A little "Dune", a little "Game of Thrones", a little "Leviathan Wakes", with the rest being pure Scalzi himself. It's a great read, like his others. Not one you want to put down. Add to that the fact that's it fun to be starting a new saga. And the best part is that Scalzi's created one of his best characters to date in Kiva Lagos (mostly because she swears a lot). And that's saying something because Scalzi is not known for character-driven plots.

Like the last two Old Man's War books, this story takes place with a high scope. A forty-thousand foot view. This is not like "Zoe's Tale" or "The Ghost Brigades" where you knew one character intimately. And like the last two "Old Man's War" books, the story stays focused on politics and governmental milieu (although it's not a political thriller).

One negative is that it seemed the good guys win their obstacles a little easy. Like someone grabs the gun from Chekhov's mantle, but the security manager saw him bring in bullets, and they knew who was going to do it, so they replaced the gun with one of those bang flag things. Challenges were nipped in the bud right away so that the goal became how to make it so no one noticed they nipped the bud while finding out who grew the flower.

If you're not familiar with Scalzi's stuff, then this is a good jumping in point. It's closest to "Lock-In" for style and "The End of All Things" for content.