The B-Team

The Human Division #1

by John Scalzi

Colonial Union Ambassador Ode Abumwe and her team are used to life on the lower end of the diplomatic ladder. But when a high-profile diplomat goes missing, Abumwe and her team are last-minute replacements on a mission critical to the Colonial Union’s future. As the team works to pull off their task, CDF Lieutenant Harry Wilson discovers there’s more to the story of the missing diplomats than anyone expected... a secret that could spell war for humanity. The B-Team 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.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook, Space Opera, Short Stories, Aliens, Science Fiction Fantasy

93 pages, ebook

First published January 15, 2013

About the author

John Scalzi, having declared his absolute boredom with biographies, disappeared in a puff of glitter and lilac scent.

(If you want to contact John, using the mail function here is a really bad way to do it. Go to his site and use the contact information you find there.)

Reviews

[Wil Wheaton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like the first episode of any series, it took me quite a bit of time to figure out who the characters were, what they were about, and why I should care about them. When I got all that figured out, and settled in for the ride, it was a lot of fun.

It's a great setup, though, and I can't wait to see where John takes them.

[Kaethe · Rating 5 out of 5]

7 February 2013

Takes place in the Old Man's War universe shortly after events in prior novels, but with a new cast of characters, many diplomats, with a few members of the CDF for derring-do.

All the things I like about Scalzi are here: clever plotting, a diverse cast that feels natural, snappy dialogue, interesting tech puzzles. Richly enjoyable, but it never feels condescending or empty. This is going to be good.

I bought a copy.

****

1 February 2025

There's a lot to be said for experimentation. Rereading this, I am reminded of the novelty of receiving a chunk of a book each week. The expectation, and also the bonding among the fans. Because Scalzi includes Mary Robinette Kowal, Scott Westerfeld, and Justine Larbalestier in his acknowledgements for Zoë's Tale, they come immediately to mind as other writers who also set challenges for themselves, which in turn means something new and interesting in every book they publish. Every fan will rate their preferences for the experiments differently, sure, but I love that there are writers who keep trying new things. Maybe it's odd me bringing up the concept of novelty in the fifth major work set in the same universe, but these novels and shorter works are never just more of the same. AndN.K. Jemisin and Courtney Milan, too. No doubt more will come to mind as soon as I hit post.

So there, that's today's entry in my gratitude journal: I appreciate writers who consciously experiment: it expands their skill set and takes readers into new genres and styles.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since John Scalzi released The Human Division as an episodic tale over 13 weeks - I wanted to rate/review each one as I read it (even though I bought them all as part of The Human Division book).

This was fantastic. In the beginning it was jumping all around and I couldn't keep the characters straight but he pulled it all together and I really enjoyed this first episode.

It picks up after The Last Colony/Zoe's Tale - the Earth has either split from the Colonial Union or at the very least is on the outs. So what does the Colonial Union do when it doesn't have a supply of bodies? The Conclave is still very much real. That's the premise...

A ton of action, great characters and it sets a tone and a plot that I can really get engaged in.

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

The B-Team is a fun bit of sf, fitting perfectly into the universe and style of Old Man's War. It isn't groundbreaking, but it's fun, and definitely whets my appetite for more. I think it might even be a good introduction to Scalzi's Old Man's War universe.

I'm wondering how this serial novel will work out. I hope we at least stick with a smallish group of lead characters, or it'll feel pretty bitty and disjointed. Guess I'd better read on and find out!

[Anissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first of thirteen installments (93 pages) & I really liked it. The characters were crisp (Wilson & Schmidt had great banter) & made for an easy read. The mystery of what happens to the Polk unfolds smoothly & I'm really looking forward to the next part.

[Natalie H · Rating 3 out of 5]

June 2023
Audiobook edition
1h 48m (1.3x speed)

I jumped straight into this one after Travel by Bullet which I probably shouldn't have done. I didn't like the new narrator as much. The story itself was okay. I can only remember about two of the names. I just couldn't get into the story. I'm not sure if its the narrator or the writing style, maybe both, but there was a lot of he said. She said and it got very tedious and repetitive. Then there was the really awkward alien speak that sounded like the narrator was on the verge of tears straining his voice. At this point I'm not sure if its just this series I'm not going to enjoy or if I should skip the old stuff completely. I guess we'll see.

[Claire Fun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, now this was fun. A rip-riding little adventure, like a stand alone short story, set in the universe of the 'Old Man's War' series. Mostly it was introducing the new characters, as this is the first of 13 ebooks of assorted chapters, short stories, or novellas that will make up the 5th book in the series. It's an interesting approach and at 64-77p certainly an affordable way to find out if it's for you. As a lover of the series I already knew I would buy the book and I do wonder which way will work out cheaper, but at the moment this is the ONLY way to get them so the cost is immaterial. I couldn't possibly wait!

The story fits wonderfully well and quickly feels like you are back in the universe, and as ever the dialogue is snappy and highly enjoyable, but still realistic (well, it is sci-fi, st in spaceships, etc, but it sounds realistic anyway). I got a little thrill reading the names of the 'original' characters but quite quickly warmed to the new ones. Looks like Wilson will be our quick thinking action hero and Schmidt his trusty brainy sidekick, and I've enjoyed the little quirks of the other personalities we've encountered. The story was a teensy bit slow to start but soon picked up pace with explosions and intrigue and, explained in the background, a threat to the whole human race - which is what you want from your big epic sci-fi.

All in all, although I started off being uncertain of the way it was presented and maybe even thinking I wasn't that interested, by the end I loved it, had a blast, and can't wait for the next installment to arrive!

I have pre-ordered 4 of them and I would imagine I will go back for the others soon...

[Darren · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lot of this one is about looking for a needle in a haystack, not to give anything away. The problem with needle-in-a-haystack searches, as an opening for a larger narrative, is that they need to engage the reader. Sifting through chaff does not engage the reader. So they're amped up, as here. All of a sudden you're looking for a hay-coloured needle, made out of I-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Hay. And that haystack? It's large enough that if a toddler were to take his or her first steps on one end of it, and walked it until he or she died of old age... That old man or woman would never reach the other side. Would have died never knowing what not-hay looks like. Not even considering if they had bothered to stop and look around, or make a turn or two.

And that's a problem, because once you've gone to all the trouble of hyping how hard this damn needle would be for anyone to find, and then--not to give anything away--someone not only finds it, but finds it almost casually, a reader has the right to look back on all that hype. To realize that all that hay was in the service of future horseshit.

And I hope that's not true here.

There's more to the story than just this needle hunt, very thankfully. The ending (post-needle) did make me curious to read more. But I hope I don't need to put on taller boots to do so.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first installment of Scalzi's serial book in the Colonial Union-verse is a light, quick read that offers problem solving, mystery, and intrigue that extends from the developments of the original trilogy (and, possibly, from "Zoe's Tale," which I have not read). This time, Harry Wilson takes some of the limelight, and his humor and smarts fit Scalzi's writing style.

More than anything, I'm curious to see how Scalzi handles a serialized format. This installment offered 93 pages, while future ones appear to weigh in at between 32 and 50 pages, if the stats on Amazon are correct. Already, I'm looking forward to downloading the next bit of story on Tuesday morning and reading it on the way to work. This could be a fun reading experience.

[S.A Reidman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know what I want for Christmas/Easter/my birthday/every gift giving holiday out in the known universe - I want a BrainPal. If turning a hue of green is a side effect, have at it. Just think how many books I could read and inner thoughts I could transmit... wait scratch that last part out.

Speaking of books- this one is the quintessential ragtag team that steps up to the plate as last minute replacements and takes the team a couple steps close to the finale (I keep thinking of loveable Keanu Reeves in "The Replacements".2000 movie. Well of course that was endearing). I very quickly wanted the Clarke to succeed in their last minute mission. And yes, everyone on board b-teamed their way into my heart. What can I say, I'm still a sucker for the underdog story. You hear that B-team! I'm your biggest fan -doesn't echo as much if you're not standing on a mountain top by hey, point stands.

Scalzi has this knack for dialogue, shall we say the art of creating cohesive conversation that feels not just natural but you're never tempted to skip over swathes of chattering to get to the action because it more often happens while in conversation. Case in point, the unexpected Polk Pod, space, shrapnel and explosion. All of this in the middle of a simple conversation weighing the odds of survival and calculating how much air to use up and laughing would take up to much air and ...boom, everything explodes. That was executed with finesse.

Honestly, there are so many gems to be dug up in conversation. Take the conversation between CDF's Field Tech Wilson, Hart Schmidt and Ambassador Abumwe, the tail end of which is just gold:

“He’d better be,” Abumwe said. “Because, Lieutenant Wilson, the
warning I gave to my staff goes double for you. If you fail, this mission fails, even if my half goes well. Which means I will have failed because of you. I may be low on the diplomatic totem pole, but I am sufficiently high enough on it that when I push you, you will die from the fall.” She
looked over to Schmidt. “And he’ll kill you when he lands.”

{...more facts being spit like a sick beat on a Migos track by Abumwe here and Wilson reciprocating}

“I’ll do my best,” Wilson said.
“Your best got you stationed on the Clarke,” Abumwe said. “Do
better than that.”

I love the consistency of John Scalzi's writing and it's ability to yank you from your couch in your room in your house/apartment in your city, in your country, on your continent on planet earth and then shove you headfirst into the world of the ailing Colonial Union and the rising Conclave and all else in the Old Man's War Universe and you feel like you belong there and that you've always been a member of one of the frigate ships.

[Brigette Lepe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Couldn't get into this one. Won't be continuing the series.

[Gard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed this little side story set to the "Old man's war" universe. Will definitely continue on The Human Division series.

[Elsbeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I Want To Be on the B Team

Never pass on a Scalzi story. They're too delicious and funny and smart for their own good. Scalzi will save us from the ijits.

[Richard Marx · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent long series by John Scalzi.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oooo, very enjoyable! Looking forward to more!

[Tia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this was a quick read, it wasn't really all that engaging. It is about a diplomat team that is sent into an emergency situation mostly because they are convenient, and they proved that they weren't quite such a B team after all.

Although it has only been a few weeks since I read this, I am having trouble remembering the names of the characters, which is a bad sign. John Perry from Old Man's War was a wonderful character, who I count among my favorite characters ever. These guys ... well, they all sound alike, and they all act alike. At one point, I had to go back to the beginning of a conversation because I lost track of who was talking. Because they all sounded alike.

One part that made me impatient was this series of scenes where a big deal was made about finding a "black box" in space, which was so hard because ... it was painted black. I almost threw my Kindle across the room. (Good thing they are durable.) The visible spectrum of light is just one of seven. If there is a place in the universe where color hardly matters at all, it is in space. Unless light is shining upon it, it will be black. No light, no color. However, in the infrared spectrum, it might show up quite brightly.

Fortunately, the author did come around to this but only after I lost patience and set it aside for a while.

I finished the book in short order and I did enjoy it, but I'm not sure how compelled I am to pick up the next installment. I probably will in a few weeks, but I am not feeling rushed.

[Lis Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another short story, the first of thirteen connected shorts set in Scalzi's Old Man's War universe.

The Colonial Union has a major problem. They're no longer on speaking terms with Earth, so they no longer have Earth as a source of new recruits for the Colonial Defense Force, and they're a couple of generations away from being able to recruit sufficient numbers from their own colony worlds to meet their needs. And meanwhile, about two thirds of their previously divided and chaotically at odds rivals have joined together into the Conclave. The CU needs all the allies it can get, and a race that hasn't been interested in negotiating a deal before now is. They send off the very best diplomatic talent they have--and that team vanishes, their ship apparently destroyed, before the alien diplomatic team could even arrive.

Suddenly the CU is scrambling to save the situation and the negotiations, not to mention find out what happened to their ship. They have to work with what they have in range, though, and they don't have another "A Team" diplomatic team available. What they have available is Ambassador Ode Abumwe and her workaday "B Team" who normally handle much lower-level, routine diplomatic chores.

This time they're being tossed in at the deep end, on no notice, and need to resolve a major crisis, as well as figure out what caused it and who's behind it.

Classic Scalzi. Recommended.

[Tanja Berg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perfectly readable SF novella. Prior knowledge of Scalzi's universe is definitely a plus, it helped me get into it at any rate. The Colonial Defense Force (CDF) has lost Earth, that is, fresh replenishment of soldiers. It badly needs other friends in a hostile universe. An important diplomatic mission ends in disaster as the ambassador's ship is blown to smithereens, leaving now surivors. There are four days until the alien species arrive for the negotiations and a replacement team has to be found without delay. There is only one diplomatic ship with a crew of little note, the "B-team" who can arrive on time, and so they are engaged. They must find out what happened to the original crew and succesfully complete negotiations they have not prepared for.

Short and sweet. It took about a third of the novella before I felt it was worth my time. I may or may not continue with the other 12 in the series, to be released during the course of the next few months, one a week.

[Enzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

So this is a side story within the "Old Man's War" universe. That is quite interesting once you get the characters to fall into place. But once you do put them in their place it becomes a really good story that John Scalzi is delivering across 13 novellas.
I will refrain to say anything that might spoil "Old Man's War" series readers. I am going to place "The B-Team" around the time of "Last Colony" for those who have read those books you know what happened. So during a diplomatic encounter the Colonial Defense Force has a Frigate disappear and the B-Team gets sent in to finalize the negotiations and search for the Frigate.
Really enjoyable. Can't wait to read the rest.

[Jessica Hinckle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this. Quick read with a lot of sarcastic humor and an interesting story. A tad predictable, and there aren't any truly shocking twists, or.... any twists really. Maybe one. But, I enjoyed the main characters and their personalities enough that I'm going to continue reading the series. Next installment is only 27 pages, so why not?

I recommend. Worth the .99 cents it sells for on Google Play and I probably would pay more. Overall, an awesome little sci-fi series.

[Belinda Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read all of the Human Division stories in the single novel format one after the other. So I'm only going to review them this once.

John Scalzi writes enjoyable, really funny space opera. I really enjoyed these, even though 'action' science fiction is not really my thing.

I wish that he'd written these serials as an actual novel though - there's certainly enough of a narrative thread to tie it all together - and I think it would have made for a better, richer read.

[Natalie]

Did Not Finish

I gave it about 40 minutes and was not into it. I wasn't paying attention and he really overused the word said.

The premise sounds interesting and I have been meaning to read Old Man's War so I think I'll start with that and pick this up as a book later.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Outstanding. Vintage--no, classic Scalzi. Fast-paced, wry humor, seat-of-the pants action. Not great literature, but certainly great fun.

I don't see how he can keep the pace or the quantity up, but count me in for the ride.

[Tessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my second John Scalzi book and he is already becoming one of my "to-watch-out-for" authors. A fast paced sci-fi story that peaked my interest for the other episodes and the Old Man's War-universe.

[Shawn Kass · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun little read, brings back memories of Star Trek

[Stacie Haden · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a series of novellas that collectively make up Book 5 in the "Old Man's War" series. If you prefer to read it in episodic pieces, then this is where you start.

[Shan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a book but the first installment of a 13-piece serialization of The Human Division, which I read in 2015.

In this episode, we meet Lt Wilson, a CDF soldier who's traveling with a diplomat who's been sent out after another diplomat's ship disappears. He's one of those resourceful types like Mark Watley in The Martian or any number of Heinlein heroes. I'm a sucker for those characters - competence porn, I think I've heard this called (and I'd like to Google that term but am afraid of what it would unleash on my screen forever after). Probably goes back to missing my dad, an engineer who could answer any question and knew how to do everything.

Lots of setup to take in, but it's done painlessly. I read the book originally on paper; the audio narration adds to it, especially the voice of the alien (although I was glad it didn't go on for too long). This showed up as a free listen on Audible and I didn't recognize it as anything I'd read before, or realize it was the beginning of a book, which now that I know explains why it felt unresolved, without that satisfying wholeness you get from a free-standing short story.

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Humanity is no longer united against the other races in the stars and no longer has the military might to be certain of defending itself against the most aggressive of the other races. This means that high stakes diplomacy has just become the last best hope for keeping the human race from becoming the victims of galaxy-wide genocide. When humanity’s best diplomatic team gets assassinated in a sneak attack, enter the B-Team—the closest set of human diplomats with any chance of pulling their specie’s fat out of the fire.

This is a fun, fast-paced, mystery that launches a new series focusing on the exploits of a group of diplomats who don’t appear to be anyone’s first choice for anything—but then in diplomacy appearances are so very often misleading, aren’t they?

If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.

[Shhhhh Ahhhhh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is like the third or fourth of its type that I've read and I gotta say, this subgenre of space opera is my jazz, man. This collapsing human space empire, fissioning along political lines with military fallout is really choice stuff. it might have something to do with what I suspect will be the likely conclusion of the unite states in the near future (especially since every space empire seems basically to be the US).

Anyway, very very believable characters (if somewhat one-dimensional in places). Somewhat believable world building (the spitting in the face was excessive but seems like it could be a real thing). Technology was a little bit of unobtanium but I'm happy that part of the in-universe explanation was the quote about highly developed technology being indistinguishable from magic. In general, Scalzi did it again!

[Circa24 Circa24 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I needed a short read, and this filled the bill. Imagine a universe where humans have reached the stars. We're on the edge of detent with a powerful alliance that doesn't like aliens (including us) expanding into space. Talks are about to begin when the ship carrying Earth's ambassador disappears. Now, it's up to the B-team: underqualified embassy and defense delegates-- who believed they had cushy, unimportant jobs-- must shift gears and actually rise to the task of saving the colonies and Earth as they take over the duties of the more qualified, missing delegates.

As with all of Scalzi's space stories, The B-Team is great story that happens to be set in space and a far cry from a typical space story.