Another Tuesday, another episode from John Scalzi’s novel, The Human Division. The day is going to come along when I won’t be able to type that and frankly I’m very saddened by that realization. Had John Scalzi’s novel already been released in its entirely in print form I would have finished it by now, having torn through it with the zeal of a passionate fan. While there is nothing wrong with that I am finding this weekly trip to the Old Man’s War universe satisfying in a manner that I had not suspected.

Episode Five, “Tales from the Clarke”, returns us to the main story line and the crew of the Clarke. It ties in most directly with the first episode while pulling in threads from other episodes. It acts as a recap chapter while at the same time progressing the story further. As I’ve come to expect from Scalzi, things are not exactly what they seem on the surface at the beginning of this episode. This is a very solid and entertaining chapter in what is turning out to be a suspense-filled science fiction thriller.

In an effort to maintain a Non-Spoiler stance I will say no more in this section of the post. If you have not read either this episode or any of the previous episodes I would ask that you do not proceed onward after the jump.

For a more in-depth spoiler-filled discussion of “Tales from the Clarke”, please proceed.

It was nice to see “Tales from the Clarke” bring us back to the captain and crew of that ship as well as series’ favorite Harry Wilson. I really like Captain Coloma and XO Balla and have been fond of Wilson since the first time I read Old Man’s War. This episode opens up with the scuttling of the Clarke, a scene that I personally found poignant. Raised by the original Star Trek series (in syndication) and Star Wars films, I am conditioned to see a space ship as almost its own character when I am viewing or reading science fiction and even though we only had a few brief moments with her I had already developed a fondness for the Clarke simply because it appeared to be the one ship that we would be traveling with throughout The Human Division. I’m not too proud to admit that my first thought was the completely illogical one of hoping Coloma would gather her crew and go steal their ship and just take off, a very Kirk-like move. It would have been a completely implausible idea and would have destroyed the story’s credibility, but that is where my emotions first took me.

I enjoyed how John Scalzi toys with the reader by having Coloma and her crew assigned temporarily to an old ship that then turns out not to be so temporary. It is too bad Coloma didn’t push through more upgrades while her crew was getting it ready for the assigned mission: selling the ship to representatives from Earth. I enjoyed how John Scalzi used baseball as the means to ground this story in a future that still has ties to Earth as we know it and also the way in which baseball is used to detect the deception being played out on the CDF. It is comforting to imagine that some things from our past and present would survive into our future, sport being one of those things. And of course it was wildly entertaining (for all but Chicago fans, I would imagine) to see that the Cubbie’s remain perennial losers long into the future, before finally breaking that streak in spectacular fashion.

I certainly did not expect the twist of the CDF using Captain Coloma and her crew as bait to ferret out potential spies. In fact I was nearing the mid-point of the story, knowing it was going to be relatively short, and was not sure where John Scalzi was taking us our how he would get there in a satisfying manner with so little story left in this episode. He did succeed. It seems irresponsibly wasteful to utilize human beings in that fashion but I am not sure it is any different than what happens in the actual military as well as in the corporate structure. Lives may not be at stake in the later, at least when it comes to potential imminent death, but people are often devalued and used by those who feel the ends justify the means.

“Tales from the Clarke” ended on a very good note, with Captain Coloma getting a replacement vessel. Although she may be past her prime (did anyone else hear Luke Skywalker’s “What a piece of junk!” when they first started describing the ship?), I had a big, satisfied grin on my face when Captain Coloma christened her the Clarke. I am excited to see how the dynamic of this particular ship will play out in future episodes.

Until next week…