The Human Division Review

Title: The Human Division
Author: John Scalzi
Date Purchased: 2/12/2017
Price Paid: $3.17
Date Finished: 3/9/2021
Rating: 4/5

As I progress through this project, I’m learning a lot about myself and my reading. In a recent post I spoke about how I now realize that I enjoy science fiction way more than I thought I did. I really get engrossed in the stories and something about them tickles my fancy in just the right way.

After finishing The Human Division, I’ve come to realize that I also enjoy books which are either filled with short stories or were written in a serial fashion and later compiled into a complete volume. I think there are a couple of reasons for this, but I guess I should start with a short summary of the actual book.

The two previous books (The Last Colony and Zoë’s Tale) in the Old Man’s War series bring us up to speed on the overall intergalactic political scene and set the stage for The Human Division. In those books we learn about a group of alien races called The Conclave who are striving to bring order to the galaxy by governing over the growth of new colonies.

Of course, as humans are the worst, they choose to play by their own rules and mayhem ensues. Not only are the aliens of The Conclave pissed at humanity, but the humans still on Earth realize that they’ve been getting used by the Colonial Union for hundreds of years and decide that they’ve had enough. It’s a diplomatic nightmare.

If it wasn’t bad enough that the humans are fighting amongst each other, and that The Conclave is engaging in talks with the Earth to allow them to join, both sides discover that there’s a mysterious third faction that has popped up and is wreaking havoc. Attacks are made against both the Colonial Union and The Conclave, and are staged to look like the other party was responsible.

While my reading tastes primarily fall in the science fiction and fantasy genres, I do enjoy specific types of fiction as well. If I was to slap a label on those books, I would call them “mystery” or “suspense” novels. Scalzi’s writing appeals to me because there’s a constant vein of mystery running underneath his stories. He does an excellent job with teasing out suspense and keeping the reader guessing until the end. It’s a nice mashup for me, and I’ve seen elements of this in all of his books that I’ve read.

As a reader, my habits usually fall into the “just finish this chapter” mindset: before I walk away to start my day or fall asleep, I want to leave off at a logical ending point. Chapter breaks will typically provide this, but they aren’t always a pleasing ending. Writers will frequently pop a cliffhanger at the end of a chapter, especially when the narrative is split between multiple characters.

Now I don’t really mind that approach, and it certainly goes a long way towards creating suspense (and making the reader even more eager to dig into the next chapter), but there are times where it can feel refreshing to have a bit more closure when you put a book down. As The Human Division was written as a serial, the chapters tend to wrap up a lot more neatly and stand on their own in a much more effective way. This, of course, makes sense…but it was still much more pleasing than I thought it would be.

Scalzi does an excellent job of taking these vignettes and tying them together into a single story. Some of them might not seem to further the overall plot as much, but they go a long way toward developing the characters in a more meaningful way. This is an excellent addition to the overall series, and sets the stage for a dramatic conclusion.

Final Thoughts: A great read which is perfect for devouring in chunks. Recommended as part of the series.