Review: "Old Man's War" by John Scalzi

[megwrites]

Title: Old Man's War
Author: John Scalzi (Author's Official Website)
Genre: Science Fiction
Page Count: 320 (hardcover edition)
Publisher: Tor





Basic Plotline: Old Man's War is the tale of John Perry, who signs up for the Colonial Forces on his 75th Birthday. The Colonial Defense Forces (CDF) has been recruiting older people to join up on their 75th birthdays and leave Earth behind forever to fight for humanity's colonies and continued survival in the universe. As part of his recruitment, John Perry is given a new body that's engineered with the latest and best technology so that while his mind is 75, his body is roughly 25. After being given a new body and some basic training, he is sent out on the front lines to fight the many alien races who want to wipe humanity out of existence.

The Positives: I really loved the style this book was written in. It was as lean as I like it. What impressed me most about this novel was not the premise, the technology, the science, or even the characters. It was finally seeing someone do first person narration right. John Perry's tone and narration of the novel were pitch perfect. Not too detailed, but enough to let readers really get a feel for what he went through. It made him sympathetic but also allowed the story to flow, for the audience to see the larger universe through his eyes without his own life being so intrusive that one couldn't. The premise itself is pretty interesting and there are moments of pure comedy gold scattered through out the book. From the ship full of newly minted soldiers who use their improved bodies to fuck like bunnies or John Perry giving his internal BrainPal the name "Asshole" to make such statements as "Hey, Asshole, send a message for me..." possible. I also really liked the Ghost Brigades characters, but felt they weren't as fleshed out or fully realized as they could have been.

The Negatives: The only thing negative I have to say about the book is that there were a few moments when Perry got to be slightly Mary Sue and it sort of clashed with the theme of him being sort of an average everyman soldier that typified the CDF experience. He's the only one that the drill sergeant doesn't completely hate. He thinks up a firing solution that apparently nobody who's fought the Consu before him ever thought of. He's the only realborn member of the Ghost Brigades. I also felt like there was less plot than I wanted. I ended the book feeling like I'd tasted something very good but very small. It left me going, "That's it?". I expected for there to be a twist or a catch towards the end, perhaps with Perry finding out some dark secret about the CDF forces or the Ghost Brigades, but he didn't. None of these things, however, truly interfered with me enjoying this book.


CoC Score: 4. There are some characters of color in the book. Most bite it. Some don't. They aren't really brought to the forefront and most characters come off as white even when they may not be, which I feel is failing. I also feel that it's some what naive of this author to believe that if we're all put into green bodies that racial issues will evaporate. I awarded an extra point because there is some consciousness of racism in the book and some explanation of why the racial make up of the CDF might be skewed. Not sufficient for me, of course, but there is an attempt.

GLBT Score: 2. The one openly gay person in the book gets killed. Gee, what a surprise. I saw that coming from the minute he came out as gay to the rest of the characters. I spent this books wincing and waiting for his imminent demise. So, if you're particularly sensitive to The Gay Guy Gets It First Syndrom, look away.

Gender Score: 4. Most of the female soldiers in this novel also die. I'd be less harsh about this because the book does warn us that there is a high mortality rate among soldiers and they tend to die very quickly - but when the straight white guys have a higher survival rate than the CoC, GLBT, and female characters? Then I get tetchy. I gave an extra point because there is one very interesting Ghost Brigades female soldier (Jane) that lives and goes on to be in another novel (The Ghost Brigades, which is the sequel).

Comments

[nwhyte]

I had serious reservations about this one, for related (if slightly inaccurate) reasons.

[fiction-theory.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting take on the novel, and now that I see your response to it, I agree pretty wholeheartedly.

The entire bit about the former Senator walking into to make peace like that came off as stupid to me and did kind of wonder why he thought just walking into someone's equivalent of a church service after you shot a bunch of them and saying "hey, let's make peace" would actually work - but I didn't realize until I read your review how stupid that was. I was willing to let it go as Scalzi's attempt to make the narrator seem smarter in contrast to people around him.

As for people talking like 30 year olds, I'm afraid I can't judge. I turned 25 a mere 4 days ago and I am of the LOLcat and netspeak generation, alas. And I handwaved with a simple, "Well, who knows what old people will talk like in the future?" After all, in another 50 years you'll have people in nursing homes who's favorite song is "I Like Big Butts" by Sir Mixalot. The future may be a little bit weird.

Still, you're spot on about the diplomacy bits.