I refuse to go back and try to figure out which alien race the flying things are supposed to be
Author: John Scalzi
Publication: 2005
Genre: Science Fiction
Once again, something recommended to me by a friend some time ago. What a romp. Old Man’s War is a good old-fashioned space adventure slash worldbuilding exercise obviously setting up for a series. It borrows heavily from (and dutifully acknowledges) Heinlein with appropriate modern twists.
The narrator, also named John, has reached age 75, at which point he’s contracted to join the interplanetary army. Nobody on Earth really knows what that entails, they just assume it’s better than dying of old age. John’s wife has already died, so he overly calmly severs the remainder of his earthly connections and launches to space. Without getting overly spoiler-y, the space army equips him to be a good soldier and then flings him around the galaxy for the rest of the book.
Even at 15 years old, the text rings mildly sexist. Even when some of the troops are women, they’re all “men”. The leadership skews male. The narrator’s male gaze is obvious. Race or nationality doesn’t enter in any meaningful fashion, other than some backhanded swipes at overpopulation consequences in Asian countries (yikes). It’s implied that the soldiers are mainly white and American.
The narrator is a relatable everyman (at least if you’re a white dude). He has no real personality other than 1) infallible natural aptitude for war games and 2) being the only old person still in love with his spouse. My copy had a few noticeable typos. It’s a first novel, and I understand that it was serially self-published at first, but it could have used stronger editing in places. Scalzi tends to repeat words in close proximity to one another, which is jarring in otherwise pleasantly well-written verbiage.
All these caveats aside, it’s a fun read. It goes down easy with a heathy dose of snark. The story has just enough twists and turns to keep it interesting. I enjoyed it; probably even enough to pick up some of the sequels.