Old Man's War - John Scalzi

A decent read, but lacking in a couple of areas

I ordered this book used, which helped lessen my overall disappointment with it, on the basis of a recommendation on a review of a Alistair Reynolds book. The poster on that review pointed to this book as a superior example of the theme of that book (Revelation Space).

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't awful, it was OK hence the three stars. The characters while somewhat engaging, were kind of formulaic and one dimensional. Plot line could have been lifted from a WW II movie and proceeded pretty much as expected.

If you want a light weight sci-fi beach book, you'll be fine, just don't expect much else

Best Sci-Fi novel I've read in awhile

This is a wonderful book. Both the prose and characterizations are far above what you can normally expect from science fiction these days. Scalzi has imagined an interesting universe and there are a lot of intense action sequences balanced by thoughful, nuanced passages. The book also has a lot of clever, salty dialogue between the soldiers that is often quite funny.

This is the best science fiction book to come out since The Risen Empire/Killing of Worlds by Scott Westerfeld, in my opinion.

What's All the Excitement About?

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed "Old Man's War". But I enjoyed it more when it was called "Starship Troopers" or "The Forever War". Scalzi's book is well written and has a few fun ideas like the BrainPal and SmartBlood and the Ghost Brigades, but in the end it is very derivative of the above mentioned sources (as well as the movie version of Starship Troopers). John Perry is an interesting character, but the reality is that he doesn't really change much through the course of the book, and in the end he doesn't seem that moved one way or another by the prospect of losing his resurrected wife from his former life. The novel is good on plot, well-paced and solidly written. It suffers from soft characterizations and a lack of originality. If you're going to give us this type of book, give us characters we care about or don't bother.

One word, Amazing.

I am no big time book reader, I had some time to spend so I read this book first in eBook format on my phone. Enjoyed it so much that a couple months later I bought it in paperback along with Ghost Brigades to enjoy it more and go further in the series. Not thinking much into it when I bought it I wish I also got the third book, "The Lost Colony" because despite work I finished both books in 3 days and was left wanting more like a drug crazed addict.

Old Man's War tells of a normal man doing great things, and the way John Scalzi writes it got me laughing and even feeling for the poor "old" man. He doesn't get into too much technical detail like other writers do, it's an all out no bull style of writing and he ain't afraid of using certain words either. His writing really comes out in The Ghost Brigades, but no need to write a review for that as by the end of this book you'll be wanting the next. I don't think I will be able to handle it when I am done with The Lost Colony.

But anyways, the Universe Scalzi creates is truly great. And I hope more comes out, even if it doesn't include the characters we have come to love in this series. Buy it, I doubt you'll regret it.

Enjoyable read

I enjoyed the characters, the sense of teamwork, the introduction to new (to me) science fiction concepts, a new universe with continually new aliens and the happy ending.