Rating: 4.5⭐️
I’ve been reading several 2026 Hugo Awards winners and nominees recently and John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series won for Best Series so I thought I’d check it out as I’m obviously late to discovering this author.
Old Man’s War, the first book in the series was written in 2007 and is an excellent read. The plot is so well written and one that is easy to understand and relate to one multiple levels.
John Perry is 75. His beloved wife has died and he mourns her and their life together deeply. Their son is grown up, settled down and has a family of his own. John is mentally and emotionally adrift from his life without his wife. And has made plans to move on. He’s joined the Army.
Along with a massive number of other 75 year old seniors from around the world.
There’s an interstellar space war going on and soldiers are needed to fight for humanity’s survival. Old men and women will be made young again in order to fight for humanity against the aliens.
That’s the plot. And it’s a great one. How Scalzi pulls it off, the mental and physical impact of this on those who become the “next generation of fighters”.
All these people leaving Earth and their old lives behind forever for the unknown. The way that will impact them, their way of thinking and understanding humanity. And even relationships. The possibility of even having one in a war that stretches on forever.
All those ethical or emotional dilemmas that John or the others might have are quickly dealt with by the realistic military structure as necessary to win the war and continue the increasingly complex alien engagements.
Interesting elements will emerge as important themes of the series, such as cellular memory and philosophical questioning about what makes a being a person. Even identity comes into play towards the end when the possibility of cellular memory is introduced.
Scalzi in his Author’s notes talks about what books he found informative, including Heinlen’s Starship Troopers and later on (my favorite) Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War. I see that in the Starship Troopers as many have written.
The characters that surround John are notable in the sense that they are only just above one dimensional level. We are just getting started with connecting to each of them emotionally and then it’s time for reality to set in. They’re frontline soldiers.
Events are fast paced and full of military action in space. Strange aliens and space ships and bloody battles that have killed thousands, perhaps even more.
The ending is open for the next book. Where some of the questions raised here might be given further exploration. Can’t wait to read it next.
Highly recommended. Especially if you’re a fan of the books I mentioned.
Cover design by Jamie Stafford-Hill
Old Man’s War (7 book series)
Old Man’s War Series
#1 Old Man’s War
#2 The Ghost Brigades
#3 The Last Colony
#4 Zoe’s Tale
#5 The Human Division
#6 The End of All Things
Short fiction: “After the Coup”
Buy link
Blurb
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 aliens willing to fight for them are common. The universe, it turns out, is a hostile place.
So: we fight. To defend Earth (a target for our new enemies, should we let them get close enough) and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has gone 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, which shields the home planet from too much knowledge of the situation. What’s known to everybody is 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 your time at the front. And if you survive, you’ll be given a generous homestead stake of your own, on one of our hard-won colony planets.
John Perry is taking that deal. He has only the vaguest idea what to expect. Because the actual fight, light-years from home, is far, far harder than he can imagine-and what he will become is far stranger.
Old Man’s War Series
#1 Old Man’s War
#2 The Ghost Brigades
#3 The Last Colony
#4 Zoe’s Tale
#5 The Human Division
#6 The End of All Things
Short fiction: “After the Coup”
Tor Books
Publication date
April 1, 2007
Language
English
Print length
308 pages
Book 1 of 7
