Product Description

With his wife dead and buried, and life nearly over at 75, John Perry takes the only logical course of action left: he joins the army. Now better known as the Colonial Defense Force (CDF), Perry's service-of-choice has extended its reach into interstellar space to pave the way for human colonization of other planets while fending off marauding aliens. The CDF has a trick up its sleeve that makes enlistment especially enticing for seniors: the promise of restoring their youth. After bonding with a group of fellow recruits who dub their clique the Old Farts, Perry finds himself in a new body crafted from his original DNA and upgraded for battle, including a brain-implanted computer. But all too quickly the Old Farts are separated, and Perry must fight for his life on various alien-infested battlegrounds. "Scalzi's astonishingly proficient first novel reads like an original work by the late grand master, Robert A. Heinlein" - "Publishers Weekly". "Delivers fast-paced scenes of combat, and pays attention to the science underpinning his premise" - "San Francisco Chronicle".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1178 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

The Times
'Clever dialogue, fast-paced story and strong characters.'

About the Author
John Scalzi is an author and online writer, known for his blog Whatever, at which he has written daily on a number of topics since 1998. Old Man's War, his first novel, was a finalist in the Hugo Awards.

Customer Reviews

Average work
As some other reviwers point out, this is a standard military sci-fi novel, that drinks from two main fountains: Strarship Troopers (ST) and The Forever War (FW).
The writer is somewhat more inclined to use the influence of ST, but does not go the way Heinlein went when he wrote his post fascist manifesto in the shape of sci fi. The author brings us to believe that there will be some good wars in the future, and that technology will do us a lot of good. So far, so good.
However, the influence of FW cannot be forgotten, and the heros have their doubts about their role as soldiers, human beings and killers in a fairly senseless universe. The writer does not go beyond the point of critizicing the misterious governing Colonial Defence Forces, and his characters go for the killing without a second thought. Even more, the Ghost Brigades are created as soldiers from DNA up and dont know any other life.
The novel, however, has a good point in that doesn't divinize youth, but puts a great strenght in the use and value of experience and old age.
As to the writing, there are some traps in the plot to justify the outcomes of things as they go, and Asimov would not admit some easy explanations.
So... this is not a clasic of sci-fi, but you'll enjoy it, particularly if you are new to the club or dont have anything to stick your teeth into.

Ho-Hum
Starship Troopers and its critique, the Forever War are the standard works in this genre and this novel is simply not in the same league. It recycles a lot from these two and does not actually expand or improve the concepts so obviously borrowed. If you have read these two novels I would not suggest reading this book as you will be disappointed, unless you are a 13-year old boy.
That said, the fact that this book was published does indicate how a budding writer can use the internet to get a book published. If you are a budding writer, then a study of the methods employed here may be of use. For that, you don't have to read the book.

Not for everyone
As there is obviously a great number of reviews of thís book I'll keep mine fairly short. This book was a bit of a mixed pleasure for me. Some parts of it I liked, whereas I found other parts a bit tedious.
My main complaint is in the alien bit. I like alien stuff - who doesn't, but I don't like it when you get too much of it. I find that aliens work best when they are kept slightly mysterious or are thoroughly presented. It seems as if Scalzi has had a lot of fun writing about different, very different, species, but this diversity is not really for me.