Walk the Plank

The Human Division, Episode 2

By: John Scalzi

Narrated by: William Dufris

Length: 39 mins

Publisher's summary

Wildcat colonies are illegal, unauthorized, and secret - so when an injured stranger shows up at the wildcat colony New Seattle, the colony leaders are understandably suspicious of who he is and what he represents. His story of how he’s come to their colony is shocking, surprising, and might have bigger consequences than anyone could have expected.

Walk the Plank is a tale from John Scalzi's The Human Division, a series of self-contained but interrelated short stories set in the Old Man's War universe.

Listen to the complete edition of The Human Division, the fifth full-length book by John Scalzi in the Old Man's War universe.

©2012 John Scalzi (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Brutal Ending

Walk the Plank is another short story set in John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War universe but not focusing on the military. I only read the original book in the Old Man’s War series, but really like the short story, The B-Team so I was anxious to see the diplomats in action again. Much to my surprise, there were no diplomats in this tale which features an injured survivor from an act of piracy who is being interrogated by officials of the colony that the survivor was bringing cargo to. The story is harsh and the ending is brutal, providing a window into the kind of risks many of the new colonists have to endure to start their new lives.

What Was He Thinking?

Well.
That was certainly a bit of unpleasantness my day could have gone without. I realise this was just one chapter of the Tales, but it was a poor move for Scalzi to offer this ultra-short fragment as a stand-alone if he wanted to pique new readers’ interest in the entire work.

And why did he use a screenplay format for this chapter alone? It was difficult and annoying to hear the constant repetition of character names. Makes me think that he was cleaning out old files to flesh out a cohesive book and was too rushed or lazy to rewrite this so it “melded” with the other tales. I am still a Scalzi fan, but not everything he does is of equal calibre.

Short Interim Episode

This short, tense installment is written in the form of an audio transcript, and has a bit of a horror theme to it. It works all right, though you could skip it if needed since it doesn't involve the same characters as the first installment.

Great Short Episode, Standalone

I recommend the Audible edition -- the narrator adds great atmosphere and tension to the all dialogue episode. Even though it's short, it stands alone as an emotional and fascinating story.

Transcript Declassified

If you could sum up Walk the Plank in three words, what would they be?

For The Record

Would you recommend Walk the Plank to your friends? Why or why not?

Yes, While short it has all that's needed to add to the overall narrative

What does William Dufris bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The way he conveys the emotion of the scene

See Review for "The B-Team"

See Review for "The B-Team" this is Episode 2 (minimum 15 words in a Review)

Very different from the first episode

The first episode was very much a standard short story, so i was a bit surprised when the second episode turned out to be in the format of a script. This is the first time i've ever listened to an audio transcription of a script, and it's a bit odd. Hearing the name of the person read before each line is a lot weirder than reading it that way, and can get a bit confusing at times. I never really did get used to it. If this turns out to be a regular feature of a lot of the later episodes i may have to consider switching to the ebook versions.

The story itself was decent. It does concern a completely different set of characters than the first episode, but if it had been published in the form of a novel it wouldn't surprise you at all for chapter one to deal with one set of characters and chapter two to deal with another. In a "normal" story we would expect the two (or more) tales to weave together at some point, but i have no idea if that will occur in this case.

So aside from the script format weirdness this was a perfectly decent chapter. Though if it turns out there are a lot of 30-40 minute episodes for almost a dollar each i may start getting concerned. I'm wondering if it would have been better if they'd offered the option to get a full or half season for a credit.

The first episode is notably better.

Would you try another book from John Scalzi and/or William Dufris?

yes. Scalzi and Dufris have better stuff published. Dufris isn't the problem here.

Would you ever listen to anything by John Scalzi again?

Yes, but I'll try to be careful how I pick.

Which character – as performed by William Dufris – was your favorite?

N/A

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

This book although claiming to be part of a series did not have any of the characters from the first episode. It could be from a series, since it doesn't stand on its own like it claims to in the "flyleaf" of the purchase page. Its length is that of a "short-short", but it lacks both an ironic or unexpected twist that a good example of that style / genre should have. "Walk the Plank" lacks the wit and skill that one can see in nearly every short story by Saki, for example. I utterly disappointed in this 40 minutes lost of my life. Audible offered to take it back, but I paid money not a credit, so it's not even worth that effort. I plan to give episode 3 a try: it is projected to be longer so maybe Scalzi can put a story out there that at least shows as much respect for the audience as episode 1.

Any additional comments?

I was expecting better stuff because the first episode was really better and could have been followed up with something closer good if not actually excellent. The story has no closure. Sure, the audience knows what happened to a number of characters, but none of the questions for the colonists are answered. I am trying to avoid spoilers here, so I cannot be more specific.

A bunch of sassy dialogue.

Too much dialogue. Hard to listen to in this format...sounds like listening to a screen play
He smarty pants blah blah
She smarty pants Blah blah
He smarty pants blah de blah
I couldn't get into the story.

Names before dialogue...

Reading the name of the character who is talking EVERY SINGLE TIME is extremely distracting.