Old Man's War

John, the protagonist of Old Man's War, doesn't know what he's in for when he enlists to join the Colonial Defense Forces at age eighty. He's soon given a new body, and sent to fight a dirty war against a plethora of alien races, over the scarce habitable worlds of the Galaxy.

The idea of an old man joining the Army might seem like something of a gimmick, but like pretty much everything else in Scalzi's first novel, it turns out to be a pretty defining and memorable trait. The novel starts out quietly, with a bunch of old men and women wondering what the future has in store for them; but miraculously, by the time things kick into overdrive, these characters are still not lost from sight.

You'll have guessed it from the summary: Old Man's War does pay hommage to Heinlein. The author even acknowledges it at the end of the novel, and he never tries to hide from his influence. That doesn't mean the novel doesn't have its fair share of cool, new ideas, however: the BrainPal, for instance, is a clever plot device that gave a lot of originality and flair to the story.

Ultimately, Old Man's War plays out as a perfect balancing act between classical, old-school SF, and modern, tongue-in-cheek SF with a taste for humor and characterization. It works beautifully well, and provides a rare SF escapade that manages both to delight with comedic turns of phrases, and engross with a real sense of adventure.

If there's one thing to be said against the novel, it's that it feels a little bit thrown together. There's little connection between the races that the character is sent to fight, although a sense of connection does emerge in the end. The author wanted to give a sense of the immensity of a galactic fight, but in so doing, it's not so much the fights that push the reader forward, but the sheer pleasure of reading Scalzi's prose.