The Sagan Diary

I have thoroughly enjoyed John Scalzi's novels based upon the geriatric warriors of his OLD MAN'S WAR. I did not enjoy this shorter entry.

It purports to be the diaries of Jane Sagan, the Special Forces soldier and love interest of the primary character of the series. It is a self reflective piece examining such issues as the meaning of life and the morality of killing. It is a series of memories. To make much sense of this work, one would need to be familiar with the other books.

I can see how this might have been useful as an internal work to flesh out the character of Jane Sagan for the novels but as a stand alone work for the reader of those novel, it is boring.

Some may like this book. I did not.

Priced like a fully written popular novel, this contrived book should have been a 99 cent pamphlet.

Scalzi is a great writer, but make sure you know what his next offerring really is before spending money on him.

The book is emotional tripe without clear context. You need a better memory than mine to match the emotional ramblings to the events in the Old Man's War series.

This is NOT a novella. It is a maundering series of philosophical essays and/or reflections written from the viewpoint of Jane Sagan, a character who was "born" full-grown and filled with programmed knowledge, to be a soldier in the Colonial Special Forces. Some of it is interesting, some of it is even moving, but there is no STORY here, no series of events developing and resolving dramatic tension. No dramatic tension here, at all. This is a show-off literary stunt, not a story. This is the kind of thing a writer might do for his own benefit, to develop psychological insight into a character he's inventing who is not conventionally human. Most writers have the good sense to keep such notes to themselves, and just work bits and pieces into their stories as needed. Scalzi evidently lacks it. Sad to say, most of it is pretty boring, and I am thankful it wasn't longer -- I wouldn't have stuck out another ten pages.
If you've read and loved the earlier novels in the Old Man's War series, as I have, you must be sorely tempted to read this volume to get just one more Scalzi fix. That's how it was for me -- my mistake.

The Sagan Diary is Scalzi's stab at psychological realism. It is unclear if he is attempting literature or pastiching New Wave SF of the 60s, a period known for its introduction of high literary techniques into the ghetto genre. Or he could be anticipating sci-fi/literature like Jennifer Egan's "Black Box" from "The New Yorker"'s Science Fiction Issue of 2012. If I had to guess I would search Harlan Ellison's "Dangerous Visions" and "Again Dangerous Visions" anthologies for Scalzi's inspiration.

But what we do know is the author gives us a beautiful love story entwined with an individual's quest for freedom and humanity. It covers the power of communication, the inhumanity of war, the camaraderie of warriors, and the nature of sex, desire, love, commitment, and sacrifice in a universe without moral guidelines. In this sense it is a parable on our own Postmodernity.

I hope you will enjoy your foray into the mind of Lt. Jane Sagan, a veteran of a thousand psychic wars and a woman torn between realities.

Special Forces Lieutenant Jane Sagan played a pivotal role in Scalzi's Old Man's War universe. As a Special Forces officer, her job was to eliminate the bad guy in the most efficient way possible...but as John Perry's love interest, she played a key part in shaping the events in the series. Now in The Sagan Diary, we get an inner look at her most personal thoughts. What is like for a synthesized human being -- borrowed DNA and crafted personality -- to live in a world where she was built only to kill? What is like to realize that, despite being brought into the world as a weapon of precision and efficiency, that she could be something more? What is it like set aside who you were designed to be and begin to fall in love, to begin to want more than what you were programmed to do?

The Sagan Diary takes us -- literally -- into Jane Sagan's head. It shows us the thoughts of a thinking, evolving human being. The biggest disappointment about this brief examination of a unique mind is that it was too brief, too short for us to fully explore all the facets of a character whose life is really worth reading about. This all-too-abbreviated parenthetical exercise is definitely a fine addition to the Old Man's War universe...and is certainly recommended for all its fans. But be warned, these same fans are going to be left wanting a lot more.

Sagan spends the whole book contemplating her navel. It's not just introspection, it's boring introspection. I listened to the audiobook, and this is the first book I've listened to at 2x speed. I kept hoping something would happen, but it did not.

I will grant that the author wanted a departure from the action of the prior two books in the Old Man's War series, and if it were well done that would be fine. Sagan writes a love letter to the protagonist of book one explaining all she is giving up to be with him.

The problem is that I don't think Sagan is the horrible poet she is made to be. The book is full of poor verse. It does not advance the story, and ultimately is a disservice to the character.

I found Jane Sagan one of the most interesting characters in all of John Scalzi's Old Man's War worlds, and this feels like and is probably intended to feel like her own personal insight into what she saw, and what she did while her and John were separated, and off doing their own thing in the colonial army. Jane is a "Ghost Brigade" soldier, in other words she does not really exist, as she is made from the DNA of John's wife, who died before she was able to join the Colonial army. I don't think that the book was meant to be anything other than what it is. And if you take it for what it is, you will end up enjoying it. If you have ever wondered what it would be like to wake up in an adults body, self aware, with the ability to learn anything you needed to know when you needed to know it, the perspective is what you will find here.

I found it enjoyable, but it is not the rollicking science fiction that you will find in the rest of the old man's war series. This is more insightful into character development, and allows you to "peek under the hood" of Jane. That is what makes it interesting, and fodder for other writers, if you want to learn about character development, then this is also a great book to get. No it is not a story, it reads like a blog, much like the whatever blog that John writes on as well. Overall interesting and an interesting character study of one of his most interesting characters. It would be interesting to see something like this for John along the way; it would be really interesting to see what he is really thinking when he is talking during Old Man's war about stomping on an intelligent race that is 2 inches tall.

A quick read which helps give depth to the Character of Jane Sagan. As the author admits in his preface it’s a bit of a departure from the other books in the series which have a lot of action this takes place in Jane’s head and gives a new look at the life of a CDF special forces soldier. It’s some excellent writing and gives the reader a new appreciation for the side of characters that we don’t necessarily see on the pages.

This is something you would not expect from Scalzi. It's an introspective and very personal review of attitudes and self image of Jane Sagen of the CDF. If you don't know who Jane Sagen is or the CDF, don't read this first. Get Old Mans War and Last Colony. You won't be disappointed in either, but you will not get that same go-to-hell fun read out of this. You WILL get the perspective of Jane, as she faces integration into the real born world and her feelings towards her future. It's awesome and touching, poetic and lyrical, and utterly unfathomable if you are not familiar with the people and the world Scalzi has created. Awesome and there aren't enough stars for it.

As you read through that other reviews here, you'll note, (as I did) that almost all the negative opinions are based on people not getting _what they thought_ they were getting. But hedging my bets, I got it from the library first. And then I immediately bought it.

So, let's cut to the chase. It's a diary of Jane Sagan, it's 100 pages (small) with illustrations, and it's written like a diary.

That's a really, really good thing.

In the Sagan's words, you feel the influences of the Herbert's Dune, Valerie's Letter from Moore's V for Vendetta and other works. She speaks with a voice that is uniquely hers, human, but not quite as we understand it, and with the problems and fears that being other-human brings to the table. It's a must-read primer for really understanding Sagan in The Last Colony.

If you're an Old Man's War universe fan, and you're into the characters, go get it. You won't be sorry you did.

Who knows, it might matter even more after Zoe's Tale?

This is perhaps closer to being a prose poem rather than a story. It's the inner thoughts and ruminations of Jane Sagan as she prepares to transfer to a `normal' human body and give up her life in the Colonial Defense forces. As such, this story falls in-between The Ghost Brigades and the forth-coming Last Colony novels, and to truly understand some of the sub-text of this, Old Man's War and the Ghost Brigades really should be read before this, although it's certainly possible to read this in isolation.

But this work is certainly an adventure in style, written in first person, and very, very different from the earlier works set in this universe. There are some sentences and whole paragraphs that can take your breath away for how neatly they are constructed and how well they capture emotions twined about some very deep philosophical ruminations about killing, death, fear, love (especially love), war, and the isolation of one human from another. As you proceed through this, Jane's character blossoms, becomes far more richly detailed than the brief glimpses we have been given in the earlier works. But there is little real story here, not much in the way of plot or action, so at most this can only qualify as a `character' piece, which some may find disappointing, given John's previous rather action-packed works. Still, there are more than enough issues raised here to keep you thinking long after you finish reading this, no small feat for such a short work.

As a piece that adds richness to his universe, this work is excellent. But it only fills in a very small piece of his story, and should not be expected to do more.

---Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

A fascinating and inspired bit of fiction, perfectly aligned with the Old Man's War universe. Interestingly, I enjoyed this short story more in reflection than I did in consumption. Not entirely sure why. But for anyone who has read the first two outstanding series novels (Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades), I highly recommend it.

What an absolute disappointment. Each successive book in the series has gotten worse.

The Sagan Diary is total garbage. As another user wrote

"A Non Stop Stream of Literary Diarhea"

Please allow me to add my humble and heartfelt

+1

I just heard that the publisher is making the full-text online for free, which is great news since this is such a love-it-or-hate-it book for a lot of readers.

Personally, I'm thankful that I got it from the library before spending my money, altough normally I'm perfectly comfortable "taking a chance" on books by authors whose other work I like. But this... well, to me it felt like pure stream-of-consciousness, literary diarrhea (sorry, I know that's unkind) with little to no editing on either the author or publisher's part. Of course, I don't know that was the case, but that's how the book felt to me. I really have trouble believing this particular manuscript, or this type of writing in general, would have had much chance of being published if it weren't capitalizing on the success of the first two "Old Man's War" books.

The free online version will let people make informed decisions for themselves without risking their money. I applaud the publisher and the author for taking that step!

If you are expecting more blazing guns and alien fights, this isn't the book for you. If you are really interested in the characters Scalzi created, and if you are really interested in their motivations and thoughts, buy this book. It fills in some gaps and provides a very cool different perspective on some things from the Old Man's War universe. I liked the other more action-centered books better, but this definitely was fun to read and see some "behind the scenes" stuff.

Entries from the diaries of Jane Sagan giving her viewpoint on some of the events of Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades. This is not really a story, just a meditation on various aspects of life that are loosely linked together by the chronology of the Old Man's War series. I guess it is supposed to provide some deep insights, but to me it was just pretentious, dull meanderings that loses the entertaining aspects of the novels in the series.

The premise and style of the book are very interesting and I applaud John for his creativity and ability to write from a feminine perspective (See John's blog 'The Whatever.' He has a post up to a web page that analyzed the prose and determined the author was a woman.)

Overall I found this book a bit of a chore. By chapter 4, I was bored, wondering where the amorphous narrative was going, and slogging through the rest was unappetizing at best.

I heartily recommend John Scalzi's other SciFi works, but not this one.

The Sagan Diary begins with a tech type whingeing about how the specially grown Special Forces types aren't really allowing full access to their brainpal records when they change to new bodies for settlement.

It then changes to Jane reminiscing, somewhat lyrically at times about stages and times in her life before she undergoes a body swap to go and settle on a planet.

The audio version is read by several different women, some sf writers.

The Sagan Diary -- life from the perspective of Jane Sagan -- is not what you would expect after reading Old Man's War, The Ghost Brigades, or even The Last Colony. It's much more impressionistic, and offers only snapshots of Sagan's experiences. Buy it if you want the complete Scalzi collection, but don't expect it to add much more plot or detail to the series. It's not bad, just different. I'd rate it above two stars, but not quite three.