Old Man’s War

Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
Published: 2005

Oh, right! I have a weblog…

Sorry for my absence. Life’s been a bit much lately, and I’ve mainly been hiding under my bed, but I’d like to get back into this now. I read Old Man’s War nearly a month and a half ago, and I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to get to it. I’m a naughty blogger.

My dad hounded me for ages to read this, but it just wasn’t high on my priorities. I read Redshirts last year, and it didn’t leave me wanting more of his writing, but I’m glad I decided to give him a second try. I thought this was fantastic.

The lazy way of describing the premise would be Ender’s Game with old people and orgies, but that’s one of those simplistic comparisons that don’t give credit where it’s due. Humans are at war with multiple alien species, and instead of recruiting young adults, the war is fought with the elderly. At the age of 75, anyone is able to volunteer for service. They get to be young and healthy again for the rest of their days, and the Colonial Defense Forces get soldiers with maturity and actual life experience, so it’s really a win/win situation. It also feel less tragic and wasteful than sending kids to war, like we do in the regular old Earth military.

The story centres around John Perry and the small group of seniors he befriends during his enlisting, and follows them through the ranks as they join the battle. It’s fun science fiction that reads like a superhero origin story in a way (which is something I love), and I really dug Scalzi’s writing this time around. I just wanted to keep reading, and I’ll probably pick up the second book of the series soon.

I’m tempted to say that if you didn’t like Redshirts you should still give this a chance, but I’m fairly certain I’m the only person on the Internet not in love with that book, so instead I’ll just say give this a try if you like fresh, character-centric science fiction.