Week eight (of thirteen) in the episodic release of the novel The Human Division puts paid to John Scalzi’s assertion after last week’s dog-sitting episode that “things get rather more serious again next week”. There are no cute fluffy puppies here.
Heather Lee is a Lieutenant on the CDF ship Tubingen. After quelling a small rebellion on the Colonial Union colony on Zhong Guo she and her compatriots are given shore leave. The last thing she recalls is stumbling out of a bar, lightly intoxicated. Awakened with a slap she finds herself blindfolded, naked and tied to a chair.
Not exactly a good way to end shore leave.
For those not wishing to be spoiled I bid you adieu until next week’s episode, “The Observers”.
“The Sound of Rebellion” (I keep wanting to call it “The Sound of Her Rebellion” for some reason) is indeed a return to exciting weekly story telling after the fun but jarringly different “The Dog King” wherein we got to watch Harry Wilson dog-sit. Those of you who have read the story know that we are away from the crew of the Clarke once again but this time are treated to time with CDF soldiers, or one in particular.
Given that this follows right on the heels of a light, humorous chapter I enjoyed the way in which John Scalzi sets the tone for this episode with Lieutenant Heather Lee being slapped awake. It gives the story an immediate edge of tension. The fact that Lee is deprived of her sight and that her BrainPAL is being shielded from communication with her ship or her fellow soldiers gives the entire story a feeling of disorientation, which the reader shares with Lieutenant Lee.
One thing that also ratcheted up the tension for me was the knowledge early on that whatever was happening to Lee was being perpetrated by other humans, rather than aliens. Many of the Old Man’s War universe stories are focused on humans vs. aliens and/or their environment and the antagonists in The Human Division have often given credibility to the novel’s title by being themselves human…or at least the reader is led to believe they are human. Violence at the hands of an alien is one thing, but there is nothing more scary than the things we can and will do to one another.
Heather Lee is being interrogated and there is an unspoken threat of violence in the air, made probable by the slap that woke her up as well as the fact that she has been deprived of her clothes and incapacitated. I have been involved in some discussions online this year, and listened in on others, in which violence, especially that towards women, has been discussed. There are stories in which assault, sexual or otherwise, seems less about serving the story and more about titillation. I bring that up to contrast it to what John Scalzi does here. First he gives us a strong female character, reasserting that his created future boasts women that are every bit as capable as men in doing all jobs, including being a tough and intelligent soldier. Second he creates an intense story with the threat of violence, and that largely rising from the protagonist’s internal dialogue, proving that the threat is every bit as tension-inducing as violence itself–perhaps more so.
I enjoyed Lieutenant Lee as narrator of her own story. Her internal dialogue was genuine and felt very natural. Her resourcefulness with the tools she had to hand–her own Smartblood, her BrainPAL and her wits–was exciting to watch and the fact that much of what she accomplished was done while remaining blindfolded created an additional level of suspense for me. I had an easy time imagining this scenario in my mind because of the manner in which John Scalzi revealed details.
“The Sound of Rebellion” is one of my favorite episodes thus far. It begins the later half of the book with a bang…or at least with a slap…and it promises an exciting road to the climax.
Ok, can we say “vulnerable”?? I can’t imagine being so calm in the same circumstances. A good read.
… but these chapters are getting too short. If had the book I’d have continued on reading until the end at this stage.
Originally when I started reading these chapters I assumed the book was written and TOR released each chapter a week. But I am thinking John Scalzi wrote the book like this… each chapter is more or less complete (no action continues into next week) and each contributes to a larger picture.
If the final chapter ends with “…to be continued” I’ll be a little annoyed.
I don’t think I would have been either, but then again she is a 90 year old women (so lots of life experience) reborn in a state of the art body with a great deal of training under her belt.
I would have finished the book long ago had that been the case and so I’m kind of enjoying this making it last longer.
According to what I’ve seen John Scalzi post, the book was written entirely with this plan in mind and so each story to some degree is meant to stand on its own as a short story. The book was finished before the first episode came out. I haven’t seen any Scalzi book end on an unfinished note yet, so I would be annoyed too! 🙂
Only what, six more weeks or so until the real book comes out?
That is correct sir! It will be here, along with Spring, hopefully, before we know it.
Funny thing to me though is that this is the “real” book. The later dead tree compilation is just this work being repackaged in another format not being consumed as originally intended.
I agree. I expect that there will be some explanation at the beginning of the collected version that explains the episodic releases and how it was written, etc. I’ll be curious to see if readers gloss over that and have a negative reaction to the elements of the story that are present because it is being written this way vs. how he would have handled it if he sat down to write it as a novel.
I think the fact that the CDF soldiers have already lived a long life, and as Carl noted have all that experience is why she kept cool. It was one of the smarter and more interesting things Scalzi did with the OMW universe in general, which helped set it apart from a lot of other SF at the time (also his humor).
I haven’t been disappointed in an episode yet (I know a lot of you didn’t care for The Dog King, but I liked it anyway), and look forward to the remainder of the series/book. In a post on his blog yesterday I believe Scalzi mentioned having three ideas for new OMW books, which works for me. I don’t think we’ll get a “…to be continued” on this book, all of his novels are pretty self contained, and if he has multiple ideas on deck, that says to me he didn’t have anything in mind as a direct follow up to this book.
I agree Christian, I thought that was one of the most interesting things about the original Old Man’s War novel, this idea that by giving older people a chance to be young again if they would commit to military service that you got all this wisdom and discipline and life experience that teenagers don’t have.
I didn’t hate “The Dog King”, I have yet to be convinced that it works within the context of this novel. I do think that it would be great to see Scalzi write a series of short stories under a “Tales from the Clarke” title that just detailed adventures of this group and this ship.
I was excited to see his post yesterday and all the potential future projects he listed. More OMW is a great thing in my opinion, especially because I think he can take it many directions. He can continue on with this story, which is a continuation of the timeline after the events of the OMW trilogy and Zoe’s Tale or he could revisit any point in the history of the Colonial Union by focusing on specific characters and specific adventures.
I hope you have a great weekend Carl!
It was nice, but went by too fast as always. 🙂 Hope yours was nice as well.
Nice episode. Scalzi finds a way to appeal to all the stereotypical mom living in their basements sci fi readers by having the main character appear nude for almost the entire episode. Now he doesn’t sexualize the story anymore than that but seriously did he have to have her be nude? Come on John you’re a better writer than that.
I did enjoy the main characters moxy and intellegince. Scalzi writes a tough female warrior. The episode is tense and compelling. By the end of it I had the bad taste in my mouth of last weeks episode washed out. I have to be honest though in the end I think both of the last two episodes barely gave us any information to advance the main storyline. While this episodic format has been fun I don’t think it’s letting Scalzi string together a good overall story. Even so I’m happy to be reading a new OMW universe story no matter what. I think in the end it will all come together but in maybe a too easy way to explain kind of way. I suppose as long as we enjoy the ride its truly all that matters. We all have forgiven tons of books endings as long as we have enjoyed the ride and I am enjoying the ride with this book.
I didn’t have an issue with the nude thing like I would have with most stories for a couple of reasons. One because I was picturing things through the eyes of the main character who was aware of her nudity but couldn’t see anything and so I was imagining this as if I had my eyes closed. But mostly because the way in which Scalzi created these characters beginning back in Old Man’s War, the only way to easily make them vulnerable is to have them stripped of their clothes given that their suits weren’t just coverings but enhanced their abilities.
He could have chosen a man, of course, but I think he was trying to make a point that the women who are soldiers in the CDF are every bit as tough as the men, and given the controversy over women in combat that is a current issue it makes sense to me that he would choose a female character for this.
Now had she been assaulted I would feel completely differently for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that this hasn’t been that kind of book and while the threat made sense the reality of it happening in story would have been jarringly different from the tone he had set thus far.
After this new episode (The Observers) I am even more curious about where this is all going as it seems like there is a lot left to accomplish in just 4 episodes.