The Human Division – eighth week

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen ! Bonsoir Mesdammes et Messieurs ! This is the captain speaking. Welcome back on board I.S.S. Rover ! It’s 17 °C out there, with some clouds and rain hanging in the air, and virtually no wind. Do I hear the question: “Is it sunday already ?” Yes, it is. And that means one thing: a new instalment of the Human Division reading project. Strap in, today’s ride might be a bit rough. We are visiting the colony Zhong Guo, and things are not that peaceful all the time. But first the usual introductory words of mine.

Last year John Scalzi’s The Human Division was published as a kind of a serialized novel, totaling thirteen chapters that were released in a weekly fashion from 15th january to 9th april. And I am trying to recreate this experience by reading the book in the same tempo: one chapter a week. I am curious how this works out, how does the story and the reading experience evolve, as in case of earlier Scalzi novels I couldn’t stop reading, I finished the books almost in one sitting, running from cover to cover in less then twenty-four hours. If you haven’t read the previous installments of the series, you can find the links to them at the bottom of this post.

March 05, 2013.

So let’s see what do we have this week. It’s the eighth episode ( as it is to be expected, after all last week it was the seventh ), originally released on march 05, 2013, bearing the title: The Sound of Rebellion. I like the connotation of this title: rebellion means trouble, and that coupled with CDF is promising some action; I mean some violent, gory type of action, including shooting and breaking bones, maybe even blowing up stuff. But let me look at the cover art for this chapter first. After last week’s crimson we have a brown background color, it’s kind of an announcement that we are descending down to the ground, right into something muddy. And well, a rebellion is always a messy business. But back to the cover art. We have a group of buildings what seems to me to be a residential area, there is an armored vehicle firing off a shot to somewhere, armed men are standing, running, taking cover etc. So yeah, I usual picture you remember from news at eight. Standard urban warfare picture, with smoke and dirt, just so that you know that things are not really normal around here. I like this composition. The paintings used for covers of previous chapters all had a sense of abandonment, they were kind of empty, alien, like the void of the cold outer space. And yet now there is something I can relate to: an urban area, an “every day” situation I know of, and strikes all the right chords. My favourite cover of the series to date. And now, the usual blurb from John Scalzi himself:

The Colonial Defense Forces usually protect humanity from alien attack, but now the stability of the Colonial Union has been threatened, and Lieutenant Heather Lee and her squad are called to squash a rebellion on a colony world. It seems simple enough—but there’s a second act to the rebellion that finds Lee captive, alone, and armed with only her brains to survive.

After last weeks episode with it’s disappointing sci-fi slapstick comedy show, we are back to the good old Old man’s War. Today’s protagonist is lieutenant Heather Lee, and first I was at a loss, I couldn’t remember where have I read that name earlier. Was it in this book, or should I remember her from one of the previous novels ? It wasn’t till after I reviewed my notes, that I remembered I met her in the third episode: We only need the Heads, the episode that reminded me of the mood, the humor of the first two books in this series:  ” where old men in young bodies muse about life and wonders of a wast and alien universe  “. She was Harry Wilson’s guide then, and now she will guide us, as more of the background puzzle’s pieces are revealed.

If examined separately, this is a straightforward action flick, something you would see in a Hollywood blockbuster, and it does it’s job: it is fun, well paced and having an inventive choreography. Scalzi never missed a mark till now with such scenes. What I like most is his sense for innovation, how inventively he uses the devices he introduced. Here we see (yet again, for the long time readers of  Old man’s War series ) the creative use of smart blood – the liquid that is replacing the human blood in CDF soldiers due to it’s superb oxygen-handling capabilities, not to mention the programmable nanobots it contains – and the built in computer, the brain pal. Heather used the brain pal’s computational capacity to map the room in which she was held captive via sound waves. She used her own voice ( talking, singing, humming ) and listened with her improved ears, and then the brain pal drew up the map of the room, and what it contained, just like a bat does with it’s infra sound emitting navigational system. Just how cool is that ?! This makes up somewhat for last weeks disappointment, though there was also a display of creative use for smart blood, not contained in the manual. As for what was the exact way she used, that I will not detail now, why spoil everything ? Go and read the book !

And now for the aforementioned puzzle pieces. We are past the half of the story chapter wise. This was the eighth episode out of thirteen ( plus two in the printed edition ). The setting of the stage was finished I would say at the end of the fourth chapter. We had series of events where a mysterious organisation is thwarting the CU’s efforts in shifting it’s policy. An embarrassment after embarrassment. It’s a miracle there’s no open warfare with any of the alien races. But let me jump back to that mysterious group. I mentioned earlier that the way they operate suggests that it’s rooted in of Earth’s ancient secretive organisations like the: Freemasons, Majestic 12, Illuminati, Bilderberg Group etc. Here in this chapter we have what at first seems like a local rebellion on a CU planet. But then  three CDF soldiers get captured, which is no simple task for unaugmented humans. As it turns out they were drugged, which should be impossible, but it was a synthetic drug designed with smart blood in mind. So there is a question who is capable to design such a thing ? Who has the resources ? Who has the knowledge ? And don’t we all know a secretive organisation that is adept at diversions ? Oh, yes the Ghost Brigades, the special ops of the CDF. They research all kind of things. They are responsible for the technologies that the CDF deploys to enhance their soldiers, and also the members of the Ghost Brigades are the test specimens of the experimental technologies. So this would imply their involvement in the development of the aforementioned drug.

But ! There is always a but ( some butts are nice, some are ugly ). The captors have asked questions pertaining the deployment and composition of CDF forces. If it’s the Ghost Brigades, they wouldn’t ask such questions, they have practically direct access to all CDF data. It doesn’t make sense for them to ask such questions. But if the ones who have acted in shadows till now are not part of the CU establishment, and have lost their pipeline to the CU and CDF information due to the consequences of the witch hunt colonel Egan and Rigney have conducted and of which was part the event we read about in episode six, then it makes sense. Of course this doesn’t mean that the leaders of the special ops ain’t conspiring against the CU leadership, but again they are not bent on destroying the CU. And the rebels of the Zhong Guo did seem to want to step out of the CU, and were a bit more organised, than the usual local discontent. And they were also asking about rebellions on other worlds. Does this mean that the secretive organisation is in disarray, that their communication lines have been disrupted ? Awwww, questions ! Their numbers are rising, but the answers are still missing.  Five more weeks till I get some. And six till I get some more. Scalzi, you gonna get rich, that I tell ya !

And that would be it for today. I enjoyed today’s episode, and I certainly like where the whole thing is headed, or at least where I think it is headed.Although there are moments when i doubt Scalzi’s skills, there are more moments when I just marvel, and get surprised in a positive way. And that will probably make me return to his fiction for a long time. And now off to watch or read something, or maybe play something. See you next week !

Ladies and gentlemen, Mesdammes et Messieurs ! Shortly we are arriving back to Earth ! The landing might be a bit rough, as the weather forecasts announced the arrival of a storm at our landing site. Please stay seated, and strapped in during the landing. I hope you enjoyed this weeks excursion also, and am looking forward to your return. Captain of I. S. S. Rover over and out !

                                                                                        

Week  one – The B-Team

Week two – Walk the plank

Week three – We only need the heads

Week four – A voice in the wilderness

Week five – Tales from the Clarke

Week six – The back channel

Week seven – The Dog King