirts
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
The God Engines
Have not Read:
Agent to the Stars
The Android’s Dream
Fuzzy Nation
The Human Division
I loved Old Man’s War. Its one of my favorite books of all time and I have bought multiple copies as I have a tendency of giving away books to people who I think would love a story.
What I find about your writing is you like to try new things and experiment. As such you do things that not everyone expects and change can be uncomfortable for some fans. Old Man’s War was an awesome entertaining space opera which started to turn more to politics, philosophy, and tackled bigger subjects with The Last Colony and Zoe’s Tale. I still like them but they slip further down the list with Redshirts coming in third overall. Redshirts was also really good. God’s Engines comes in last but I liked it a lot, it got me out of my comfort zone as a reader which I believe was your intention.
I haven’t read The Human Division yet, but plan to. Right now I am in the middle of Little Brother by Corey Doctorow with Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman on deck. My next planned purchase is The Human Division but I will have to space it out my books budget with some trips to the library as I tend to read a book a week. I will probably get around to Agent to the Stars, The Android’s Dream, and Fuzzy Nation but the descriptions haven’t really grabbed me as much as your other works. Since I can read faster than authors can write I always like to leave a few books unread knowing that if I catch a craving I know where I can get a good story.
I’ll go:
1. Old Man’s War (of authors I like, I think I always end up really liking the first book I read of theirs, since much of my joy is in digging into a new authors style; thinking etc. — the only exception to this is David Brin — I hated the Postman, but loved all the Uplift Books)
2. Android’s Dream
3. Last Colony
4. Ghost Brigades
5. Agent to the Stars
6. Zoe’s Tale (I liked this more the first time through; the second time I think it was a little flat, save the fight scene with the Consu, where I still teared up)
7. Redshirts
(Haven’t read Fuzzy Nation; Human Division or God Engines yet)
I’ll go:
1. Old Man’s War (of authors I like, I think I always end up really liking the first book I read of theirs, since much of my joy is in digging into a new authors style; thinking etc. — the only exception to this is David Brin — I hated the Postman, but loved all the Uplift Books)
2. Android’s Dream
3. Last Colony
4. Ghost Brigades
5. Agent to the Stars
6. Zoe’s Tale (I liked this more the first time through; the second time I think it was a little flat, save the fight scene with the Consu, where I still teared up)
7. Redshirts
(Haven’t read Fuzzy Nation; Human Division or God Engines yet)
Those I’ve read:
1. Redshirts
2. Old Man’s War
3. Android’s Dream
4. Zoe’s Tale
5. The Last Colony
6. Human Division
7. Ghost Brigades
8. God Engines
With the most-liked at the top:
1. The Android’s Dream (one of my top five novels of all time)
2. Fuzzy Nation
3. Agent to the Stars
4. Redshirts
5. The Last Colony
6. Zoe’s Tale
7. The Human Division
8. Old Man’s War
9. The Ghost Brigades
I thoroughly enjoyed all of them, by the way, I just enjoyed some more than others. :-)
Omw
Android’s dream–never having been a 12-year-old boy, I struggled with the opening, but I loved the rest of it.
Last colony
human division
Ghost brigade
Red shirts
Zoe’s tale
God engines
Agent to the stars,
fuzzy nation
And yes, I know you don’t have to have a Y-chromosome to enjoy the fart sequence, I guess I just have a humor blind spot.
Not a list, just a point: I have read all your novels and really disliked The Ghost Brigades at first. But, re-reading it now and admit my opinion is far more positive this… third … time. It is your most mature work I think. So: it moves up the list a long way. Call it number two.
Books I’ve read, in rank order (Redshirts & The God Engines really stand out as your best work IMO, after Fuzzy Nation, they’re very close together. Not a mediocre or bad book anywhere in the list.):
Redshirts
The God Engines
Old Man’s War
Fuzzy Nation
Agent to the Stars
Zoe’s Tale
The Last Colony
The Ghost Brigades
The Android’s Dream
Have not read:
The Human Division
My preferences (highest first):
Agent to the Stars – but I have to be in the right mood to re-read it
The Ghost Brigades – my favourite
Old Man’s War – first of your books read
The Last Colony
The Android’s Dream
Zoe’s Tale – note being last doesn’t mean I didn’t like it, just my least liked.
Not yet read (in no particular order):
The God Engines
Fuzzy Nation
Redshirts – plan to purchase and read
The Human Division – plan to purchase and read
1) The Last Colony
2) The Android’s Dream
3) The Human Division
4) Zoe’s Tale
5) Fuzzy Nation
6) Agent to the Stars
7) Old Man’s War / The Ghost Brigades
9) Redshirts — Might have ranked higher if I’d read it rather than listened, but some of the dialogue got a bit difficult to listen to due to the phonetic similarity of “Dahl” and “Duval” and the number of conversations that had a lot of “Dahl said, Duval said” exchanges
10) The God Engines
Note: I’ve read about half of these and listened to the other half. They all fall into a tight spectrum for me from “that was fun” to “yup, that was still fun.”
None counts in my “best books ever” list, but I enjoyed them all and would happily purchase a sequel to any of them. Except maybe the “Obin nanny” viewpoint sequel/retelling of Zoe’s Tale.
And all the former 12-year-old boys I know think the fart sequence is priceless.
1: The Human Division. I think this is the OMW universe taken to its best extreme. Funny, insightful, exciting, non stop interesting characters.
2: Old man’s war
3: Last Colony
4: Ghost Brigades
5: Redshirts
6: Agent to the stars
7: Androids Dream
8: God Engines
Unread:
– Zoe’s Tale. Started it right after Last Colony, then realized it’s the same story and decided to wait. Never got back into it.
– Fuzzy Nation. Just didn’t appeal to me that much. Might pick it up if I have a slow moment bookwise.
——————- 5 Stars
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
——————- 4.5 Stars
The Human Division
——————- 4 Stars
Redshirts
Zoe’s Tale
Fuzzy Nation
——————- 3 Stars
The God Engines
The Android’s Dream
Agent to the Stars
1. Redshirts — a good book made great by the codas
2. OMW — if this had sucked or merely OK or even “pretty good”, then no sequels
3. The Last Colony — I like John Perry
4. Zoe’s Tale — Less John Perry
5. The Ghost Brigades — no John Perry, but Jane Sagan makes up for it
6. The Human Division — making new friends, but I prefer, you know, a novel over shorty stories
1- Zoe’s Tale (Because it was great to get the same story from another, and unusual at that point of view, ans also because I cried. There, I said it. I bawled like a baby.)
2 – Redshirts
3- Old Man’s War / The Ghost Brigades / The Last Colony (I read them in a quick sequence so they sort of form a whole for me)
4- The God Engines (A great departing from your usual style.)
5- The Android’s Dream (I remember it fondly. I laughed a lot.)
6- Fuzzy Nation
7- Agent to the Stars
Undecided- The Human Division (I have to re-read it entirely to decide how I feel about it as a whole. As a series, I loved it, but I surmise the experience will be different as a book -though probably good too-)
… I forgot to add The Sagan Diary, which I liked too. It’d probably be either in 3 or in 4.
1. Redshirts
2. Old Man’s War
3. The Last Colony
4. The Human Division
5. The Ghost Brigade
I should note that ranking these is like ranking Pixr movies pre-Cars 2. Even the ones at the bottom are good stuff.
1. The Last Colony
2. Redshirts
3. Old Man’s War
4. The Ghost Brigades
5. Zoe’s Tale
6. The Android’s Dream
7. The Human Division
8. Agent to the Stars
9. Fuzzy Nation
10. The God Engines
1. Fuzzy Nation
2. Agent to the Stars
3. Old Man’s War
4. Redshirts
5. The Last Colony
6. The Ghost Brigades
I read Little Fuzzy when it first came out (yeah, yeah) and fell in love with it. I’d been hesitant to go back to it because in my experience books from that era tend not to age well and I didn’t want to spoil the memories. I did finally get your reboot, as an audio book, and was really blown away by both the book and the narration. It was better for the current (somewhat older) me in every way.
1) Old Man’s War —- Great “High Concept” novel
2) The Ghost Brigades —Strong follow up to OMW
3) The Android’s Dream
4)The Last Colony
5) Fuzzy Nation
6) Redshirts
7) Zoe’s Tale —- Didn’t like the overlap with The last colony.
8) The Human Division —– Eventually realised that whilst I liked reading a chapter every week I wanted a novel, not a serial.
9) Agent to the stars —You can tell it’s an early novel.
Redshirts (Audiobook)
Fuzzy Nation
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
The Android’s Dream
That’s the one’s I’ve read.
Most favorite to least favorite:
1. Ghost Brigades. I thought it hit the ground running and never let up. The sequel that’s better than the original.
2. Old Man’s War. Enjoyable, but took a little while to get into the meat of the story.
3. The Last Colony. Had its moment, but just didn’t leave that much of an impression.
4. The Android’s Dream. I so desperately wanted to love this book, and maybe it was doomed by my high expectations, but I just plain didn’t like it.
Agent to the Stars
Old Man’s War
Fuzzy Nation – Loved Little Fuzzy and this book was a wonderful rewrite of the story
The Ghost Brigades/The Last Colony (I liked both equally)
Redshirts
The Android’s Dream (This is only last because, to me, it started slowly and took a while to catch my interest.)
Old Man’s War
Redshirts
Agent to the Stars
Fuzzy Nation
Ghost Brigades
The Human Division (Which I collected as audio chapters, so it doesn’t “feel” like a book. More like a bag of treats. Sorry.)
1) Old Man’s War – Second read and your best, all-around novel.
2) Ghost Brigades – As good of a sequel as possible and could easily be number one on my list.
3) The Android’s Dream – First I read and funniest of all. I still go back and read one particular scene from the book when I want a good laugh.
4) The God Engines – I really would have liked for this to be developed further, but it is one hell of a story.
5) The Last Colony – Still good, but not on par with OMW and GB.
6) Redshirts – I liked the concept and story, but I didn’t find it nearly as humorous as The Android’s Dream.
I liked almost all of them, except “The God Engines” (didn’t hate it, but I prefer *pure* Science Fiction over Fantasy). Ranked most favorite to least favorite. I’ve also rated each book from 1 to 10 (10 being the best)
* Old Man’s War (10) –> To me, reading OMW was like reading Isaac Asimov for the first time as a teenager – I was totally blown away! Like Asimov, you have amazing character development in your stories and the technology becomes an enabler for the story.
* The Last Colony (10) –> Great twists in the plot and amazing visuals (I can just imagine the scene with General Gau and the Whaid being played out in a movie – OTOH, Hollywood would probably screw it up)
* The Ghost Brigades (9) –> The action was fun, but the progression of the “Pal” as a plot device was really awesome!
* Zoe’s Tale (9) —> Amazing what you managed to do with a story that was already told … loved it!
* Agent to the Stars (8) –> Story seemed a tad B-movie-ish at times, but your trademark twists and humor managed to elevate it to a solid 8.
* The Human Division (8) –> Don’t remember all of them, but the Dog King was my favorite!
* Fuzzy Nation (7) –> Had read the H. Beam Piper version before, but loved your version as well.
* Redshirts (3) –> Started off well, but turned into more of a fantasy rather than science fiction at some point.
* The Android’s Dream (2) –> I think the first scene grossed me out.
* The God Engines (1) –> Interesting read, but I like your hard scifi better.
Am I the only one who wishes to quantify everyone’s ratings? Create a nice graph?
Damn OCD…
My ratings are:
1. Old Man’s War + The Ghost Brigades – I really loved the Heinlein influences and the ‘enlisting at 75’ concept is very interesting.
2. The Android’s Dream – read it a while ago, but remember laughing out loud and being surprised by plot twists. A fun read.
3. Agent to the Stars – great concept, loved Joshua’s character.
4. Redshirts – I love when movies/books have inside jokes. This was super-meta and uber-geeky and I loved it.
5. The Last Colony + Zoe’s Tale – I’m really impressed by how Zoe’s character is written. Most male authors couldn’t write from an adult female perspective to save their lives – and Zoe is very convincing, even though she seems a bit too mature for her age.
6. The Human Division – great plot. However, I feel that it would be better if it was not written as a new, chapter-a-week, format (or not released as a single book). As weekly episodes – it was awesome on many levels, as a single book I feel it lacked some details and continuity that “standard format” book have.
7. Fuzzy Nation – a fun read, a bit predictable.
8. The God Engines – interesting universe, but not really my taste.
By the way, when comparing your books to books by other authors, all of the above are grouped very close together, somewhere near the top of my list.
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
The Human Division (might have ranked it “lower” if I didn’t know there was to be a season two, love what you are trying here and loved reading these “episodes” every week. My hope for the next season is that you set up a season pass, just cause I’m lazy and don’t want to remember to order each episode every week!)
The Last Colony
Fuzzy Nation
Your various short stories (they always leave me wanting more though): The Sagan Diary, Questions for a Soldier, After the Coup are the ones I’ve read)
Android’s Dream
Zoe’s Tale
Redshirts
Haven’t read: The God Engines, Agent to the Stars
Even with these rankings, I’ve enjoyed all your stories I don’t regret reading any of the books on this list.
Zoe’s Tale
The Last Colony
Fuzzy Nation
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
The God Engines (a novella, but worth including in these rankings)
Redshirts
The Human Division
Redshirts
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
Zoe’s Tale
The Last Colony
Agent to the Stars
Android’s Dream
The God Engines
These are all very good books, as is The Sagan Diaries. I haven’t read Fuzzy Nation, because I’ve never read a reboot I liked, so I’ve been reluctant to try it.
Agent to the Stars
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
The Android’s Dream
Zoe’s Tale
The Last Colony
Fuzzy Nation
Redshirts
unread:
The God Engines
The Human Division
Old Man’s War
Agent to the Stars
Zoe’s Tale
The Last Colony
The Ghost Brigades
The Human Division
The Android’s Dream
Fuzzy Nation
The Human Division
Redshirts
After the first three some of the differences above are so incremental, it’s hard to say that there really is a difference. I started the The God Engines, but didn’t make it past the first chapter.
The Human Division, The God Engines, and Fuzzy Nation are yet to be read by me, so they’re not taken into account.
Agent to the Stars remains my favorite. It needs to be movie-fied. By Peter Jackson, so it can be pulled into three extra-long parts, preferably not across a decade but I’d take it.
(seriously, it is my favorite)
Then it is thus:
Old Man’s War
The Last Colony
Ghost Brigades
Redshirts
Zoe’s Tale
Android’s dream – This I may have finished while near-sleeping. Might need to re-read.
If we’re going for re-readability, the only one I’ve read more than once is “Agent to the Stars”, and that’d be for personal reasons. Also, it’s funny. I like the funny.
I would probably rank “The Human Division” #1 when it’s complete. Ahem. But I love Harry and Hart so much. And Sorvalh. I give it a brevet rank of #1.
Then OMW, then Redshirts.
Then the rest of ’em…
and “The God Engines” down at the bottom. Hated it.
So:
#1 Agent to the Stars
Human Division
#3 OMW
#4 Redshirts
#5-whatever: everything else
.
.
.
#last “God Engines”
1. Old Man’s War
2. Redshirts
3. Fuzzy Nation
4. The Ghost Brigades
5. Zoe’s Tale
6. The Last Colony
Of those i’be read:
Old Man’s War (my intro to Scalzi’s writing)
Your Hate Mail Will be Graded (my intro to Scalzi himself)
Agent to the Stars
The Human Division (gave upon the serialized episodes and just bought the book)
Android’s Dream
The Ghost Brigades
Redshirts (fun nonetheless)
The Last Colony
I was put off by some of the dialog in Old Man’s War, but it was a fun book. I enjoyed the hell out of it.
I haven’t read your other books yet, but The Ghost Brigades is on my to-read list.
1. Agent to the stars (your funniest IMHO – one of my top 10 sci-fi faves)
2. OMW (fun premise, exciting battle, believable science)
3. Red shirts (really fun premise, great codas)
4. THD (loved the weekly serial release, nice extension of OMW universe)
I’ve read just about everything you’ve published but these 4 are the ones that I can easily rank from memory.
1. Old Man’s War — I came in fresh, and it was like Heinlein on crack.
2. The Android’s Dream — One of the funniest books I’ve ever read. If Dave Barry wrote science fiction, it would amount to something like this. I laughed out loud REGULARLY while reading this one. Of all your universes, this is the one I’d like to see revisited the most.
3. Agent to the Stars — I just love that big alien blob.
4. The Last Colony — A satisfying conclusion to the first trilogy of the Old Man’s War universe.
5. The Ghost Brigades — Doesn’t have the advantages of being the introduction or the conclusion. Still loved it.
6. Zoe’s Tale — I also loved this one. It’s only as low as it is because the second telling of a story is never as good as the first. But what a terrific protagonist.
7. The Human Division — I was intrigued by the format. There were a lot of interesting side developments you’d never get if it was a traditional novel, like the family dinner on Phoenix. At the same time, the stakes felt very low key until the climax over Earth. It didn’t feel like as essential a story to tell as the earlier books.
8. Fuzzy Nation — A fun read, but it didn’t grab me like the books above.
9. Redshirts — Loved the first section. Once the conceit was revealed, however, it lost me. I don’t like stories that break the fourth wall. Even parodies.
The Human Division
Zoe’s Tale
Old Man’s War
Agent to the Stars
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Fuzzy Nation
Redshirts
If it ain’t in the list, I haven’t read it. Gotta say though, it’s tough to RANK them, because I loved them all. Zoe’s Tale was SO COOL because of how she pulled off the rescue. Laughed out loud at “Agent”. Thought Redshirts was so Meta, and I love that sort of gig.
Write faster John Scalzi, write faster!
My general thoughts are that I enjoy your stand alone stuff far better than your Old Man’s War stuff. This is probably because of the high level of military sci-fi in them, which just isn’t my bag:
Agent to the Stars – I loved that the humor was mixed with an honest discussion of the implications in an alien taking over a body
The Android’s Dream
Redshirts – Enjoyed it, and unlike some I thought the codas really added to it.
Fuzzy Nation
The Ghost Brigades – I thought the main character was much stronger than some of the other characters throughout the OMW books
The Last Colony
Old Man’s War
Zoe’s Tale – I love Zoe but I didn’t think the book added much to the already existing story
The God Engines – It just felt to me like there was a lot of opportunity there that never got used.
The Human Division – The episodic nature kept it from feeling cohesive for me.
I have trouble doing a one for one ranking of the books. I’ve read all the listed titles, and the only ones that I didn’t really love were Agent to the Stars and The God Engines. Agent still had too many signs of being journeyman work, and doesn’t seem to me up to the same level of craft as your other work, including most of the essays here on Whatever. As for The God Engines, just too dark for my taste.
Next on the ladder I’d put Fuzzy Nation. I did enjoy it quite a bit, it just seemed a little thinner (substantively) than other books.
Otherwise, I’ve really really really enjoyed all of your output. I’m sad that Android’s Dream wasn’t a sufficient commerical success to breed additional novels; I’d really like to re-visit that universe. And the Redshirt codas were amazing.
Finally, I agree with many others that OMW is a tremendous acheivement; I didn’t realize that military SF could be character driven.
Zoe’s Tale
OMW/Last Colony/Ghost Brigades
The Human Division (love the characters)
Agent to the Stars
Android’s Dream
Fuzzy Nation rewrite
Redshirts
could never bring myself to read God Engines
Old Man’s War
Zoe’s Tale
Fuzzy Nation
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
The Human Division
(above this line are ones I loved, ranked in order,, below are ones that I didn’t care for)
The Android’s Dream
The God Engines (a novella, but worth including in these rankings)
Redshirts
Agent to the Stars
Uh, at the risk of being malleted for not following “the rules”, I cannot complete the assignment as ordered, because I cannot form a strict ranking. There are things I like more about one book, and things I like more about others, and they’re not always directly comparable. To exaggerate the problem to make it more clear, it’s like being asked whether I prefer chili rellenos or Frank Zappa. (The answer may depend on how hungry I am when asked.)
That said, Android’s Dream and Zoe’s Tale may be my favorites, for being ambitious and basically succeeding at what they tried to do (and, of course, being entertaining). And I wasn’t really impressed with Fuzzy Nation, which is probably my least favorite. And I think I might prefer Ghost Brigades over OMW. Slightly. Aside from that, well….
If you are strictly following the rules as absolutes, then I am going to get malleted. However, I have my hardhat on and Loving Correction usually isn’t especially painful, so am sure that I can take it. The intent in my heart pure. (Also, I only troll people that don’t know laughs are being had at their expense, which kind of removes the option of taking that path with you.)
My list:
1. All of your fiction sucks. I don’t mean that in a bad way, so don’t fret none. I understand that many people, however inexplicably, like it, even paying money for the privilege of consuming some Scalzi.
2. I have given several of your fiction works a fair shot, including the first four chapters of Redshirts, which is horrible. I kinda had hopes for that one.
3. I quite like many of your essay / thought type pieces.
(It is convenient that what you do for money I have minimal interest in, and the pieces that you put out there ‘just because’ are quite good.)
(I am most certainly not saying that everything you do sucks, just the fiction. (And the Twitter stuff. But does anyone, anywhere have a Twitter feed that doesn’t suck. The world will be a better place when that festering, purulent bubble bursts, at last egesting its putrid, but apparently contagious, content.)
Cindy Lou Who
(BTW – Firefox lets me preview the message, but not submit.?)
Loved Old Man’s War, Android’s Dream. Redshirts was disasppointing (and I mean that as a compliment) with the deus ex machina reveal.
1. Agent to the Stars (loved it, very funny)
2. OMW, Ghost Brigades, The Sagan Diary (all tied for second place)
3. The Human Division
4. Redshirts
5. Fuzzy Nation
6. Android’s Dream
7. The God Engines
8. The Last Colony
9. Zoe’s Tale
Honestly, I’d put The God Engines as your best-written, but Agent to the Stars as my favorite, followed by Android’s Dream. I’ll recommend the Old Man’s War books but won’t re-read them much, and Fuzzy Nation was fun but not iconic. (I’d rather see a movie version of the original with necessary updates to gender relations, computers, and social niceties.) Haven’t read Redshirts yet.
First, I will start out by saying I have not disliked anything yet, so ranking does not indicate anything negative about the book.
Here is how I rank the books:
1.The Ghost Brigades
2. (Tie) The Last Colony
2. (Tie) Zoe’s Tale
3. Old Man’s War
4. The Android’s Dream
5. Redshirts
6. The Human Division
7. Fuzzy Nation
8. Agent to the Stars
9. The God Engines
I like the Ghost Brigades best because John Perry is established as a person already, but you see his relationship with Jane Sagan and Zoe grow.
Next are the two interrelated stories of Last Colony and Zoe’s Tale which continues the tale of the three main characters, then Old Man’s War where the cool concept and world building began.
After that I put Android’s Dream which was actually my first Scalzi novel. a completely different world than the other books, it has adventure, humor, aliens and feels like a fun romp.
As i have not yet felt compelled to reread Redshirts or Human Division yet, I ranked them lower, but they are also more recent, so they may move up in my rankings at a later date.
The rest are ranked in order of appeal to me. (I borrowed them from the library or waited for a sale to buy)
I’ve only read three and would rank them as
The Ghost Brigades
Old Man’s War
The Last Colony
though it’s essentially a tie between the first two. I’ll probably read The Human Division when it’s out in paperback or from my local library.
My major criticism is that there’s some laughingly bad physics in one of the first two (don’t remember which). Or technically maybe bio-physics. Asimov showed really conclusively decades ago that really small creatures can’t be really smart (and we’re not talking hive mind here) and have an advanced civilization. Nothing that I’m aware of in more modern neurophysics disproves this (and I keep up reasonably well). My old adage of not getting the physics we know NOW wrong applies here (unless lots of plausible technobabble (that’s not an oxymoron is it?) is applied.) I suspect JS knows all this but just couldn’t resist the imagery. Anyway, this “broke” my suspension of disbelief pretty seriously.
I haven’t made it to The Human Division yet, but here’s my ranking of the others:
1. The Android’s Dream
1. Old Man’s War
2. Fuzzy Nation
3. The God Engines
4. The Ghost Brigades
5. The Last Colony
6. Redshirts
7. Agent to the Stars
8. Zoe’s Tale
A few months ago I re-read (re-listened to, actually) The Android’s Dream and Old Man’s War to determine which I liked better. I remember coming to a conclusion, but I already forgot which one ever so slightly beat out the other. Therefore, I’m going with a tie. They are both great.
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
Plan to read:
The Human Division
Shadow War of the Night Dragons, Book One: The Dead City
The Ghost Brigades
The God Engines
old Man’s War
The Human Division
Zoe’s Tale
The Last Colony
Redshirts
Did not finish
Agent to the Stars
The Android’s Dream
Fuzzy Nation
Of what I’ve read, favorite to less so:
1. Redshirts
2. Zoe’s Tale
3. The Ghost Brigades
Reading books in order is not my strength.
Zoe’s Tale
Old Man’s War
Redshirts
Fuzzy Nation
Ghost Brigades
Agent to the Stars
Lost Colony
# would not recommend
Android’s Dream
God Engines
Of your books that I’ve read I’d rank them as:
1. Redshirts – amazing
2. Fuzzy Nation – very close second
3. Old Man’s War, The Ghost Brigades, The Last Colony – enjoyed equally
4. Zoe’s Tale, Sagan Diary – enjoyed but not as much
5. The God Engines – couldn’t stand it, just not my thing
I plan to read The Human Division soon. Agent to the Stars and The Android’s Dream are both on my “will read eventually” pile.
The Ghost Brigades
Old Man’s War
The God Engines (a novella, but worth including in these rankings)
The Last Colony
Redshirts
The Human Division
Agent to the Stars- liked it first time I read it then did not wnt to reread.
Zoe’s Tale– felt like filler.
Fuzzy Nation- interesting but not original enough
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Old Man’s War
The Android’s Dream
Zoe’s Tale
unread:
The God Engines
Fuzzy Nation (on the way!)
Red Shirts (on the way!)
I have read 3 1/2 of your books. Here is my ranking:
1. Old Man’s War – Great
2. The Ghost Brigades – Good
3. The Last Colony – OK
978. Redshirts – I could not finish this book. I thought it was a rip off of the movie “Galaxy Quest”.
FF 22.0 lets me review and submit.
1: ‘Old Man’s War’ – I have, of course, encountered the idea of mind transfer. Usually as possession, 2nd usually as “[Oh! Horrors! God has decreed that man has an allotted span so you how dare you
[discover penicillin]!]”
OMW has well written characters, and an interesting take on just who you actually want as a soldier:
Some kid with training and good reflexes, or someone with a lifetime of experiences put into a young body that then gets the training.
2: If ‘Zoe’s Tale’ is the one where she gives a what was it a stone knife? This one is second partly because it, for her age in the story, answered: “So, how would /that/ kid raised by /them/ turn out?”
3: ‘Redshirts’ was quite fun, not just because of the satire of SF vids (we all know of vids we should have given the one finger salutes at various times during) but also because of the followups of what some of the people did after the main story ended. I’ve the very opposite of probs with that format since it allows for the inclusion of short stories that, if included in the main story, would annoy me but are great to read about as asides/extra chapters.
4: ‘Agent to the Stars’ because I’ve read it more recently than the rest, and I don’t remember the rest well enough to rate them.
e: ‘Fuzzy Nation’ was fun. I recall deciding that I didn’t remember ‘Little Fuzzy’ well enough to compare them. -_- “I am going to steal your dog.”
1) Old Man’s War – Loved this shit out of this one, got enticed when you posted the first parts of it on your blog waaayyyy before you actually got offered money for it. Enthusiastically recommend it to everyone.
2) The Ghost Brigades – Pretty darn good
3) Agent to the Stars – Great concept, decent execution
4) Android’s Dream – Huge waste of several days of my life that I will never get back. (Hey, I’m a Dan Brown-worthy protagonist who is the world’s best at everything, especially computer programming. But I made a magical all-powerful computer program who can do that now, so instead I’ll be Rambo for the rest of the book. Plus convoluted Deus Ex Machina ending.)
The God Engines
Old Man’s War
The Human Division
Agent to the Stars
The Ghost Brigades
Fuzzy Nation
The Android’s Dream
Zoe’s Tale
The Last Colony
Redshirts
Zoe’s Tale
Agent to the Stars
The Android’s Dream
The God Engines
What I’ve read I would prefer to rank in terms of what I’ve reread; rereadability counts a great deal with me:
Old Man’s War: reread 1x, likely will again sometime
The Ghost Brigades: reread 1x, but donated it to the library store afterward
The Android’s Dream: enjoyed it but likely won’t reread
The Last Colony: likewise
Agent to the Stars: unranked; our library has the original hardcover, which I read years ago, but have not yet had a chance to see the revised version
I do expect to catch up on the more recent work in the next year or two (including “Judge Sn,” “The Sagan Diary,” etc.) but have been busy. I would note, however, that each book so far has been successful at getting me right into the story, so I’m more likely to actually read those I haven’t yet gotten to.
(With some SF writers it’s the opposite. For example, I think about half of the 1968-72 work of Robert Silverberg is great, and reread certain novels every 4-5 years or so, but the remainder I’ve never been able to get into even once.)
Having read them all:
The Android’s Dream (favorite)
The Human Division
Redshirts
The God Engines
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
Agent to the Stars (the Line of Awesome — I think of books above this as awesome)
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
Fuzzy Nation (least favorite)
I feel kinda bad putting nearly all the OMW books in reverse chronological order — your writing style and characterization got miles better but the plots seemed to me to get vague and sloppy and stopped me caring as much about the improved characters. Human Division turned that around impressively.
1: Redshirts (your best so far, funny and still your trademark twisty tale. The codas were a nice addition, giving extra thoughts while keeping them separate as the tone had changed)
2: The Last Colony (the best of OMW universe, I really enjoyed how you turned the whole universe on its head)
3: The Android’s Dream (3-7, I found nearly equally enjoyable)
4: Old Man’s War
5: The Human Division (provisional, only ¾ through)
6: Agent to the Stars
7: The Ghost Brigades
8: Fuzzy Nation (I read the original first. Both are good adventures but the original was one man against society and yours was one man against a bunch of evil bastards. I preferred the original and the comparison detracted from my enjoyment of yours.)
9: The God Engines (As an adventure story, it was OK. As a critique of religion, it was a straw man argument. I finished it but probably wouldn’t have if it was novel length.)
Have not read Zoe’s Tale
Android’s dream
Old Man’s War
Agent to the stars
God’s Engines
The Last Colony
Ghost Brigades
Red Shirts
Old Man’s War
Redshirts
The Last Colony
The Android’s Dream
Ghost Brigades
Zoe’s Tale
Zoe’s Tale
The Last Colony – Old Man’s War – Ghost Brigades (3-way tie)
Fuzzy Nation – Human Division (tie) (HD would’ve been higher if not for the somewhat tiresome plot reminders in most segments)
Redshirts (especially liked the codas – nice “meta” touch)
Agent to the Stars (but hey, it was your first, no?)
Old Man’s War (read first, still my favorite)
The Human Division (I liked the ‘second-raters’ of the Diplo Corps, who still get things done when you don’t think they have a chance in hell!)
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
Agent to the Stars (a good snickerfest)
The Human Division
Fuzzy Nation
The God Engines (a novella, but worth including in these rankings) Dark and different
Redshirts (I liked the concept, but it was a little too ‘meta’ for me to enjoy as much as your other stories. FiL enjoyed it immensely, however — a new convert!)
Unread:
The Android’s Dream
Old Man’s War
The Human Division
Zoe’s Tale
Fuzzy Nation
The Last Colony
The Ghost Brigades
The Android’s Dream
Agent to the Stars
Just started on Redshirts so can’t rank yet!
Fuzzy Nation – My goodreads review: “A thoroughly charming and entertaining tale of action, adventure and courtroom drama. The characters and their motivations are well drawn and genuine. And that’s just the dog.”
Redshirts – Although really disliked the codas. Thought the detracted from the satisfying punch at the end of the main story and killed the momentum.
These four all rank about equally:
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
The Human Division
Didn’t like so much:
The Android’s Dream
The God Engines
Haven’t read yet:
Agent to the Stars
#1… Old Man’s War. Such a delight! I thought it had a unique voice. (if that makes any sense) I’ve read it a few times now.
#2… Human Division. When I realized I was reading a collection of stories I thought I was going to be really disappointed. I was wrong. It was fantastic and I read it in one sitting.
#3… Zoe’s Tale. Engrossing and fun.Love the intelligent, young protagonist.
#4… Last Colony… great stuff. I was so glad to find out how John, Jane and Zoe were doing.
#5… Ghost Brigades I thought this clever and interesting… just not quite as wonderful as the others.
#6… Fuzzy Nation. I haven’t read Little Fuzzy, so I didn’t have an opinion about whether or not it was better, worse, etc. I enjoyed Fuzzy Nation but not nearly as much as your other books.
I haven’t read Redshirts yet.
1. Old Man’s War – one of my all time favorite books. I reread it once a year.
2. The Android’s Dream – also a favorite. I love the world/galaxy as much as the story.
3. Fuzzy Nation
4. The Human Division
5. Last Colony
6. Ghost Brigades
7. Red Shirts – I liked the codas, but overall thought Fuzzy Nation was more amusing.
8. God Engines
9. Zoe’s Tale
Agent to the Stars – unread
Old Man’s War
Zoe’s Tale
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
.
.
.
Redshirts – Considering how much I liked the movies Galaxy Quest and The Thirteenth Floor, this book should have been right in my wheelhouse. Maybe I read too many spoilers or something.
I’ve not read the others but am looking forward to The Human Division and Fuzzy Nation.
Old Man’s War
The Last Colony
Redshirts
Questions for a Soldier
The Android’s Dream
Fuzzy Nation
The Ghost Brigades
Sagan’s Diary
I don’t usually rank stuff (one reason I don’t pay a lot of attention to awards) because I find that in order to reduce qualitative evaluations to quantitative judgments, I have to ignore all the nuance and just go with my gut feeling, which is bound to change over time. So not only is it subjective from person to person, it’s subjective over time. I could rank something on a specific basis, but that doesn’t say anything about overall excellence.
You’re a fairly consistent author. I don’t rank authors – that’s even more pointless than ranking works – I just read who I’m in the mood to read. I can expect a consistent level of quality from you. You’re clever without being linguistically complex, write well-differentiated characters, but aren’t very deep. There’s nothing wrong with the latter. If all authors were deep writers, I’d never have anything to suit my interests when I want something light. I’m also a pretty fast reader, so you’re books are nice in that I can polish one off in a weekend afternoon or a couple of evenings, which allows me to read a Scalzi novel in between something that takes longer.
You might also be interested to know that I discovered you because someone recommended Old Man’s War to me, and I, in turn, have recommended it to three other people…though that only represents two more customers net because I give the vast majority of my fiction paperbacks away to friends or the library due to space constraints.
You keep turning them out and I’ll keep reading them.
1. The Ghost Brigades
An easy choice for favorite. I liked the ideas that were raised, and the other components worked well too.
2. Fuzzy Nation
Good plot, entertaining characters. Haven’t read the original, so have no idea what is fresh and what was done before.
3. The Android’s Dream
Sheep!
4. The Last Colony
The scene I remember best was Hyrum Yoder’s encounter with the natives. It made an impression.
5. Old Man’s War
This one’s closest to the “meh” level. Nice and all, but honestly not much more than that. I’m sure part of that attitude comes from my dislike of first-person narratives.
Haven’t read the others yet.
1) The Android’s Dream (loved this – it counts as a favorite book; have read it more than once and given it to several people; it was chosen for Book Club (which tends to literary fiction) by one of those I had recommended it to, which pleased me.)
2) Agent to the Stars/Old Man’s War (I liked these and have also given them as gifts.)
3) The Ghost Brigades/Redshirts (I bogged down before the end of these; I mostly don’t read tense or depressing any more and was usually making dinner when my son was watching the red shirts so don’t have any particular feeling for them.)
1) Ghost Brigades
2) Zoe’s Tale
3) The Android’s Dream
4) Old Man’s War
5) Last Colony
6) Redshirts
I will keep my reasons for ranking these as such to myself. I enjoyed all of them, though.
Old Man’s War is by far your best novel. (I liked the rest of the books in that universe too.)
The Android’s Dream, Fuzzy Nation, Agent to the Stars, and the rest of the OMW books were about the same to me. I liked them all and consider them above-average science fiction.
I enjoyed RedShirts. My husband read it to the kids as a bedtime story and they enjoyed it, although I don’t think they got everything. It was, for me, about the same level of “good” as most books I read. It’s not my No. 1 choice for the Hugo Award this year though. Honestly, I had problems due to some of the editing. There were some flaws in it that I thought were me just not getting it, but a friend mentioned the same issues to me, so I think it was the editing.
I haven’t read The God Engines or the Human Division yet.They are in the queue, but they somehow haven’t bubbled up to the top yet.
1. The Ghost Brigades
Easily my favorite of your books. The characters felt more fleshed-out than in your other books, the pacing was good, and I really enjoyed the bits from Jane’s point of view.
2. Old Man’s War
I don’t actually think this is as good as some of your others– John is an obvious self-insert, there’s too many long talky bits, it takes nearly half the book for any action to happen, and the ending is kind of rushed. But the talky bits and lack of action are endearing in a military SF novel, and you’re a likable enough guy that I don’t mind reading about not-quite-Scalzi’s adventures in space. OMW is like vanilla pudding. And I really like vanilla pudding.
3. Fuzzy Nation
I liked this one way more than I expected to. It took an already endearing novel and updated it to match the issues of today’s world. As a queer lady myself, I liked the handling of the gender stuff. That said, once I’ve read it as many times as I have the OMW series, some of the shine might wear off.
4. The Last Colony + Zoe’s Tale
Neither of these is as great as Ghost Brigades or as relaxing as OMW. They both have too many draggy bits. I like Zoe as a character, and I really liked her trip to the Obin, but I’m a little past the YA age to get quite so wrapped up in what is a pretty good depiction of preteen/adolescent life. So these two end up being a tie.
5. Redshirts
Drags in places, the characters don’t have much personality, and there’s some gender issues. I know that the point was to play with tropes, but when the two main women in the book are a dead wife and a woman who’s in danger because of who she’s sleeping with, well, I get alienated. I did like the library copy enough to buy the audiobook for my little brother, though I gave it to him with a “see, this what I mean about even well-intentioned writers falling into the sexism trap.”
6. The Android’s Dream
Someday there will be enough equality in the world that the gay character can be the one who dies and it won’t feel eye-rollingly predictable. This is not that day. I didn’t hate it, but eh.
1. The Ghost Brigades
2. The Last Colony
3. Old Man’s War. I didn’t rank it first because I think the novel is lacking coherence and I find the resemblance between John Perry, Jane Sagan and you and your wife a bit silly. (sorry…)
4. The Human Division
That said, don’t be afraid to offer criticism, both positive and negative. I can take it.
I’ve only read “Old Man’s War” so I can’t do a relative list.
As for criticism: http://www.warhw.com/2012/04/11/old-mans-war-novel/
It’s an interesting love story.
Private Senator Ambassador Secretary Bender is probably why I haven’t read any of your other books.
1. Zoe’s Tale — From what I had read about it, was not expecting to care much for this, doubted I’d enjoy the POV or a retelling, but when I got to the end I closed the book thinking “I enjoyed reading that more than any of the others”.
2. Fuzzy Nation — don’t know the original to compare to
3. The Human Division — may be highest of this series because it’s still fresh in my mind
4. Agent to the Stars
5. The Last Colony
6. Old Man’s War
7. The Ghost Brigade
8. Redshirts
9. The Android’s Dream
Have not read The God Engines.
1 Agent to the Stars (First one of yours I ever read. So original and fun. I have bought this book for others to read)
2 Old Man’s War (So good. Instant classic)
3 The Android’s Dream (Also so good!)
4 The Last Colony (Love the storylines in this)
5 (tie) The Ghost Brigades
5 (tie) The Human Division (Love the episodic structure and the different character’s stories)
6 The God Engines
7 Fuzzy Nation
8 Redshirts (fun, but not earth shattering)
9 Zoe’s Tale (rehash from a different perspective. Good, but not a whole lot new)
1. The God Engines
2. Old Man’s War
3. Zoes Tale
4. The Ghost Brigades
5. The Last Colony
6. Redshirts
7. Agent to the Stars
8. Fuzzy Nation
9. The Android’s Dream
10. The Human Division
1, Agent to the Stars – the first I read, and it stands up even on re-reading after all the others I have read.
2. Old Man’s War. Just brilliant.
4. Zoe’s Tale. works much better than I thought it would
5. Ghost Brigades, Last Colony.
6. Fuzzy Nation – ranked higher than I thought it would be as initially I didn’t like the idea or the style.
7. Redshirts.
8. Android’s Dream. It’s well-written, but I really wasn’t keen. Will have to re-read it.
Haven’t yet read God Engines. I liked Sagan’s Diary and all your other short stories – you do well in that format.
Haven’t read ‘Hate Mail’ though I love Whatever and You Aren’t Fooling Anyone but they aren’t novels :).
Actually Android’s Dream is my “favorite” book of yours, but that’s only because it’s the only one that really sticks out in my memory. I read a frack-ton of Science Fiction books (at least three a week and that’s on top of my professional Math/Stats reading!).
It sticks out because it jogged the whole breadth of memory (emotional, intellectual, etc.) on one my college girlfriends. It was the character of Robin.
I have no explanation of why it did that other than our brains and minds are so complex that a passing association caused it to happen.
Anyhow, I enjoyed the book from beginning to end because of that (or at least that’s what I remember). I probably wouldn’t have the same experience now.
1. Old Man’s War – the first of yours I read, after reading about it in a review, and still my favourite
2. Zoe’s Tale
3. The Android’s Dream – a gem!
4, The Human Division – read last week!
5. Fuzzy Nation – inspired me to read H. Beam Piper’s Fuzzy books, which I’d never heard of before.
6. Agent to the Stars – the second I read, laughed from cover to cover.
The others, I also enjoyed, but I couldn’t really rank them against each other.
The Ghost Brigades, The Last Colony, The God Engines, Redshirts
Scale is 1 to 5, order indicates my ranking:
Old Man’s War (5) (better than the sequels on the strength of the world building)
The Human Division (5) (what can I say, the B Team is entertaining)
The Last Colony (4) (better than the Ghost Brigades, for risking exposing the earth to non-humans)
The Ghost Brigades (4)
The Android’s Dream (4)
The Tale of the Wicked (4) (why not include, if The God Engines is included)
Zoe’s Tale (3.5) (great father-daughter banter, loved Hickory and Dickory, but I am not completely the target audience for things written with a teen perspective, which is ok)
Agent to the Stars (3)
The God Engines (3) (not my favorite genre, but short and interesting; fun denouement)
The Sagan Diary (3) (interesting take on the universe, but simply not as good as the other works)
Redshirts (1) (very tedious for me, and the extended codas feel like they were tacked on just for the sake of wrapping it up)
Also, I couldn’t finish “The Human Division” it felt rushed and amateurish. As if you weren’t really “into” the story. My main problem was the easily-predictable plots.
Sorry.
1) Zoe’s Tale – it made me cry so many times I lost count.
2) The Last Colony- the last chapter made cheer and I felt as if it was a friend with great news.
3) =Redshirts – I did not see that coming, though after rereading the opening it of course was what was going on and made perfect sense, and I loved where it took the story.
3) =Old Man’s War – first book of yours I read.
4) Fuzzy Nation – it’s a smart book.
5) Agent to the Stars – so different from first contact stories I’ve read in the past.
6) The Ghost Brigades – I still love it and will reread it as a matter of course but I just like the others marginally better.
I own The Android’s Dream but haven’t read it yet.
Haven’t read The Human Division or The God Engines. Plan to though.
I actively seek out your books and rate you higher than a lot of other writers because your writing is accesible, funny, smart and can make me laugh, cry or punch the air at a characters success. You are one of a handful of authors whose books I will reread. I recommend your books and your writing to other people.
1. Old Man’s War – It’s my favorite and also the first of your books that I read.
2. Redshirts – The three codas were a great addition.
3. The Ghost Brigades
4. Fuzzy Nation – I tried reading Little Fuzzy, but couldn’t get into it.
5. and 6. are tied – The Last Colony and Zoe’s Tale
7. The Human Division – I think you did an excellent job developing each character, but I would still have liked another 50-100 pages.
8. The God Engines
I still need to read Agent to the Stars and The Android’s Dream.
The Android’s Dream – good story, good story telling, good SF + geek points, can’t ask for more, but I can see why people can be very divided about it.
ghost brigades – Makes you think more then OMW, which is the reason it is ranked slightly above it
OMW- fun, fun, fun. The first book of yours that I read. found it in a time were every SF book I read very very long, and it was very refreshing to rediscover that you don’t have to write 3 books to tell a very good interesting and fun to read story.
Zoe’s tale – have nothing bad to say about it, but I think that you can do better :)
The God Engines – When I finished it I wanted my time back. I liked the idea, but maybe the format was just too short to develop it properly… it just didn’t feel complete. On the plus side, a great last line.
Everything in the Old Man’s War ‘verse
Android’s Dream
Agent to the Stars
Fuzzy Nation/Redshirts
Didn’t like God Engines, not because it isn’t well written and compelling, but because I prefer reading things that don’t make me want to stick my head in a wood chipper.
Uh, I ranked them in order of bestessness IMHO. Left out the ones I haven’t read.
1. Old Man’s War
2. The Ghost Brigades
3. The Android’s Dream
4. The Last Colony
5. Zoe’s Tale
6. Fuzzy Nation
7. The Human Division
What about Judge Sn? Loved that!
I have to say I’ve loved almost all your writing, honestly. And Human Division didn’t work for me. Some of the chapters were amazing and most of them left me confused and wondering what was happening and also what was going to happen. I appreciate what you were trying to do with it in releasing each as their own standalone work. And in the end it just didn’t gel for me. In fact, I found myself puzzled by the ending if not let down.
I’ve read most of your novels but am only going to comment about two. Redshirts is by far my least favorite. It just wasn’t funny. And without that it had nothing. What’s worse, since it was by John Scalzi and reviewing well I slugged it out to the end when I should have stopped reading part way through.
And I’m going to pretend that the human division is my favorite. It isn’t, but I love the format so much I’m going to say it is. I read it in novel form, and loved how it chunked up. I used to read novels in a single sitting, but kids have put paid to that.
Old Man’s War (The standout of what I’ve read so far)
The Last Colony
The Ghost Brigades
Zoe’s Tale
These 3 were solid, readable, but fuzzy in my memory–that indicates to me they weren’t as powerful for whatever reason, whereas Old Man’s War stands out as your “classic”. Zoe’s tale was just “ok” for me.
Not read (yet) in order of desire to read:
The God Engines (Probably the one I WANT to read most next for some reason–it just always sounded intriguing. In fact, since I’m thinking of it…. BAM! You just got whatever the kindle percentage of $4.99 is! This survey paid for itself!!!)
Android Dream (Own, haven’t read yet–its actually hurt it that I have a hard copy and not e-book, which is how I prefer everything these days)
Redshirts (Waiting for a long road trip to buy audible version, which this soundssomehow very suited for)
The Human Division (Yeah, need to get to this too–the stand-alone “short story” aspect of it is very appealing so it may move up in my list just because of the convenience factor that offers)
Fuzzy Nation (Probably the one I want to read least for some reason–maybe because I don’t want to taint my memory banks–really loved the original)
Old man’s war is by far your best book. I liked the next two follow ups as well. I thought Fuzzy nation was very good as well.
Did not like Zoe’s Tale or The God Engines. Not got round to The Human Division as of yet. Redshirts was a good read but nothing more than in my opinion.
Old man’s war
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Fuzzy Nation
Redshirts
Zoe’s Tale
The God Engines
* Redshirts (A. Very entertaining to read, and went places I didn’t expect it to go)
* The Ghost Brigades (B+. Enjoyed exploration of identity / otherness.)
* The Last Colony (B-. Decent read if you like the characters/universe, but not a stand-out. Favorite parts were the bits revolving around General Gau’s vision.)
* Old Man’s War (C-. Interesting setup, but didn’t like the execution. Do not plan to re-read.)
Redshirts (Punches far above its weight class, and is both the funniest and deepest novel on the list. The only one I’d rank with the best of Mieville, Banks, etc, but it might not age quite as well.)
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The Android’s Dream (Loved the characters; still hoping for a sequel someday)
Old Man’s War (Great military SF with some comedy; shows a real willingness to play in the “Id Vortex”)
The God Engines (I loved the radically different tone, and I’d really like to see more in this vein)
The Ghost Brigades (The best story in the series, but not quite as surprising as the first)
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The Human Division (Very enjoyable, but the episodic structure was both a strength and weakness)
Agent to the Stars (Slight but very entertaining)
Fuzzy Nation (Slight but very entertaining)
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The Last Colony (Quite good, but kind of a letdown; I liked it better when Perry and Sagan were actually soldiers)
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Zoe’s Tale (Already heard the story, and the protag sounded very much like a teenaged girl possessed by the ghost of John Scalzi; I’d call it a half-decent book)
1. Agent to the Stars–really funny and incredible for a first book, I think.
2.Old Man’s War–heard it was sort of a Heinlein clone and was then completely captivated. Great read.
3.The Human Division–You can just keep writing about this world.
4. The Ghost Brigades–see above
5.The Last Colony–see above
6.Zoe’s Tale–see above
7. Redshirts–God, I think I’m the only person here who didn’t even Understand it!
Not read: The Android’s Dream–now I want to
The God Engines
Fuzzy Nation (sticking with H. Beam Piper)
Excellent poll Mr. Scalzi! This is a tough choice as I have liked and even loved everything I have read so far.
Subtracting the books I have not read yet: Agent to the Stars, The Android’s Dream, The God Engines, here are my ranks
Redshirts
Old Man’s War
The Ghost Brigades
Fuzzy Nation
The Human Division
The Last Colony
Zoe’s Tale
Fuzzy Nation gets the nod over the The Human Division, simply because the former is more focused. I LOVED the weekly episodes of The Human Division and read them avidly as you produced them, but I don’t think they hang together as well as a single novel, which is my main criterion for the ranking. I may be over-estimating Redshirts simpyl because I just read it and love the most recent thing best. Old Man’s War is probably ranked highest among these books simply because it’s the first book, which is hardly a universal rule of first is best as evidenced by Star Wars, Star Trek, and arguably Alien-Aliens.
Finally, I have to question what possesses someone to write a vitriol-filled email about disliking one of your books. That’s just bad karma and so unnecessary. Also, some people take Star Trek MUCH too seriously.
-cbt