It’s AUGUST! And, it’s WEDNESDAY! In fact, it’s the FIRST WEDNESDAY OF THE MONTH! And clearly, it’s time for a book blog.
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi is my most recent sci-fi book group book – and the first one that I’ve written about BEFORE discussing it with my book group. It was my pick, chosen because it received good reviews and the premise looked promising.
In the future, there is space travel and Earth is involved in an all-out offensive against basically all other races for the limited number of habitable planets out there. If you leave Earth you never come back and you only “get” to go colonize if you are from a non-industrialized area with overpopulation. Or, you can enlist in the military. The caveat being, you enlist when you are 65 years old, and you leave on your 75th birthday. You are, to the people on earth, dead. You have signed up for 2 years of military service, but they have the right to keep you for 10 years. Surprise! They keep everyone for 10 years! This is not a spoiler. If you make it 10 years (or 2 and they let you go for some reason) then you get to start a whole new life as a colonist. The book jacket describes how this is possible, but the book itself treats it as a surprise, so I won’t tell you how.
The style of storytelling is an ode to classic science fiction – creative aliens, describing new and fanciful technology, crazy math to explain how things happen, and lots of chapters where not much happens – it’s just about world-building or technology creating. However, there is also some excellent writing. I enjoyed reading the book, and I never stopped to think this is silly, or trying too hard, or obnoxiously literal or overly full of similes. It’s just well-written, and also enjoyably written. I giggled out loud a couple times and I actually stopped reading at one point to say “I’m just really enjoying my book”. It’s not a junk-food book where you can’t put it down and have to read it as fast as you can but you are excited to return to it and feel pleasure in its passing. Notably, in contrast to classic sci-fi: the women in the book are just people, some people are gay and some are straight, they come from different races, some people are legitimately annoying, some people are religious but not all of them, and there is very little moral/religious/philosophical discussion.
The main character, John Perry, ships out with the Colonial Defense Forces (“CDF”) on his 75th birthday. The CDF’s job is to go out and kill basically everything that is not human. John and his wife signed up together, but she died unexpectedly a couple years before they turned 75. He follows through on enlistment because he doesn’t have much else to do and he wants to live longer and start again. So, he joins the military where he gets to meet new people, train, follow orders, and kill everything that is not human. The book is primarily a series of pieces of John Perry’s life after he joins the military and each section is just long enough for you to learn the things you are interested in and then there is a new section in time to prevent you from being bored with the old section.
The following things that you are inevitably waiting for throughout the book are not going to happen:
– A great religious awakening
– A great negotiation and peace
– A great rebellion within the ranks
There is a big “reveal” . . . such as it is. I didn’t find it particularly earth (or space or time continuum) shattering myself. I found it interesting, and I appreciated it, but as a “climax” – well Mr. Scalzi and I may have different definitions of the word.
I was both surprised and taken with the underlying sweetness and romanticism that drives the book. As such things do, it actually made me a bit melancholy. I consider this thread the real plot of the book. While you are learning about space elevators and genetic engineering and giant battles and crazy aliens this thread pulls you through and makes it more than a romp through imagination-land. There are legitimate criticisms of the book: it’s not AMAZING, there are holes in the plot if you really think about it, and if you are waiting for a big mystery/surprise related to the war you will be sadly disappointed. But if you consider the book in terms of a fun and creative read with a thread of hope and love that transforms it into something a little more then I think you’ll be happy you read it. Rating on my current system: if I wrote this book I would be damn proud of myself and would want you to read it.
Hey, it turns out there are sequels! I won’t even tell you their names, because I think they contain spoilers. Plus, I don’t have any burning need to read the sequels, although I am contemplating it – for the writing. This book felt complete and so I don’t need a continuation but I also enjoyed his writing enough that I would contemplate reading the sequels. I would prefer to read an altogether new concept from him but I do worry that he may not have another story in him. If the real story is the underlying thread of hope and love, would any new story he writes have that same undertone and therefore lack freshness and vision? Or would it just be his “thing” sort of like how Heinlein books imply that polygamy is the solution to all the world’s problems? Well, he has three other stand alone novels in addition to the sequels and another book scheduled for release in 2012. I guess I’ll find out!
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