Apologies for all the SF book reviews–in my mad sprint to the end of the month finish line, I’m trying to cram in as many books as I can in an attempt to get close to my New Year’s Resolution. This end of the month clump of reviews is partly the result of my inability to read only one book at a time. If you’re not interested in SF reads, then skip over these–I promise they won’t get in the way of my regularly scheduled ramblings on religion and atheism.

I know John Scalzi more for his brilliant writing at his popular personal blog, Whatever. On topics ranging from the Academy Awards to the coming zombie apocalypse, the man is incapable of uttering inanity. His SF writing is pretty good, too. He’s been crowned the heir to Bob Heinlein, and while this may be a bit much, his writing is every bit as approachable and engaging.

The Last Colony is the final installment in the Old Man’s War trilogy, which also includes The Ghost Brigades (which has my favorite Scalzi character, Jared Dirac, and is by far the most satisfying read). The stories take place in a galaxy where humankind has made it to the stars, only to find that there are a lot of other alien races already out there. Many of them are ready to kill us. Scalzi adds some refreshing new twists to the well-worn concept of the genetically-enhanced super soldier and explores them and their impact on the characters in detail.

The Last Colony pits a little human farming colony against 412 alien races, and Scalzi does a good job of putting the heroes into impossible predicaments and then getting them out believably. I have a few little nitpicks about his writing–after several books, his characters begin to sound alike, and he has the habit of being a little over the top when his characters find out something critical to the plot that they’re not going to share with the reader right away. As a reader, this technique shouldn’t kick me out of the story, however momentarily. These are minor beefs, and I know that when I pick up a Scalzi novel that I’m going to enter a little science fiction bubble and that won’t want to leave for long while. Above all, the man spins a great, no-nonsense yarn.