Old Man's War (Old Man's War, #1) in Apocalypse Whenever

Apr 05, 2018 Amy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2018-books-read, time-travel, futuristic

Ever read one of those authors that you can slip into like slipping into your own brain? At least in this book, Scalzi does that for me. I really enjoyed this book. I'm not really a huge fan of the war genre of books, but this one really worked for me even though there were lots of scenes describing war strategy. And maybe that's what made it interesting. Rather than a bunch of people blowing each other up, there was a thoughtfulness to it. Oh, bother. If you don't like war stories, that didn't ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Sep 04, 2025 🥀 Rose 🥀 rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle-reads, science-fiction

I’ve read a few of John Scalzi’s later works and really enjoyed them so why not go back to the beginning. This was his first book and what out him in the map. I can see where he started and how he had grown as an author. What I mean by growth is his characters all felt like the same voice making it hard for me to care for the MC.

A fresh idea in sci fi. Once you hit 75 you have a choice, you can age out in earth or leave earth forever to become young again in space. Only thing is, you will need ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Dec 26, 2016 Casey rated it really liked it

Shelves: the-not-so-serious-lit, intergalactic-planetary, quick-reads

John Scalzi is one of few writers with the ability to craft novels far more interesting than the back of the book synopsis would suggest. This is kind of a blessing and a curse. After finishing Lock In, which I liked much more than expected, I knew I want to read more by Scalzi. I also heard great things about Old Man's War, but I kept putting it off. I mean, who wants to read a book about old people at war?

Turns out I do. I really do. This was the old people at war book I never knew was missing ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Aug 28, 2022 Schnaucl rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, fiction, owned, august, series, read_2022

I really liked it. I liked John and Alan. (view spoiler) I really liked it. I liked John and Alan. (view spoiler)[I did think John felt a little too perfect though. The drill instructor can't find something he doesn't like about just him, he always comes up with the brilliant solutions and saves the day. But it was an early novel, so whatever.

I do wonder if some of it is a product of its time. I think today there would be a much more visceral negative reaction to having a virtual assistant put into your brain without informed consent. No one seems to have any of the privacy concerns I would have expected. Are their thoughts still private? Especially by the time the AI no longer needs words (spoken or not) to take instructions. John doesn't seem at all bothered by the fact that apparently his new body can just be turned off. (And what's to stop an enemy from discovering how to do that and then just taking out all of the CDF?

I also think there must have been a lot of body dysmorphia and existential crises happening. Even a better looking you is a different you than you see in the mirror every day to say nothing of the fact that you're now green with different eyes. That's also going to mess with people's identities. The drill instructor points out that there are no minorities now, but being part of the majority or minority is going to shape a person over the course of their 75 years (and the drill instructor does mention breaking 75 years of various mental conditioning, but that's about it). Similarly, I'm not 75 and I understand that as the body starts to fail there would probably be some joy in having a new, vastly improved working body, but I have to think there would also be a profound existential crisis for a lot of people who were transferred without much warning and their old bodies presumably destroyed. There is a line that there's a religious figure for many religions onboard, but at least no on in John's group seems the least bit bothered. Nobody wonders about the nature of the soul, or if they're just a software program now, or they've committed a gross violation of their religion.

There's also no discussion of whether someone who was transgender was put into the body of the same sex they were born with or if their new body matches his/her/their gender. This also came out in 2005, and while transgender people obviously existed long before 2005, I don't think there was as much awareness as there is now so that's not really a knock against Scalzi.

It was pretty clear where this was going once the nanoprobes were inserted and I thought the baseline tests were interesting. I'm not sure what would cause me to get murderously angry, and I couldn't tell you anything about my seventh birthday (and that's without a naked person in the room). And how's that for a job?

I'm also not really clear why Earth's fragility in the larger universe is being kept a secret, unless it's that they think no one would sign up for service if they knew. (And there's no push back against that, either. People on Earth seem to think they'll likely be doing a two year tour and be done, but when it turns out that won't be the case no one seems to be bothered by it. I kind of doubt they'd all be saying, well, I signed a contract so it's fine.

I get that this would all radically shift the tone of the book Scalzi was writing and so that's probably why it wasn't really dealt with.

And while the CDF has gone after a couple of homeworlds, there's no suggestion that someone might do the same to Earth, which seems odd.

There's also not a lot of grappling with the fact that we're repeating our colonialist past (it's called the Colonial Defense Force, for godssake). I suspect that might happen in later books.

I'm curious if we will see John's theory about the Consu come to fruition in later books.

It's also interesting (and somewhat unlikely?) that we don't see much in the way of alliances with other aliens. The enemy of my enemy etc, especially if you have several technologically weaker races.

(hide spoiler)]

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the next book in the series. ...more

Like · see review

Dec 11, 2018 Angie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sciencefic, great-reading-challenge, 2018-books, geek-out-book-club, military-space-sci-fi

I think it was a pretty satisfying read and overall, the Geek Out! book club liked it. There were some info-dump sections and some inconsistencies that bothered some people in the group. I liked Scalzi's quiet moments of humanity and personal relationships, even more so than military action. Everyone in the book club agreed that they would read more of the series. It was mentioned too, that there were lost opportunities for world-building here, since there were so many cool aliens and odd life f ...more

Like · see review