Critic At Large: Old Man’s War

Military SF doesn’t usually hold much appeal for me, but I picked up Old Man’s War on the strength of recommendations from Cory Doctorow, among others.  The novel’s basic premise is this: in the future, senior citizens on Earth can volunteer for the Colonial Defense Force to protect human colonies from ruthless alien civilizations that are competing for the same real estate.  The bennies of CDF service include a brand spanking new genetically modified body primed for combat duty.  John Perry, a widower and writer (natch), narrates the story of his transformation from newbie CDF recruit to grizzled veteran of several battles with assorted alien baddies.

Several reviewers have compared this novel to Heinlein’s classic Starship Troopers (which I haven’t read).  I was worried the book would be a testosterone-fueled romp through the galaxy complete with obsessively detailed whiz-bang descriptions of the military’s toys.  There’s some of that, but Scalzi chooses to focus on the human costs of war and the arbitrariness of those losses.  I do wish that characterization had been a little stronger.  Many of the supporting characters seemed to be indistinguishable; they might as well have been called Wise-Cracking, Jaded Soldier #1, Wise-Cracking, Jaded Soldier #2, and so on.  But Scalzi has crafted a satisfyingly lean machine of a plot that kept me too entertained to pay much mind to the book’s flaws.  I will likely pick up Scalzi’s sequel, The Ghost Brigades. 

Next up: the It Book of the summer, Scott Smith’s The Ruins.