#old man's war

[thelastofthebookworms]

You'll find the other polls in my 'sf polls' tag / my pinned post.

[bean-writes]

Now taking ficlet/one-shot requests!

Comment your request (any fandom, genre, theme, whatever)!

I'm curious to see what you guys ask for!

[spockvarietyhour]

Scalzi served as Creative Consultant on SGU so it's only fair someone would carry his book.

[lordguppi]

Meh :)

[lukecoalman]

I did this drawing after reading Old Man's War by John Scalzi. I liked imagining the CDF as Kirby like space opera soldiers. With their green skin and unitards. Just finished reading Ghost Brigades. The books are a ton of fun.

[desdasiwrites]

"The universe is a big place. Maybe we're not in the best neighborhood."

– John Scalzi, Old Man's War

[cultivating-wildflowers]

Books of 2023 - June

Temporarily broke out of a reading funk by finding some easy sci-fi; but the rest of the series didn't exactly hold up, and I'm back to where I started (behind on my non-fic list, slogging through a good but thick historical fiction, and unable to focus on anything). It may be time for a reread that isn't Narnia.

Total books: 7  |  New reads: 6   |   2023 TBR completed: 1 (0 DNF) / 12/25 total   |   2023 Reading Goal: 43/50

May | July

#1 - Old Man's War by John Scalzi - 5/5 stars

*obligatory content advisory here: language, violence, and gore on a level with The Murderbot Diaries; sexual content on a level with the World of the Five Gods series (and easy to skip)*

The easiest way for me to describe this book is "Ender's Game but with retirees instead of children". And possibly a little less introspection on the part of our hero, not that I'm complaining.

I snagged a copy of this book from my local used bookstore after a friend heartily recommended it. (Thankfully the dust jacket was missing, because I found what the cover art probably looked like and. No thanks.) When a succession of historical fiction, children's fantasy, and classics left me feeling a little bored, I decided it was time to pick up Old Man's War.

I tore through it inside of 24 hours.

While the main character's voice is a little bland, the writing itself is fantastic: bantering dialogue, masterful strokes of world-building, a good balance of humor and gravity, just enough techno-babble to convey the stakes without bogging down the story, and moments of sincerity that made me tear up. Solid sci-fi all around.

#2 - Jane of Lantern Hill by L.M. Montgomery - 4/5 stars (audio)

Another hit from Montgomery. This one reminded me a lot of The Blue Castle, which was an automatic point in its favor. A straightforward, cozy sort of story; although, knowing it was Montgomery's last book and that she was working on the sequel when she died, I got to the last couple of chapters and really started to fret that we wouldn't get a resolution before "The End". (Spoiler: everything turned out alright.)

#3 - The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi - 5/5 stars (audio)

This sequel to Old Man's War features a new POV character and a new cast, with a few familiar faces thrown in. I definitely found Jared's POV far more compelling and engaging than John's, but what I really loved were the underlying themes of home and belonging. I also appreciated a deeper dive into technicalities that were understandably brushed over in the first book. It worked well here, with characters who needed that deeper knowledge.

#4 - The Last Colony by John Scalzi - 4/5 stars (audio)

And back to John's POV for most of this one. John is just so...meh. I don't know why but he isn't compelling to me. He feels shallow, maybe?

The story itself is solid as ever and I really liked the conflict. A little predictable, but good all the same.

#5 - Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi - 3/5 stars (audio)

Scalzi's weak point really seems to be his characters. Somehow, despite not actually being related to him, Zoe suffers from the same "just some guy" syndrome as her father John (but not in the way that makes it fun). I think most of it stems from Mr. Scalzi not really knowing how to write teenagers.

As for the book itself? Decidedly meh. It's a retelling of the story from the previous book, told from the POV of John's adopted daughter. About 75% of the book tells about Zoe's experiences while her parents are trying to keep their new colony from collapsing, sprinkled here and there with details we didn't get in The Last Colony.

And it's frickin' boring. It feels plain old lazy, like Scalzi finished his trilogy and then had all these ideas of things he wished he'd added to The Last Colony, so he went back and added them in, and then swore the POV character and her friends to secrecy so it didn't look like retconning.

But hey, I got a title that starts with "Z" for my alphabet book challenge, so? (Also if anyone sees this, this is the book with the unhugging.)

#6 - The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis - 5/5 stars (reread)

I never noticed before this reread exactly how much Lewis loved the dynamic of "snarky boy and girl thrown into an adventure where half of their mistakes are because they're stubborn and the other half because they're showing off". Eustace and Jill, Aravis and Shasta, and now Digory and Polly.

This installment shot up into second place on my list of favorite Narnia books. There are so many little things to admire here, and so many intriguing questions it opens up for the world of Narnia. (Where did the Lady of the Green Kirtle come from if she was one of Jadis's race? What happened to the toffee tree? What happened to the guarding apple tree? Why don't we see more pegasuses in the other books? If Frank and Helen's kids married nymphs and dryads and the like...I don't really know what the question is but I have one.)

#7 - Ahab by E.B. Dawson - 3/5 stars ('23 TBR)

"It is the nature of man to fight his enemies. If none are readily available, he will create them for himself."

I would like to start by saying I've never read Moby Dick and possess only a passing understanding of the plot. So as for how this retelling holds up to and honors the original? No idea.

It had a strong opening that carried through to about the 40% mark, but after the first major confrontation the pace eased up and I got distracted for...well, several weeks. At that point it was easy to get back into, but somewhere around the 70% mark things switched gears and the ending felt incredibly rushed. Who are all of these new characters? Wait, this specific issue is what we should be focusing on? The final confrontation is happening NOW? And then the epilogue, which…again, felt rushed.

I loved the broad strokes of the worldbuilding and I liked what was happening with the characters, but it seemed like we needed a little more time to process a rush of information near the end and fully understand the stakes; or maybe when the pace eased up at the 40% point, we needed that time to learn the true stakes and character motivations, instead of taking a romance subplot sidetrack (which I wanted to like but, again: not enough time). Overall, it felt incomplete.

My only other complaint was that the dialogue was kind of stiff. I definitely skimmed a lot of that.

DNF

Synapse by Steven James - Talk about heavy-handed spiritual themes. They were Mjolnir-heavy, and I only got 3% of the way in before stopping.

World-building was clunky rather than organic, and not at all eased by general exposition. "There was an explosion. Ok, now that I have your attention, lemme info-dump on you about everything that looks different here compared to your world and time." (Side note: will someone please give us more sci-fi/futuristic stories where the main characters go "don't ask me how nano tech works; I'm in customer service!")

The search for tolerable modern Christian spec fic continues.

[archiethinking]

More on the first book of Old Man's War.

The book as a whole is bittersweet. Its like a literary tug-of-war. You get a piece of story, a little excitement. You progress the protag's story. But for every little thing you take, the book eventually tugs back. A death here, an emotional exposé there. The story isn't all too positive, but it ends on a hopeful note. The protag, having gone through several wars and having lost many of his friends, has finally gotten to a point of stability. The raw force of the ocean waves calms to a pleasant breeze--and even though you know there will be more sadness and tragedy in the next one, you are relieved to see him having evolved to a place with promising avenues, with a person he loves out there somewhere, on special secret missions he doesn't know much about, not for the lack of trying.

[klinefelterrible]

DISCWORLD FANDOM

OUAT FANDOM

And other fandoms I enjoy

THANK YOU FOR BEING THERE FOR ME AND WITH ME

anyway the actual point of fandom is to inspire each other. reading each other's fics and admiring each other's art and saying wow i love this and i feel something and i want to invoke this in other people, i want to write a sentence that feels like a meteor shower, i want to paint a kiss with such tenderness it makes you ache, i want to create something that someone else somewhere will see it and think oh, i need to do that too, right now. i am embracing being a corny cunt on main to say inspiring each other is one of the things humanity is best at and one of the things fandom is built for and i think that's beautiful

[thisworldisablackhole]

Old Man's War, by John Scalzi - 3.5/5

To be honest, I was a little bit hesitant to read this one right after reading Ender's Game. Ender's Game was just such a slog and it kind of soured me on the very male-oriented military sci-fi perspective, and with a book literally called "Old Man's War", I was very much expecting the same type of bland narrative.

Well, I was wrong. And I couldn't be happier. Old Man's War was an absolute treat, albeit far from perfect. There are still some similarities to Ender's Game of course, especially in the way the book is written (it's very easy to follow along with), but Old Man's War flips the script on it's head and takes a much more satirical approach inspired by Starship Troopers. This book is simply hilarious, and more so, it is honest about it's intentions. Scalzi doesn't try to sell us on some bullshit philosophy, double entendres or questionable politics like Orson Scott Card did. There's even a point where the hilarious Master Sergeant Antonio Ruiz says something along the lines of "If you think we are trying to wear you down, it's because we are." There are no mind games being played here.

Old Man's War has a great sense of humour and fantastic pacing, but it definitely leans heavily on tropes, often to it's detriment. The jokes begin to feel a little predictable and corny, and John Perry sometime seems like too much of a "perfect" main character. You know, the type that doesn't really have any flaws and always does everything right. Despite this, there is a subtle shift toward a more serious tone in the end, and a very well written twist that somehow managed to make me still give a shit about the characters.

I don't think I loved the book enough to pursue the rest of the series (at least not right away), but damn this was just a fun read. I heard someone use the term "popcorn reading" to describe this book, and I think they put it perfectly. This is pure entertainment—the type of book I think everyone needs on their shelf to give them a break from more dense and convoluted reads. In that way, it accomplishes exactly what it set out to do, with flying colours. Well done, Scalzi.

Now I'm already a decent chunk into A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine, and I'm absolutely loving it. A much needed change in perspective that I am so grateful for.

[spockvarietyhour]

Love the lil touch of Chuck reading The Martian General's Daughter. It comes up in Universe too with a random airman reading Old Man's War in Subversion:

[allskywalkerswhine]

in fics where luke gets plopped into the prequels i want every jedi within ten metres of him to think hes the weirdest jedi theyve ever seen. he has negative lightsaber form. he doesnt know what a kata is. he handstands when he meditates. his solution to sith is to try and have a chat. hes a political radical who keeps suggesting revolution. you ask him what the jedi code is and he says "kindness and compassion and helping those in need :) ". you ask how he used the force like that and he says some shit about how you are a luminous being limited only by your mind. the councils authority is just a suggestion. he is somehow the new favourite of both qui gon and yoda

[phatburd]

Flaunting it just to enrage the anon:

what’s your opinion on those people who buy/collect multiple editions of the same book just bc they “love” it? personally i think its kind of weird and annoying to be that obsessed with one book, and also kind of classist to show off that you can afford wasting money like that. but idk, what’s your stance?

go outside

[ofburntorangesuns]

Rex ol' boy

[desdasiwrites]

– John Scalzi, Old Man's War 

[quotent-potables]

With this book we've reached the end of our journeys with John Perry and Jane Sagan. I like to think they go on. But they go on without us.

— Acknowledgements to The Last Colony, book 3 of the Old Man's War universe, by John Scalzi