Old Man's War (Old Man's War, #1) in Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library

Apr 29, 2012 Steve rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, 2012-reading-list

Reading John Scalzi's Old Man's War really wants to make you cancel the NASA budget and just hope we can hide for a few millennial. Scalzi's portrays an unrelentingly unfriendly universe out there. The Colonial Defense Forces have their hands full and more morning 'til night. They defend fragile human existence on colony and after colony from endlessly weird intelligent creatures.

Yes, military science fiction seems to expand these days at the same rate as vampire romance and the like. The do se Reading John Scalzi's Old Man's War really wants to make you cancel the NASA budget and just hope we can hide for a few millennial. Scalzi's portrays an unrelentingly unfriendly universe out there. The Colonial Defense Forces have their hands full and more morning 'til night. They defend fragile human existence on colony and after colony from endlessly weird intelligent creatures.

Yes, military science fiction seems to expand these days at the same rate as vampire romance and the like. The do seem to share one thing in common--a taste, so to speak, for human and not so human interaction, close up and personal. Beyond that, someone else will have to explain why both grow ever more popular right now.

And military science fiction may sound like space opera. Not really. In Star Wars, you have lots of aliens and lots of battles. The story focuses on colorful characters who happen to find themselves at war. Princess Leia, Han Solo and Luke Skywalker didn't start out as military recruits. Scalzi painstakely recreates more the experience of a World War II or Vietnam War military experience, from recruitment to boot camp to first fire and onward. Lots of chain of comment, discipline, drill and battle readiness.

Joe Haldeman's writing intrigues me because he uses the military experience to explore themes of war and peace, social justice, human nature. He also touches on the war themes of loyalty to one's unit, making and losing friends. Old Man's War hones in on that side of things intensively. He does so through the central premise of the novel. The "old man's" theme refers to how the Colonial Defense Forces recruit.

Men and women in Scalzi's Earth still have in mind life transitions as they reach 65 or so. Let's just say that you can imagine that modern capitalism still exists: no great health care breakthroughs have taken place, and seniors look forward to dwindling prospects after a lifetime of work and service to humanity. Space colonization, and its absorption of alien technology, has opened up an important option. Sign up at 65 that at 75 you will undergo one or another physical transformation that will enable you to serve in the CDF. The central character, John Perry, doesn't really know what that transformation entails until he climbs aboard the space shuttle into his new life at 75. I won't really give it away. Read the book.

That early section of the book interested me the most. He takes a lot of care with the 75 year old men and women (yes, women enlist equally, despite the book title). What does it mean to have a lifetime of experience, wisdom, angst about losing friends and life partners, and then thurst yourself into realms we associate more with 18-year-olds just starting out. And the twists in the story, including friendships and the promise of romance, take that even further as it progresses. I really liked that side of it.

All the military stuff, well, never having served myself, I can't say. It did seem like so many movies, both in good and bad ways.

As far as the technology, again, I don't want to give things away. Let's just say it involves more computerization than direct human-to-human psychic connection. Maybe it kind of amounts to the same thing for the people in the story. Yet you won't find your spiritual side nourished by the ways and means the CDF establishes new style rapport and communication among the troops. Less chi and more transistors.

Of course, at the rate that flare-ups and all out wars with bad guys, break out, who really has time for all of that anyhow? And while there are wisps (tendrils? tentacles?) of possibility hinted at, don't expect Cyclon-style complexity of relationships and possibility of reconciliation.

Overall, the book works because of its premise about sending the old timers back for regrooving. Though I won't read the sequel right away, I do wonder what happens and probably will come back some time.

...more

Like · see review

Nov 16, 2012 Walt O'Hara rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

Having recently enjoyed REDSHIRTS by the same author, I went "to the back of the rack" and picked up a paperback that had been hanging around on the bookshelf for a long time now, ignored, covered with dust mites, ignored and sad.. seriously, I do enjoy John Scalzi's prose and thought highly of Reshirts, I had just forgot I had bought this book, and it got buried. OLD MAN'S WAR is the first in a tetrology that doesn't seem to have a nickname, so I'll call it "the CDF-verse". OLD MAN'S WAR starts Having recently enjoyed REDSHIRTS by the same author, I went "to the back of the rack" and picked up a paperback that had been hanging around on the bookshelf for a long time now, ignored, covered with dust mites, ignored and sad.. seriously, I do enjoy John Scalzi's prose and thought highly of Reshirts, I had just forgot I had bought this book, and it got buried. OLD MAN'S WAR is the first in a tetrology that doesn't seem to have a nickname, so I'll call it "the CDF-verse". OLD MAN'S WAR starts off with some interesting premises. The Colonial Defense Force operates off of Earth. They recruit from very old people who are 75 plus, promising a new life and restored youth and vigor. The CDF is clearly of a much higher level than the Earth of this era, suggesting that the CDF has obtained higher weapons and bio tech from alien sources-- Earth certainly can't rejuvenate the elderly in this setting. John Perry, the protagonist of OLD MANS WAR, signs up for the CDF (on Earth) on his 75th birthday. His wife Kathy having passed away, he feels disconnected to Earth and is willing to try a new life and youth as a CDF trooper. Perry joins the CDF and endures rejuvenation (or perhaps rebirth), in a much younger, slimmer and enhanced, GREEN version of himself. In the world of the CDF-verse, alien cultures aren't as rare as they seem to be in a lot of modern Science Fiction. They are plentiful, and they are constantly scrapping over real estate.. thus, the need for a very large army of genetically enhanced soldiers to fight humanity's wars and defend its colonies. I won't reveal any major plot spoilers, except to say that Perry does join up, we see an obligatory boot camp (STARSHIP TROOPERS style) and Perry's first campaign experiences, which come back to impact the story later on. Perry even, after a fashion, is oddly reunited with his dead wife by the novel's conclusion.

I rather liked OLD MAN'S WAR, for a lot of reasons-- this is classic Space Opera here, and is chock full of odd alien races, weird technologies, an a cadre of military heroes to keep humanity safe. This is not so much a unique story or theme but a rehash of classic SF tropes. I enjoyed Scalzi's prose, characters and setting. Perry, in particular, is a very likable, human and sympathetic character trying to get by in a very harsh and hostile. I certainly will get to the bottom of my stack of Paperbacks in this series, now that I have finally started it. Recommended. Not a classic, but very entertaining. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Aug 14, 2009 Richard rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fi

Old Man's War is a highly creative and enjoyable novel by John Scalzi. Earth in the future has colonized many planets but is at war with many alien species as well. The Colonial Defense Forces (CDF), with responsibility of protecting Earth and its colonies, is always looking for new recruits. The twist is that they must be at least 75 yrs old. And, once a recruit joins CDF they must give up everything on Earth and and can never return to Earth. Old Man's War follows John Perry from being a recru ...more

Like · see review

Jan 01, 2012 Eoghann Irving rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

Up to now I hadn't read anything by John Scalzi, which is a bit of a faux pas in SF fan circles these days. So I started, somewhat unoriginally, with the book everyone mentions.

Old Man's War is what I think of in my head when I talk about written science fiction. It's set in the future, it has weird alien races, advanced science and a fair amount of action.

On the surface there's nothing really exceptional going on here. We've had clones before, and scary aliens and battles in space. What makes t ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Oct 25, 2013 Dolphe rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The tone of "Old Man's War" reminds me a bit of "Starship Troopers", but it is light years more inventive. Lots of great entertainment all around. ...more

Like · see review