A Downside of Proportion: The Human Division, Episode 11

some weak physics, but a good yarn
Scalzi is still one of the best hard science fiction writers out there, in the tradition of Heinlein and Haldeman.But The Human Division #11: A Problem of Proportion seems to have some physics errors. (1) Matching “tumble” with a tumbling hulk requires constant centripetal (and therefore varying) acceleration, unless you approach along the axis of rotation (think of the PanAm docking sequence from 2001 Space Odyssey). (2) “Inside, the tumble was enough to stick Wilson … to the bulkheads at crazy angles….” No. The angle will always be (essentially) perpendicular to the axis of rotation. And they will not “stick” to anything unless they grab some part of the interior structure and climb down to the “deck” (In this case, presumably the outer shell, although not necessarily). This will transfer some of the tumbling hulk’s angular momentum to them (in turn, altering the angular momentum of the new tumbling aggregation, but the difference in mass is enough that this can be ignored for plot purposes). In any case, once they have climbed down, “down” will always be away from the axis of rotation, of which the hulk can have only one (in four-space) without constant acceleration applied. (Anyone who thinks I have this wrong, let’s talk.)John, should consider a physics fact checker before he lets these things out, unless I’m dead wrong. Many of his inventions are brilliant. The BrainPal and SmartBlood, for instance, make complete sense, not to mention the revived green Colonial troops themselves; I have never seen a better solution to the death-at-termination of original body problem).My initial reaction was overly harsh. At worst, some physics problems, but regardless, a good yarn.

Coming Down The Stretch
The crew of the diplomatic ship Clarke picks up another clue in the eleventh episode of Scalzi’s new Old Man’s War novel.Someone is taking old CDU vessels, those disarmed and sold for civilian use. Some think it’s The Conclave. when the ship comes out of skip for a clandestine mission with the other side, it’s to find two ships firing on each other: a Conclave warship and a diplomatic ship. The diplomatic ship fires on the Clarke as well.The warship destroys the missiles, disables the diplomatic ship, and offers to surrender to the Clarke.They both learn each his had ships disappear and maybe think it was the other side responsible. When, together they explore the disabled ship, they begin to learn what is really going on.Coming down the stretch now with only two more episodes.

I enjoyed reading this
I enjoyed this section of The Human Division. The reason I rated this 4 stars is because of the price, compared to length.Basically if all of these chapters had been combined into one boot in the traditional way, it would have been a short novel, priced around $8 to $10. Instead at a dollar per chapter, the price comes out a bit higher. I can’t say that I haven’t enjoyed reading them, and I don’t feel ripped off, but the length compared to price is a bit off.I like what John Scalzi is doing here, but I hope if he tries this again we get a bit more bang for the buck. All that said, I don’t regret the buy at all. If you’re a Scalzi fan, or a fan of The Old Man’s War, you should absolutely but this collection.

Not a fan of the weekly release format.
I believe the weekly release forced Scalzi to make the sections more able to stand on their own. He did accomplish this, but to the detriment of the book as a whole. I found Human Division nowhere near as engaging as some of his other works. Old Man’s War for example was fantastic and what motivated me to read several of his other books. If this is your first sample of of his writing I would encourage you to give him another chance, this is not the best example.

Ein weiteres Kapitel mit Ltd. Wilson, dem technischen Berater des Diplomaten Kreuzers für die unmöglichen Missionen. Ein Treffen zwischen den beiden großen Kontrahenten, der Colonial Union und der Conclave endet beinahe schon zu Beginn für beide Seiten tödlich. Wilson kommt wieder bei der Aufklärung der Umstände zu Zuge, einige Handlungsstränge laufen zusammen, es kommt zu einer Zusammenarbeit zwischen den CU und der Conclave und am Schluss bleibt ein Rätsel offen.Der Roman umfasst brutto 46 Seiten und fügt sich gut in den Verlauf der Handlung ein.Nach zwei Kapitel bis zum Ende.

Be warned, they are a sequenedseriesofshort stories making a novel, they don’t work standalone really.Some ofnthe chapters feel a little short, but they are all classic scalzi