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The Shattering Peace

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Part of Old Man’s War

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Pub Date 18 Sep 2025 | Archive Date 18 Sep 2025


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Description

Peace is an illusion . . .


After a decade, acclaimed Hugo Award winner and science fiction master John Scalzi returns to the Old Man’s War series with the long-awaited seventh book, The Shattering Peace.

For a decade, peace has reigned in interstellar space due to agreements between the Colonial Union, Earth and the alien Conclave. But now the most advanced, intelligent species humans have ever met is on the cusp of a species-defining war. Nothing the Consu does, however, is just about them. The Colonial Union, Earth and the Conclave have been unwillingly dragged into their conflict, and in the most surprising of ways.

Gretchen Trujillo is a mid-level bureaucrat in a mundane job within the Colonial Union’s State Department. Until, that is, she’s called to take part in a secret mission that will involve representatives from every powerful faction in space. What she discovers could redefine the destinies of humans and aliens alike . . . or destroy every one of them.

Praise for John Scalzi:

‘I haven’t enjoyed science fiction this much in years’ – Christopher Paolini, author of Fractal Noise

‘Fast action, vivid characters, moral complexity and cool speculative physics’ – Ken MacLeod, author of the Lightspeed Trilogy

‘The most entertaining, accessible writer working in SF today’ – Joe Hill, author of The Fireman

Peace is an illusion . . .


After a decade, acclaimed Hugo Award winner and science fiction master John Scalzi returns to the Old Man’s War series with the long-awaited seventh book, The Shattering...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781529082937
PRICE £22.00 (GBP)
PAGES 288

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Average rating from 17 members


Featured Reviews

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I was tempted to keep this review very short:’It’s Scalzi - read it!’
But as I was given it as an ARC from NetGalley, I thought they might want a wee bit more than that.
We return to the universe of Old Man’s War….a lot of years have passed, humans and all the various alien nations that make up the conclave are…not friends, exactly, but at peace.
Gretchen Trujillo is the Colonial Union’s expert on the Obin. Ran is her Obin assistant.They are sent on a mission which….who would have thought it?- goes pear-shaped. The fate of billions of people is in their hands. And the situation seems impossible to fix.
This is not a ‘deep and meaningful’ piece of literary sci-Fi. It is an entertaining space romp.
I liked Gretchen. She’s a smart ass, but a very smart smart ass, and a bit of a bad ass too. I loved Ran. It felt to me like a cross between C3PO and Commander Data. And Pinocchio, for some reason! The dialogue between them is hilarious.
I always enjoy Scalzi’s books; his main characters tend to be a bit similar: wise-cracking, insouciant and slightly irritating to those around them, but they are nome the worse for that. I’m hoping there’s more to come from this series in the future.

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