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Loading... Old Man's War (original 2004; edition 2007)by John Scalzi
Work detailsOld Man's War by John Scalzi (2004)
Third time around, it's still one of my favorite books. :) (Reread in January 2013) (  ) leesalogic | May 10, 2013 |  Ugh. I'm pretty easily entertained, and have a soft spot in my heart for junk sci-fi. This book physically hurt me to finish. While it has just enough hard sci-fi to fall into that category, and contains echoes of Heinlein's military stuff, the prose is so clunky and juvenile that it's tough to enjoy any of that. For a little while I thought it might be YA -- until we got to the awkward sex. And what what the Hugo committee thinking? Yikes! I've read Halo novelizations that were better! (  ) shurikt | May 6, 2013 | The first book in the series. Scalzi is exceptionally easy to read as his words flow off the page in rapid fire. All three books in this series are balanced reads. TheHeathers | Apr 30, 2013 | If you live in the same city as me, be assured that the paper-and-ink copy of this book I read is going back to the library ASAP and you'll be able to borrow it after me. If not, I do have the PDF... Old Man's War is sci-fi. Maybe not the most original sci-fi in the world -- I read it more or less alongside Ender's Game and noted some similarities -- but there are some more original things that raised my eyebrows and then got me interested. For instant, the biggest part: the main character enlists in the army on his seventy-fifth birthday. Okay, then quite typically you get transference of consciousness between bodies, and specially modified soldiers, and Combat With Strange Alien Species, etc, etc. What makes Old Man's War fun, though, aside from that, is the humour. Sometimes it falls flat, but quite often I cackled appreciatively. The ending is awesome. First I kind of wanted to punch John Scalzi, then I stopped, went oh, and sniffled just a little. Definitely one I'd recommend. Easy reading, really, but that's not a bad thing. My main quibble is how dry the narrative is sometimes. That helps in some scenes, keeping it very cut down and straight to the point, but sometimes you want a bit more impact. (  ) shanaqui | Apr 9, 2013 | Mindblowing! I fell in love with this book immediately. It is not your typical story - it doesn't flow, it is a collection of flashes that tell the story. I must read more Scalzi. Not too quickly, though, I don't want to run out! ( ) ScribbleKey | Apr 7, 2013 | no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0765348276, Mass Market Paperback)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. (retrieved from Amazon Wed, 02 Jan 2013 16:17:42 -0500) "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 aliens willing to fight for them are common. The universe, it turns out, is a hostile place. So: we fight. To defend Earth (a target for our new enemies, should we let them get close enough) and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has gone 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, which shields the home planet from too much knowledge of the situation. What's known to everybody is 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 your time 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."--BOOK JACKET.… (more) (summary from another edition) |
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