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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51964.Old_Man_s_War?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Old Man's War" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170383915m/51964.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51964.Old_Man_s_War?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Old Man's War</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4763.John_Scalzi">John Scalzi</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/9633237?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 4 of 5 stars A real page-turner. The main character is well-developed and likable (even if you have a deep ambivalence for the military). The pacing is pitch-perfect. Usually I tend to get a bit bored reading descriptions of alien technologies and civilizations, but this book never lost my attention. 
 
 My only complaint. The book is willfully and unremittingly morally ambiguous about issues of honor in battle and ethics in foreign policy. There are even points in the plot where it addresses these issues and then promptly sets them down because the main character has more pressing problems to attend to. Maybe that's the implicit theme of the narrative - that a soldier doesn't have time to think about the ramifications of his or her actions. At one point the character suspects that he is complicit to a military machine that values might over right. His fears are eased by memories of home and the story moves on. 
 
 My experience reading the novel felt strangely parallel to that of the main character. I was eagerly devouring a novel that might or might not be espousing the necessity of unreflective, imperialistic warfare. Early in the novel I salved my objections with the idea that the narrative would turn to a critique in the second half of the book. As the level of plausibility that the author would explain himself grew less and less plausible, my eyes continued to skip from paragraph to paragraph, page to page, placated by a compelling plot and a character that I had come to care about. 
 
 Even now I can't dislike a book that was able to compel me to become invested in it in spite of my objections. I'll definitely looking for more novels by this author, though I do hope I get a little more idealogical substance in his next work to stave off some of this analytical vertigo.
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/588813?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Keely's review
rating:

bookshelves: sci-fi
recommended for: Ender's Game fans
status: Read in December, 2007

A real page-turner. The main character is well-developed and likable (even if you have a deep ambivalence for the military). The pacing is pitch-perfect. Usually I tend to get a bit bored reading descriptions of alien technologies and civilizations, but this book never lost my attention.

My only complaint. The book is willfully and unremittingly morally ambiguous about issues of honor in battle and ethics in foreign policy. There are even points in the plot where it addresses these issues and then promptly sets them down because the main character has more pressing problems to attend to. Maybe that's the implicit theme of the narrative - that a soldier doesn't have time to think about the ramifications of his or her actions. At one point the character suspects that he is complicit to a military machine that values might over right. His fears are eased by memories of home and the story moves on.

My experience reading the novel felt strangely parallel to that of the main charact...more

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message 1: by David

12/03/2007 06:10PM

So disregard my previous question - should have read all my emails before posting.

Your review is spot-on. The book is close kin to "Starship Troopers"; there the moral issues were addressed more directly.

I also felt that Scalzi skipped over the problems associated with a group of 70-somethings being suddenly thrust into a position of doing what they are told without question. Like the moral issues this was touched on early on but then left on the side of the road.

Maybe both threads will get picked up in the sequels?