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

Jan 06, 2019 Mitchell Friedman rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: liked-reviews, reread, bc-powellssfgroup, science-fiction, fiction, series, own, four-star-science-fiction

A relatively pleasant re-read. Sure it's a whole training thing but this time with old people. It's clever and relatively fun. And then it runs into war and war is miserable. So the book gets a little tired before the end. I did read the entire series before, so it's hard for me to decide what I'm picking up on in this one as compared to what I remember. I ran into a young person who had just re-read this book and loved it, and its sequels - so I guess it's not just a book for old people. ...more

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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.

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Jun 24, 2017 Jennifer rated it liked it

3.5 stars

fast entertaining read, interesting world building and aliens. I enjoyed it but wasn't left caring too much what happens and thats probably because the soldiers are so genetically enhanced they are not really human enough to care about.

If you have read a lot of sci-fi you really can see how much old school sci-fi influenced the author but he updated the writing style and themes to more modern times. ...more

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Dec 17, 2008 Mark rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction-fantasy

An interesting story, but it took a long time to get going. I also found myself wishing for more character development, as supporting members of the cast start to die off.

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Sep 10, 2008 Jan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction

This was a great book in the tradition of Joe Haldeman's Forever War and Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers. A very fast read and fun. I'm looking forward to reading the sequels. ...more

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