Book Review: John Scalzi's Old Man's War

You may remember that weeks, or even months ago, I posted about starting Connie Willis' All Clear, and how excited I was about it.  You may be wondering why I haven't told you more...  Sadly, I have to admit that I have had to put the book on the back burner (which means 'returned it to the library') for now.  It's such a heavy book so I can't take it on the bus to work, and I've had trouble reading in bed lately (lonnng days at work and lonnng bus trips = yawn).  Please don't take it as an indication of the quality of the book!  It's still fabulous, but as I've said before, I find it hard to get into Connie Willis' books at first, and despite this really being the second half of Black Out, it's still a new book.  I can't wait for Christmas when I have some time off so I can get back into it!

Meanwhile, I picked up John Scalzi's Old Man's War while wandering through the science fiction and fantasy section at the library (yeah, I know, right?!  We have a science fiction and fantasy section!).  I almost literally could not put it down, and I finished it in less than two weeks (you may have realised, I'm a very slow reader)!  Not only is the book gripping with brilliant character development and subtle but striking themes, but it is the most honest and funniest piece of science fiction I have read.  Ever.  Not to mention hostile aliens, galactic war, cloning, posthumanism, military technology, extra-solar colonies, faster-than-light travel...  Basically, everything  you could want from good science fiction.  Except length.  It was over wayyy too fast for my liking.  On with a spoiler-free review (just trying something different!), that's still pretty long (so nothing new there) - so click on the picture to continue.

The very first paragraph of a book is often an indicator of the tone of the book, and the first paragraph of Old Man's War is short, punchy and equal parts shocking and amusing - "I did two things on my seventy-fifth birthday.  I visited my wife's grave.  Then I joined the army."

John Perry and his fellow recruits know two things when they turn their backs on their lives on Earth to do something that most people who enjoy science fiction long to do - see the galaxy.  The first is that they will never see the planet of their birth again, and the second is that somehow, the CDF (Colonial Defence Force) will make them young again.

I think the most important aspects of this books were world-building, character-development, and humour.  We are given just enough information to make the universe, but not so much to feel encumbered.  As I said, this book is short, it doesn't have room for great info dumps.  We know that there are colonies and we know who lives there, but we never see them or talk to them.  We know that we have contact with some alien races, but we don't have a history lesson about our first contact.  It's all need-to-know, and we, frankly, don't.

John seems like the regular guy down the road who keeps up with modern technology but doesn't understand everyone's reliance on it.  He works hard and thinks up practical solutions to what seem to be pretty tricky problems - just because he doesn't seem to notice their complexity.  He quickly makes friends with the other recruits, but doesn't fall into a depression when they go their seperate ways.  He doesn't care that his closest friend in the corps is gay, because it's nothing to do with him.  I really like him; he has my sense of humour.

I think the theme of posthumanism is underplayed, and not in a bad way.  Without giving too much away, Scalzi looks at what it means to be human through showing how his characters don't really suffer lasting change as a result of their physical changes - instead it is their experiences that have the greatest impact on them.  And these changes are so subtle; everyone remains themselves at their core, like we all do. He also debates personhood through a painful encounter with a special operative who, it turns out, doesn't know how to be human.

I highly recommend this book if you're looking for something amusing, that's light enough to read in a day (if you're that way inclined) but has enough substance to really make you care about what's going on and to stay with you when you're not reading it.