The Shattering Peace
{4.5/5} “‘The Conclave citizens have some latent bigotries to work out.’ ‘They don’t like humans?’ ‘No one likes humans,’ Ran said. ‘This is well-known.'”
The Shattering Peace by John Scalzi, published in 2025
Humans and aliens are at peace. But part of the deal between Earth, the Colonial Union, and the Conclave was that there would be no colonization — temporarily, of course. A secret test named Unity was put together on a space station where humans and aliens could mix. Now Unity has disappeared and Gretchen Trujillo will be on the mission to find out what happened.
This is the first novel in the Old Man’s War series in 10 years. It’s a sequel to The End of All Things. You don’t have to have read the other novels recently to enjoy this one.
It’s about talking to aliens who are much smarter than you but don’t want to answer all your questions. The solution is clever.
I love how Gretchen handles the people she runs into who are a bit arrogant.
I’ve read all 19 of Scalzi’s novels plus one collection. I previously reviewed When the Moon Hits Your Eye.