Storyline: 2/5 
 Characters: 2/5 
 Writing Style: 2/5 
 World: 2/5 
 Ever heard of 'monologuing'? The thing where the captured hero escapes death by getting the villain to talk just long enough to break free? Thank you, Mr. Scalzi, for that line; it provides a way to frame my review. For, you see, the entire book felt like an exercise in "monologuing." In this case, however, we needed our author (the villain in my analogy) to type just long enough (as he strained to meet novel-length specifications), and then we readers could break free (I'll refrain, here, from slipping into a course of "Free at Last, Free at Last!"). I suppose in some way all authors are engaged in the artifice - building up mysteries just so they can be resolved, capturing heroes so that they can escape. The difference here was that the artifice was so visible; there didn't seem to be any motivation or excitement behind the story. It was if Scalzi himself had tired of the series, and was simply going through the motions to see us to its end. 
 It is not that the book was that bad or that much worse than the last two in the series. It simply became clear here that there was not going to be razzle or dazzle and that Old Man's War was not going to go out with a bang. Scalzi wasn't going to follow-up on the more promising ideas in the series concerning the human genome, over-reliance on technology, or hegemony. It was the realization that the tale had peaked with the first book, put on a good show for the second, and petered out thereafter. I wouldn't have felt aggrieved or at all slighted had about half of this book been simply tacked on to the end of the last one (or had half of the last one been cut to make room for this one). I think Scalzi's efforts must have been directed more to the publishing format. I didn't read the "novellas" as they were released from the publisher, so I can't say if the format was rewarding for the reader. As a novel, however, it was an inferior production. The "parts" of the book did not cohere or work together for a greater purpose, and the unsubtle recaps for followers who had missed an episode were insulting to and inconsiderate of readers who were taking it as a single volume. I'll read Scalzi again, but I'm relieved that the end of all things has come (and gone).