John Scalzi got his start in a rather unusual way. He wrote his first book, Agent to the Stars, and published it on his website. All he asked was for a small donation from anyone who enjoyed it. It didn’t make a lot of money, only about $4,000 over five years, but gained enough of a following for Subterranean Press to release a limited edition.
His first traditionally published novel, Old Man’s War, was written as serialized fiction, publishing a chapter a day starting in December 2002. This time he garnered the attention of Tor’s senior editor, who bought and published the novel in 2005. That novel ended up becoming a finalist for Best Novel in the 2006 Hugo Awards.
Ever since, he’s published a steady stream of novels spanning science fiction and fantasy. He’s been nominated and won multiple awards for his work, including Hugo Awards, Locus Awards, and more. Here are six novels by John Scalzi, including a classic he wrote a forward for, to get you started on exploring more of his work.
Old Man's War
On his 75th birthday, after visiting his wife’s grave, John Perry joined the army. All he has to do is survive two years in the Colonial Defense Force, protecting the planet’s Earth has claimed as part of its interstellar expansion. If he lives, he’ll get a generous homestead of his own, far away from Earth. The CDF doesn’t want the young. They want the knowledgeable and the skilled. John Perry thinks he knows what to expect. He has no idea.
Redshirts
The Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid has been the flagship of the Universal Union since 2456. When Ensign Andrew Dahl is assigned to the Intrepid, he’s elated. But after a few missions, he starts to notice some patterns. Like every time they go on one, they end up in a lethal fight with aliens. And three people, the Captain, chief science officer, and Lieutenant Kerensky always survive. And most importantly, at least one low-ranking crew member always dies.
But when Andrew stumbles on information that reveals exactly what the Intrepid is and how it works, he realizes that there might be a way to save all the lower-ranking crew once and for all.
Starter Villain
Charlie isn’t exactly living his best life. He’s divorced. He lives in a house his siblings are pressuring him to sell. And the bank won’t approve the loan he needs to open a pub downtown. But everything changes when his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves Charlie his supervillain business.
It all sounds great, especially the secret lair in the island volcano, until Jake’s enemies come after Charlie. Jake may have been a villain, but his enemies are worse: venture capitalists and soulless corporations.
Now, it’s up to Charlie to fight the war his uncle started. Or die trying.
The Kaiju Preservation Society
Life for Jamie Gray is pretty bleak. Ever since COVID-19 swept through New York City, he’s been stuck as a food delivery driver in a dead-end job. When one of his stops brings him back in contact with an old acquaintance, he’s offered the chance to shake things up. Tom works at an animal rights organization and they need a last-minute grunt for their next field visit.
What Tom doesn’t tell him is that the animals aren’t exactly from Earth. They’re from a different Earth where the universe’s largest and most dangerous panda is in trouble. Because Tom and his organization aren’t the only ones who know about this world. And their actions are threatening not just the creatures in that world, but on Earth too.
Lock In: A Novel of the Near Future
When a new virus rampages the globe, most people experience symptoms that are a little more than the flu. But for some, the unlucky one percent, almost five million people in the US alone, they end up "locked in." They’re awake and aware, but they can’t move.
Twenty-five years later, rookie FBI agent Chris Shane and veteran agent Leslie Vann are investigating a murder. The main suspect is an integrator, someone who lets the infected use their body for a short period of time. As Shane and Vann go deeper into the worlds of the locked in, they realize life for the afflicted is changing. And it’s nothing like they expected.
The Collapsing Empire
Once humanity discovered The Flow, an extra-dimensional field that allows access to certain points in the space-time continuum that makes travel to distant worlds possible. The further we travel from Earth, the more we forget, especially as we constantly look forward to build new empires.
But when The Flow starts moving, possibly cutting all the human worlds off from light travel forever, three people find themselves in a race against time to figure out why it’s moving and if there’s anything they can do to stop it.
Featured image: John Scalzi / Instagram
