Old Man's War: Volume 1

I read a sample of the first three chapters. lots of set up. it has a rather YA feel so far. or there is a big secret unknown to our protagonists. --- finished it via our local library. Sweet. As others note, this is actually a romance once you dig through the standard SF tropes. Worth reading.

Old Man's War was an interesting and at times exciting perspective on outward human expansion. Scalzi shows off an impressive Heinleinean ability for creating a deep and detailed world without becoming tied up in description and explanation. Although some of his alien encounters are ridiculously silly, some are thought provoking and interesting. However, this book feels a bit dated due to the style, and furthermore when writing in a style so close to Heinlein, there's a thin line between mature sci-fi and juvenile sci-fi, and this book skirts it. The character development is almost backwards, with the main player, John Perry, feeling more like a developed and fleshed out person at the beginning of the book than he does mid-way through. In fact, there doesn't seem to be any correlation to the things he cared about in the beginning for the majority of the book. Before Perry begins boot camp, the story has a different tone than after. Prior to the fighting and training, Scalzi builds a person with feelings and failings and pangs of guilt, there's a scene depicting the death of Perry's wife that was written so well it was relatable enough to make me quite sad at the thought of loosing my own loved ones. But afterword, Perry becomes a detached character you read about, not someone you see the story through. The emotional depth disappears, Perry's own convictions go away (the one-time anti-war protestor doesn't seem to have a problem wantonly slaughtering every alien he meets; at one point actually stomping on a city of one-inch humanoids Godzilla style), and the believability of events gets more and more absurd. Not only does Perry impress the drill sergeant no one's ever impressed before, but he becomes a war hero who single-handedly saves the day in his first battle, He is the sole survivor of a major fleet action that leaves thousands dead, he joins a Special Forces group no one who hasn't been bred for it has ever joined, and then saves THEM single-handedly. Oh, and did I mention Perry does all this while still more or less a rookie? Three stars, because while I didn't struggle to finish this book, I wasn't motivated to pick up the next one in the series.

The book that gave birth to the epic series, Old Man's War tells the story of some of the most relatable and tangible characters in modern sci-fi, most significantly John Perry who after turning 75 turns to the skies to seek new beginnings as a soldier in the Colonial Defense Forces. What unfurls is a story of self discovery, even at old age, unimaginable adventure with its share of danger, and mystery that offers the reader exceptional value from such a short novel. Highly recommended.