 Cover of first edition (hardcover) | |
| Author | John Scalzi |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | John Harris |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Old Man's War series |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Published | 2008 (Tor Books) |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 366 [1] |
| ISBN | 978-0-7653-1698-1 |
| Preceded by | The Last Colony |
| Followed by | The Human Division |
Zoe's Tale is a science fiction novel by American writer John Scalzi. It is the fourth full-length book in the Old Man's War universe. [1]
Zoe's Tale is a parallel retelling of Scalzi's third Old Man's War novel, The Last Colony , written as a first-person narrative from the viewpoint of Zoë Boutin Perry. [2] It follows up on several plot points that were underrepresented in the original novel.
Zoë is the 17-year-old adopted daughter of John Perry and Jane Sagan, two former-soldiers-turned-colonists who were the subjects of Scalzi's first book, Old Man's War . [2] Her biological father, Charles Boutin, created a device capable of giving consciousness to a race of creatures, called the Obin, who are otherwise intelligent but not conscious. The Obin worshipped him, but he was killed for being a traitor to humankind and wanting to overthrow the Colonial Union. Since Boutin gave consciousness to the Obin, his daughter Zoë became a demigod to them. [2] [3] As such, she is accompanied at all times by a pair of Obin bodyguards, Hickory and Dickory, who also relay all their experiences and feelings back to the rest of the Obin.
After John and Jane are assigned to manage the colony of Roanoke—the first human colony to be settled by colonists from other colonies rather than directly from Earth—Zoë befriends Gretchen en route, and the two soon build romantic relationships with Enzo and Magdy, respectively. On Roanoke, foolhardy Magdy leads the four into peril against what later come to be known as Roanoke's indigenous werewolves. Hickory and Dickory train Zoë to defend herself against these and other alien threats. Later, after a colonist is killed by the werewolves, Magdy and Enzo are among those who head into the woods for revenge. Zoë, Gretchen, Hickory, and Dickory manage to find Enzo and Magdy, who are cornered by the werewolves, without alerting them, but Zoë reveals herself to defuse the situation and the werewolf threat by asserting dominance over Magdy and punishing him, then allowing an injured werewolf to injure Magdy in turn.
When General Gau's Conclave fleet finds Roanoke to demand that it join the Conclave or be destroyed, Zoë witnesses the exchange (a central plot point in the Last Colony) and the Conclave's fleet's destruction from afar. A subsequent counter-attack by another faction results in the death of Enzo and his family. When General Rybicki soon reveals to John and Jane, and they to Zoë, that the Colonial Union has concealed the fact that General Gau has not destroyed colonies' populations except when they are completely intransigent about joining the Conclave or following its edicts by leaving, John sends Zoë as a credible and costly signal to General Gau to report Rybicki's intelligence that Gau may be assassinated by a close ally. Gau is not surprised at this news, as the Conclave has factionalized since the fleet's failure at Roanoke, but recognizes the import of John's risking of Zoë. Gau and Zoë playact some political drama to out the traitor in Gau's circle, but only the unexpected arrival of a Consu fleet saves them from the traitors' backup plan.
The Consu was intrigued by Zoë's demand that the Obin arrange for her to meet the Consu, as she must have known that they would sacrifice hundreds of themselves to satisfy her, though she did not know what her demand would cost. The Consu offers to give her technology that will save Roanoke from Conclave, non-Conclave, or Colonial Union attack if she will knowingly set one hundred Obin against one hundred Consu criminals for the prize. Zoë will not do so knowingly, nor does she accept the Consu's further offer to give her the technology without a contest if she asks the hundred Obin to commit suicide for her. Instead, she tells the Obin that she's tired of carrying the weight of her divinity with them and says they owe her nothing. The Obin volunteer anyway and win the prize. The Consu sapping field then saves Roanoke from the Conclave faction's attack.
John and Jane and Zoë leave Roanoke at Gau's invitation to avoid further trouble with the Colonial Union, whose plan to sacrifice Roanoke to boost military recruitment stands revealed.
1590 (MDXC) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar, the 1590th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 590th year of the 2nd millennium, the 90th year of the 16th century, and the 1st year of the 1590s decade. As of the start of 1590, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
John White was an English colonial governor, explorer, artist, and cartographer. White was among those who sailed with Richard Grenville in the first attempt to colonize Roanoke Island in 1585, acting as artist and mapmaker to the expedition. He would most famously briefly serve as the governor of the second attempt to found Roanoke Colony on the same island in 1587 and discover the colonists had mysteriously vanished.
The establishment of the Roanoke Colony was an attempt by Sir Walter Raleigh to found the first permanent English settlement in North America. The colony was first founded in 1585, but when the colony was visited again by a ship in 1590, the crew found that the colonists had disappeared under unknown circumstances. The colony has since been known as the Lost Colony, and the fate of the 112 to 121 colonists remains unknown to this day.
The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. It was located on the northeast bank of the James River, about 2.5 mi (4 km) southwest of the center of modern Williamsburg. It was established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 4, 1607 O.S., and was considered permanent after a brief abandonment in 1610. It followed several failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of Roanoke, established in 1585 on Roanoke Island, later part of North Carolina. Jamestown served as the colonial capital from 1616 until 1699. Despite the dispatch of more settlers and supplies, more than 80 percent of the colonists died in 1609–10, mostly from starvation and disease. In mid-1610, the survivors abandoned Jamestown, though they returned after meeting a resupply convoy in the James River.
Virginia Dare was the first English child born in a New World English colony.
The Colony of Virginia was an English, later British, colonial settlement in North America that existed between 1606 and 1776.
Sir Richard Grenville, also spelt Greynvile, Greeneville, and Greenfield, was an English privateer and explorer. Grenville was lord of the manors of Stowe, Cornwall and Bideford, Devon. He subsequently participated in the plantations of Ireland specifically the Munster plantations, the English colonisation of the Americas and the repulse of the Spanish Armada.
John Rolfe was an English explorer, farmer and merchant. He is best known for being the husband of Pocahontas and the first settler in the colony of Virginia to successfully cultivate a tobacco crop for export.
Sir Ralph Lane was an English explorer of the Elizabethan era. He helped colonise the Kingdom of Ireland in 1583 and was sheriff of County Kerry, Ireland, from 1583 to 1585. He was part of the unsuccessful attempt in 1585 to colonise Roanoke Island, North Carolina. He was knighted by the Queen in 1593.
Sea Venture was a seventeenth-century English sailing ship, part of the Third Supply mission to the Jamestown Colony, that was wrecked in Bermuda in 1609. She was the 300 ton purpose-built flagship of the London Company and a highly unusual vessel for her day, given that she was the first single timbered merchantman built in England, and also the first dedicated emigration ship. Sea Venture's wreck is widely thought to have been the inspiration for William Shakespeare's 1611 play The Tempest.
Old Man's War is a military science fiction novel by American writer John Scalzi, published in 2005. His debut novel was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2006.
"The Passage" is the tenth episode of the third season from the science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica. It aired on December 8, 2006.
The Starving Time at Jamestown in the Colony of Virginia was a period of starvation during the winter of 1609–1610. There were about 500 Jamestown residents at the beginning of the winter; by spring only 61 people remained alive.
The Ghost Brigades is a science fiction novel by American writer John Scalzi, the second book set in his Old Man's War universe.
The Rising Shore - Roanoke is a novel about The Lost Colony of Roanoke Island by Deborah Homsher. The novel tells the story of two women who sailed from London to the shore of the Virginia wilderness in 1587. Elenor White Dare is daughter of the expedition's leader and mother of Virginia Dare, the first English child born on the American continent. Freshly married and newly pregnant when she boards the ship, Elenor longs to explore and paint pictures of the New World, as her father has done, but her dreams are frustrated by her status as John White's daughter - not his son. Margaret Lawrence, her bold young servant, blazes her own path to independence as a member of the struggling colony that settles on Roanoke Island.
The Last Colony is a science fiction novel by American writer John Scalzi, the third set in his Old Man's War universe. It was nominated for a 2008 Hugo Award in the Best Novel category.
Jamestown, also Jamestowne, was the first settlement of the Virginia Colony, founded in 1607, and served as the capital of Virginia until 1699, when the seat of government was moved to Williamsburg. This article covers the history of the fort and town at Jamestown proper, as well as colony-wide trends resulting from and affecting the town during the time period in which it was the colonial capital of Virginia.
The Raid on St. Augustine was a military event during the Anglo-Spanish War in which the Spanish settlement of St. Augustine in Florida ) was captured in a small fight and burnt by an English expedition fleet led by Sir Francis Drake. This was part of Sir Francis Drake's Great Expedition and was his last engagement on the Spanish Main before Drake headed north for the Roanoke Colony. The expedition also forced the Spanish to abandon any settlements and forts in present-day South Carolina.
The End of All Things is a science fiction novel by American writer John Scalzi, the sixth book set in the Old Man's War universe.
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