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| Old Man's War | 
 enlarge | Author: John Scalzi
Publisher: Tor Science Fiction
Category: Book
List Price: $6.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  270 reviews
Sales Rank: 3406
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 6.5 x 3.9 x 0.8
ISBN: 0765348276
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780765348272
ASIN: 0765348276
Publication Date: January 15, 2007
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Product Description
John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife’s grave. Then he joined the army.
The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce—and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. So: we fight. To defend Earth, and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding.
Earth itself is a backwater. The bulk of humanity’s resources are in the hands of the Colonial Defense Force. Everybody knows that when you reach retirement age, you can join the CDF. They don’t want young people; they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. You’ll be taken off Earth and never allowed to return. You’ll serve two years at the front. And if you survive, you’ll be given a generous homestead stake of your own, on one of our hard-won colony planets.
John Perry is taking that deal. He has only the vaguest idea what to expect. Because the actual fight, light-years from home, is far, far harder than he can imagine—and what he will become is far stranger.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 265 more reviews...
 Mindblowing. A terrific read. January 1, 2005
165 out of 179 found this review helpful
I went back and forth between four stars and five. On the one hand, this novel is not great literature on the level of say, "Dune" by Frank Herbert. On the other hand, "Old Man's War" is a terrific read, very imaginative, and not terribly implausible.
No spoilers here, so my discussion of the story will be limited. The essential premise and storyline is that in the near future, Earth/humankind have discovered the "skip drive" which is a method of interstellar space travel. Mankind quickly learns that valuable planets are a scarce commodity and there are several intelligent races in our neck of the Galaxy that as a matter of routine try to use military force to take planets away from other races. Including, of course, human colonial planets. Accordingly, to protect Earth and also to protect colony worlds, the "Colonial Defense Force" enlists elderly human beings on Earth as soldiers to protect the colony worlds. The protagonist in the novel is such a one.
The novel includes pretty strong character development. It manages to make some of the characters both lifelike and alien. This is no small feat and a task that most science fiction authors struggle with. Here, the author succeeds.
The author's speculations about what interaction between mankind and aliens will be like are startling. The reader can decide for him or her self whether they are plausible. I was not able to say that they were implausible, at any rate.
The novel contains dazzling speculation about the future destiny of humanity in space and technology in general. This, combined with a fast-moving storyline and solid plot, earns this one five stars in my opinion. Quite frankly, this is far and away the best science fiction novel that I have read since "Dune" and "The Forever War" and it gives my old favorite "The Forever War" a run for its money in terms of which is my favorite military science fiction novel of all time. Any lover of "hard" science fiction will want to snap this one up, and I imagine "Old Man's War" is destined for Hugo and Nebula awards.
Methuselah's Troopers Will Fear No Evil August 9, 2005
89 out of 94 found this review helpful
The title of my review isn't fair; I'm making it sound as though John Scalzi's first novel is a mishmash of Robert A. Heinlein works. It's not; in fact it's refreshingly original, and you certainly don't have to be a Heinlein fan (or even to have read Heinlein) in order to enjoy and appreciate it. But as Scalzi himself remarks in his acknowledgements, the influence _is_ fairly obvious.
At any rate, I really like the book -- and on its own merits, not just because it reminds me of Heinlein. (Nor is it just because the hero, John Nicholas Perry, hails from the county seat of Darke County in my home state of Ohio, where Scalzi now lives.) Scalzi is a fine writer and his ideas sparkle off the page.
I won't spoil anything for you; just keep your eyes peeled for at least one really cool idea every three or four pages. (And if Scalzi hasn't blown your mind within the first couple hundred pages, it'll happen when Alan Rosenthal explains how the skip drive works.) I can't really tell you anything specific without giving away something better left for you to discover as you read.
I can say in general, though, that Scalzi has a pretty healthy sense of what it will take for human beings to colonize other planets in a universe that contains other sentient species. (And I think he has a better appreciation of moral ambiguity than Heinlein did even on his best day.) He's also got a knack for thinking up clever and gruesome ways for people to die. Oh, and there's a lot of nicely handled bittersweet stuff that may bring tears to your eyes if you're inclined to that sort of thing.
All in all, a fine first novel; I'll look forward to reading his next (_Agent to the Stars_) as well as what appears to be a sequel currently in the works (_The Ghost Brigades_). And welcome to Ohio, John.
 IS THIS REALLY SF May 3, 2007
32 out of 50 found this review helpful
I bought this book because of the glowing readers' reviews in Amazon. I do not understand this reaction. Opening the book, I met a central character whose lame attempts at humor are acclaimed as hilarious. Gradually we find our man is gifted at everything but amazingly modest. This endears him to his fictional friends who are numerous and described in tedious detail. The tiny amount of SF is antiquated -- the "elevator to orbit" has been with us many years if not decades. Even so, we are supposed to marvel at this and the few other dusty "marvels" introduced. A physicist character in inserted to relieve the author from any explanation by insisting that our math is inadequate. Aliens are thrown at us in pathetic haste, as mere cartoon monsters. I wonder this book can be classed as SF. Yet so many other readers have written glowing reviews that the book must have some special merit I fail to grasp. I can only warn those fond of real SF to be wary.
Truly amazing May 13, 2006
21 out of 23 found this review helpful
Premise: In the future, humanity has colonized many planets, and discovered other intelligent species in the galaxy. Sadly, everyone is into the colonizing thing, creating competition, also called "war". Humanity's answer is the Colonial Union (CU) and it's military arm, the Colonial Defense Forces (CDF). Where do they get recruits for the CDF? Well, Earth is overcrowded. But, the CDF doesn't want inexperienced recruits, nor those who have grown up in poverty. The answer: at age 65, people can sign up for the CDF and then they can enlist at 75.
What does a military force want with 75-year-old recruits? The recruits don't know, but assume that the CDF will somehow rejuvenate them. You see, the CU and the CDF started on Earth, but have separated themselves from Earth, have bought, borrowed, or taken technology from many other species, and have moved way beyond Earth technologically.
Plot: John Perry and his wife signed up for the CDF at 65. At 67, John's wife died suddenly. At 75, John says good-bye to his family, his wife's grave, and Earth, and enlists in the CDF for two-to-ten years. He meets other recruits and they rapidly bond, labeling themselves "The Old Farts." Then, the CDF does their magic (I will not spoil the details), and "The Old Farts" end up a bunch of twenty-year-old, genetically-enhanced, semi-bionic super-soldiers. They go through training, to help them adjust to their new bodies.
While The Old Farts get separated, they stay in contact (another interesting aspect of the story is how they do so, but I'll not divulge that). Their separate troops go off to defend colonies, find new colonies, and retake colonies overrun by aliens. The story follows John Perry, as he surprises himself as being a creative and able soldier with some leadership skills. He is not perfect, though, and is almost killed several times. He even runs into a rather amazing surprise, when he is rescued after being almost killed.
I like this story because of the interesting premise. I like this story because the science is articulated very well, without going over my head. I like this story because the plot has lots of surprise turns.
But, all that would add up to a good, four-star, science-fiction adventure story. This is more than that.
"Old Man's War" has two powerful strengths. The characters never ignore the ethical implications of what they do. The author repeatedly introduces the question of whether there could be a better alternative to war, but he does so without turning the book into an anti-war rant. He never answers the question; he just keeps it alive in a realistic, powerful way.
The main strength here, though, is the characterizations. Within five pages, I knew that I liked the characters. They were superhuman (after being changed), but never lost their humanity. John Perry would make anyone an interesting and wonderful friend, father, and grandfather, but he is not perfect. He is utterly credible, utterly likable, and utterly human. John Scalzi has created a marvelous protagonist here.
Wow.
I've ordered the sequel, "Ghost Brigades."
Some people are comparing John Scalzi to Robert Heinlein. He has to write dozens more novels to prove it, but John Scalzi's debut novel rivals Heinlein's masterpieces.
Wow.
bad science, shallow writing May 22, 2006
21 out of 42 found this review helpful
"Old Man's War" is a trite, weakly written novel that barely qualifies as science fiction. The characters are aging people from earth who are transformed into hyper-soldiers to fight aliens. The science (I'm a hard core devote) is absent or implausible, and the action is a series of chiches. For example, at boot camp the sargent delivers a brutal speech about the horrors of war, ho-hum.
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