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The End of All Things

Old Man's War, Book 6

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The End of All Things

By: John Scalzi
Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert, William Dufris, John Scalzi
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Hugo Award-winning author John Scalzi returns to his best-selling Old Man's War universe with The End of All Things, the direct sequel to 2013's The Human Division.

Humans expanded into space...only to find a universe populated with multiple alien species bent on their destruction. Thus was the Colonial Union formed, to help protect us from a hostile universe. The Colonial Union used the Earth and its excess population for colonists and soldiers. It was a good arrangement...for the Colonial Union. Then the Earth said: no more.

Now the Colonial Union is living on borrowed time - a couple of decades at most before the ranks of the Colonial Defense Forces are depleted and the struggling human colonies are vulnerable to the alien species who have been waiting for the first sign of weakness to drive humanity to ruin. And there's another problem: A group, lurking in the darkness of space, playing human and alien against each other - and against their own kind - for their own unknown reasons.

In this collapsing universe, CDF Lieutenant Harry Wilson and the Colonial Union diplomats he works with race against the clock to discover who is behind attacks on the Union and on alien races, to seek peace with a suspicious, angry Earth, and to keep humanity's union intact...or else risk oblivion and extinction - and the end of all things.

©2015 John Scalzi (P)2015 Audible, Inc.
Adventure Military Science Fiction Space Opera Fiction War Solider
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Continue the series

The Shattering Peace cover art
The Shattering Peace By: John Scalzi

Critic reviews

"Tavia Gilbert and William Dufris are disarmingly genial as they trade off narrating chapters. Gilbert, in particular, manages to convey a bird-like alien perfectly in her section, and Dufris is fully believable even as a disembodied brain in control of a spaceship." ( AudioFile)
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I like the context and the stories had some great ideas carrying on the story line from the previous books. I found it disjointed and hearing that it took a long time to write has ideas taken for other books and the alternative ending, for me all was explained. Lastly whilst I gave the narration 5 stars, I was not enamoured with the switch for the second section. While it was very well narrated, the continuing characters lost their identity.

Felt like a set of short stories

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I love the Old Man's War series and have read most of them twice. This one was a bit bland compared to the rest, though it was also good, but it may also be that I've just read too much of this series. It seemed to cover a lot from some older books under another angle. The most interesting part was the brain in a box part.
One thing that tends to stick out is that in many cases the the characters seem to meld together or act alike. It is not so much what they do, but how they get to their conclusions. Also the tempo how people react, seems superfast compared to real life people, but this may also be the "fault" of the reader. At the same time who would like to listen to a book where you have to wait for next sentence for several seconds. So after all it was a good listen and I'll be waiting for the next one.

Good, but not the best of this series

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still good to hear story's from the other charters but it didn't really work for me

ok

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As well as the creativity of his stories, I love John Scalzi's often dry humour and his use of conversation to both develop character and forward the story (and this time with only a brief 'he said, she said ' overload). The whole feels vibrant and puts the reader in the heart of he tale, skilfully guiding a way through the intricacies of mind games. Just brilliant and such a pleasure to read..
The End of all Things comprises four novellas set in the Old Man's War universe as the Union is falling apart, humanity itself threatened and the Conclave is being undermined by the new upstarts, the ruthless Equilibrium. The titles are:
- The Life of the Mind
- This Hollow Union
- Can Long Endure
- To Stand or Fall
Plus John Scalzi himself introduces a short, alternative version of The Life of the Mind, an unfinished snippet quite different from the original or is it, really?

Narration is split between the really excellent William Dufris, who performs the first and fourth stories with clarity, wit and unmistakable individual character voices, and David Gilbert, who reads stories two and three. She reads well but, unfortunately given the high level of conversation she needs to perform, she is unable to provide the much needed differentiation between protagonists, thus making her sections more difficult to follow. This, combined with a slight nasal twang and general lack of verbal colour, caused this reader to have to rewind and re-listen as my mind wandered into long, non retentive blocks.

Above all, this book of shorts reminded me of the earlier John Salzi novels and made me determined to go back and revisit them. It has been too long ...
Recommended.

"Equilibrium.'

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Could not stop listening this series once I had them all in my library. Brilliant Sci-fi, great universe (which I'd like to hear more of). Great narration for all the books.

Excellent series of books

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