Saturday, January 31, 2015

Review: Old Man's War


Old Man's War
Old Man's War by John Scalzi

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



So, as others, I'm sure, have noted, this is basically a version of "Starship Troopers" (the book, not the movie) where the hero is 75 years old, instead of 20.

That's probably a little simplified, but not much; this is really about one old guy's journey as he enlists, gets his "upgrades" and heads out to kick alien butt in a hostile universe. There are some fun moments where Scalzi explores future-tech, and where we're introduced to some of the creatures that make the universe so terrifying. There's not a ton of character development beyond letting John Perry explore his upgrades and become an elite fighting man of his own, but the book clearly leaves room for sequels (of which there are many). For fans of space warfare novels, I think this is a solid entry. John is a little bit of a Mary Sue--He's the only one not to piss off the drill instructor, impresses them with his quick thinking during combat exercises, comes up with the firing solution during his first major battle with aliens, is the only survivor of a botched invasion, and manages to impress the special forces guys enough that he's the only natural born person in the history of special forces to be a member?--but, in the end, it was still a super fun, quick read. I'll be checking out the next book to see what Scalzi has in store. There are a number of interesting threads that start to pop up in this book that I hope are explored more as the series moves along. It'll be nice to see if humanity manages to meet an alien race and not jump right to punching them in the face, for example.



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