Old Man’s War
John Scalzi channels Robert Heinlein (including a wry sense of humor) in a novel about a future Earth engaged in an interstellar war against more advanced species. Citizens volunteer for the Colonial Defense Forces after retirement, in exchange for which they have their consciousness transferred into a young body, cloned from their DNA but enhanced. If, against the odds, they survive two years of combat (or 10 years if things aren't going well, which they're not), they get another body and enjoy a fresh start on a colony. This is Scalzi's first novel, and it creates a future he will revisit in subsequent stories. John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife’s grave. Then he joined the army. The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce—and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. So: we fight. To defend Earth, and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding. Earth itself is a backwater. The bulk of humanity’s resources are in the hands of the Colonial Defense Force. Everybody knows that when you reach retirement age, you can join the CDF. They don’t want young people; they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. You’ll be taken off Earth and never allowed to return. You’ll serve two years at the front.
Stats for nerds
42recommend
94mentions
83people
2008–2026years
48% recommend40% neutral12% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- All Systems Red - Martha Wells
Old Man's War - John Scalzi
- litrpg - I've read lots of these, but can't recommend that many. Even better ones can't hold my interest until the end of the series. Some that weren't that bad: solo leveling (up to book ~6), the wandering inn (~11). I listened to dungeon crawler carl (~8 books) and he who fights with monsters (~8).
scifi - the murderbot diaries, old man's war.
- Somewhat lesser-known sci-fi novels I read in the past:
The Unincorporated Man (and three sequels)
Cross between science fiction and fantasy: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality ("HPMOR") - the premise is that Harry Potter is raised by a good aunt and uncle, and is taught the Scientific Method and so he uses that when encountering magic.
Old Man's War (and sequels) by John Scalzi
Redshirts by John Scalzi
Science-reality: Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
Ra by qntm
There is no Antiemetics Division by qntm
- Am I wrong to assume those are LLM slop?
But ya, I love that genre. eg Haldeman's The Forever War, Scalzi's Old Man's War, Robert Charles Wilson's Spin
- Perhaps I am too much of a curmudgeon, but the example first sentence made me not care at all - not about Venice, but about the writer's approach, which seems to want to conjure breathless mystery about something I could easily look up on Wikipedia (or read in tl;dr comments in this thread).
It ISN'T Venice you need to make me care about, it's YOU! Why should I spend any of my time on you?
A good first sentence should make me care about your perspective, at least for non-fiction about subjects well-studied.
Fiction, obvs, differs. Scalzi's Old Man's War had such a great first sentence I devoured the series.
- Peter F Hamilton has some great hard sci-fi novels like the Commonwealth series. Super nerdy with some interesting characters.
John Scalzi is probably my favorite sci-fi author for excellent characters. His “Old Man’s War” is genius.
