ARC Review: The Shattering Peace by John Scalzi

The Shattering Peace
Author: John Scalzi
Series: Old Man's War (Book 7)
Publication: Tor Books (September 16, 2025)

Description: After a decade, acclaimed science fiction master John Scalzi returns to the galaxy of the Old Man's War series with the long awaited seventh book, The Shattering Peace

THE PEACE IS SHATTERING

For a decade, peace has reigned in interstellar space. A tripartite agreement between the Colonial Union, the Earth, and the alien Conclave has kept the forces of war at bay, even when some would have preferred to return to the fighting and struggle of former times. For now, more sensible heads have prevailed – and have even championed unity.

But now, there is a new force that threatens the hard-maintained peace: The Consu, the most advanced intelligent species humans have ever met, are on the cusp of a species-defining civil war. This war is between Consu factions... but nothing the Consu ever do is just about them. The Colonial Union, the Earth and the Conclave have been unwillingly dragged into the conflict, in the most surprising of ways.

Gretchen Trujillo is a mid-level diplomat, working in an unimportant part of the Colonial Union bureaucracy. But when she is called to take part in a secret mission involving representatives from every powerful faction in space, what she finds there has the chance to redefine the destinies of humans and aliens alike... or destroy them forever.

My Thoughts: This science fiction story is the seventh book in the Old Man's War series. Ten years have passed since the events of the previous book (and in real life too.) Gretchen Trujillo is a mid-level diplomat working in the Colonial Union bureaucracy. She's the expert on the Obin - one of many alien races humans have met in their journeys to expand into space. Her father is a higher-level diplomat.

When Gretchen's father gives her the assignment of trying to determine what happened to Unity Colony - a hollowed-out asteroid circling a planet the Obin had intended to colonize. The existence of Unity Colony comes as a surprise to Gretchen since one of the conditions of the tripartite agreement which ended the war was that there was a moratorium on founding new colonies. 

Unity Colony was intended as a test case to see if citizens of the Colonial Union, the Conclave and Earth could live together peacefully in a single environment. Now the colony has disappeared, and the Colonial Union wants to know why. Gretchen's father was instrumental in the formation of the colony and one of her oldest friends is among the colonists. 

An expedition is formed to find out what happened to the colony. When they arrive at the site where it was supposed to be, the colony is gone with no evidence of where it could be. What is there is a prism containing a single Consu. The Consu are a very superior sort of alien immeasurably advanced compared to all the other species. They have a nasty habit of messing with other species to further their goal of "perfecting" all species. They also rarely condescend to speak to other species, but this one that Gretchen names Kitty does speak to her and has a task for her. After which, he will tell her what happened to the colony. 

Gretchen soon learns that the Consu are facing a civil war in which one faction wants to destroy the colony and Earth to "perfect" humans. The runaway Consu has developed a new kind of physics of spaceflight which could make the Consu even more powerful and dangerous to humans and aliens. It is up to Gretchen to out-think the aliens, save the colony, and save all the aliens from Consu interference. 

This was an engaging space opera with a great main character. Gretchen is smart and mean and tricky enough to win over the dreaded Consu. I think it works well as a story whether or not you have read the previous six books in the Old Man's War series. I enjoyed the story despite my reservations about the efficacy of Gretchen's final solution.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.