The Old Man’s War Universe Is Back With Two Free John Scalzi Short Stories

By David Wharton | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

HumanWe have an uneven love for Hugo-nominated science fiction author John Scalzi here at GFR. I love love love Scalzi’s Old Man’s War, and would easily classify it as one of the best science fiction novels I’ve ever read. However, publisher Josh Tyler was not a fan of one of Scalzi’s most recent works, the amusingly titled Redshirts. But while Redshirts may have left a bad taste in the boss’ mouth, Scalzi has recently returned to the Old Man’s War universe with a serialized e-book entitled The Human Division, which was collected and released as a whole a few weeks back. Now Tor.com has some extra goodies for Scalzi fans: two new Human Division short stories you can download for free.

You’ll have to sign up for a Tor.com registration, but once that’s out of the way you’ll be able to download “After the Coup” and the uniquely titled “Halfte Sorvalh Eats a Churro and Speaks to the Youth of Today.” They’ve got it available in several formats, including PDF, .epub, and .mobi.

The Human Division follows up on the events of The Last Colony, which was itself the third volume of Scalzi’s Old Man’s War saga. You can pick up the hardcover right here, and check out a synopsis for The Human Division below. And while we’re at it, you should totally be reading Scalzi’s blog.

The people of Earth now know that the human Colonial Union has kept them ignorant of the dangerous universe around them. For generations the CU had defended humanity against hostile aliens, deliberately keeping Earth an ignorant backwater and a source of military recruits. Now the CU’s secrets are known to all. Other alien races have come on the scene and formed a new alliance—an alliance against the Colonial Union. And they’ve invited the people of Earth to join them. For a shaken and betrayed Earth, the choice isn’t obvious or easy.

Against such possibilities, managing the survival of the Colonial Union won’t be easy, either. It will take diplomatic finesse, political cunning…and a brilliant “B Team,” centered on the resourceful Lieutenant Harry Wilson, that can be deployed to deal with the unpredictable and unexpected things the universe throws at you when you’re struggling to preserve the unity of the human race.

Being published online from January to April 2013 as a three-month digital serial, The Human Division will appear as a full-length novel of the Old Man’s War universe, plus—for the first time in print—the first tale of Lieutenant Harry Wilson, and a coda that wasn’t part of the digital serialization.