Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Let me preface this review by saying that I enjoyed the first three books in the Old Man's War. I did not write reviews for these book but would have given the first five stars, the second four, and the third, three. My impression about half way through The Last Colony, the third book in the series, was that the storyline was running a bit long in the tooth and I was encouraged by a note from the author at the end that it would be the last book in the series. I did not read Zoe's Tale because I was not interested in a retelling of Last Colony from a different point of view. Having now finished The Human Division, it is clear (in my opinion) that this series is long past it's expiration date. I found myself struggling to remain interested a quarter of the way in, and really struggling halfway through to finish the book. One could say it drags, but that would be admitting that there was something there to drag. The great majority of The Human Division is written in dialogue between characters, which is fine, but hundreds of pages of "Wilson said" "Schmidt said" "Abumwe said" gets old fast. The book was originally released in a series of short stories, but collected in book form they felt very disjointed to me. The Green Mile this was not. I found the chapter about a talk show radio host cringe worthy - a cliched version of Glen Beck complete with a rally on the Mall in Washington DC. Last, Scalzi has a particular talent for writing smart ass characters which sound quite a bit like himself writing on his blog. One or two books with a number of characters who share this voice would be fine, an entire series of smart ass characters is not only tiring, it gives the impression that an author only has one or two voices in which he is able to speak. I have read two other novels by Scalzi that were not in the Old Man's War universe, both of them disappointing, and unfortunately now have a sinking suspicion that he is one of those unfortunate authors who only has one or two good stories to tell.