Runo Knows...Old Man's War
I read Old Man's War all in one night. That's not because it's short - though it isn't a huge tome, like The Soul Drinker's Omnibus or even Freehold is. That's also not because it's vacuous or fluff.
Instead, it's because John Scalzi weaves a story that reminds me very much of its progenitors - Starship Troopers, The Forever War, maybe even a bit of John Steakley's Armor.
Probably the best way to think of it is Starship Troopers with a sense of humor.
At age 75, Americans can enlist in the Colonial Defense Force. An enlistment can run as short as two years, though most are dragged out to the full ten years allowed. 75% or so of enlistees don't survive those ten years, though most volunteers don't know that when they sign up.
That's because the colonies are basically off-limits to most of humanity - especially Americans, and are mostly being settled by poor refugees from overpopulated countries like India or China. Americans have to join the CDF in order to become colonists, must be of at least age 75 to join, and once they do they can't ever go back to Earth.
John Perry is the narrator of the book - it's written in first person. His wife having died a few years before, he enlists, and like most of his new-found friends in their "Old Farts" clique, wonders what they're going to do with a number of geriatric soldiers.
The answer, they find, is simple: they give them new bodies. Soon all of those geriatrics are in twenty year old bodies, completely with trademarked patented SmartBlood (tm), green skin, and amazing physical capabilities. Then it's off to boot camp.
Humanity is greatly outnumbered in the stars. Most of the races spend their time constantly fighting; the ones that don't fight typically get run over by those who do. Thus, humanity is constantly doing battle with various races.
For instance, there are the enigmatic Consu. The Consu have powerful force fields, an unattackable home system, and a very honor-bound, codified, type of battle. Just why they don't wipe out everyone else is a mystery.
There are some "throw away" type races, ones you only see briefly. Perry takes place in a raid that almost feels right out of the Starship Troopers raid on the Skinnies. He almost loses his mind when they take out the most human-like of enemy aliens - aliens who are only one inch high, and whose ground-based weapons can barely hurt a person. (That section there is probably the funniest part of the entire book - yet still touching at the same time as he tries to reconcile what he's become to who he is).
In Starship Troopers there's a military catastrophe, some small resolution to it, and life (and the wars) goes on. Same here - over 95,000 soldiers are killed when one set of aliens, less technologically advanced than humanity, finds out a way to predict where skip drive spaceships will enter a system. Ferris being one of the few survivors of that raid has to wonder if he's going mad, while being recruited into finding out what happened and helping to keep it from happening again.
And then...it's done.
It's the kind of book that can easily have sequels (and, indeed, there are) - yet it doesn't need it, despite the fact that it doesn't really conclude. It's almost nicer that way. I can honestly say it's one of the few times I've thought about getting the sequel and thought "You know what? Maybe not."
(Think how much happier we'd all be if we'd done that with The Matrix!)
Instead, it's because John Scalzi weaves a story that reminds me very much of its progenitors - Starship Troopers, The Forever War, maybe even a bit of John Steakley's Armor.
Probably the best way to think of it is Starship Troopers with a sense of humor.
At age 75, Americans can enlist in the Colonial Defense Force. An enlistment can run as short as two years, though most are dragged out to the full ten years allowed. 75% or so of enlistees don't survive those ten years, though most volunteers don't know that when they sign up.
That's because the colonies are basically off-limits to most of humanity - especially Americans, and are mostly being settled by poor refugees from overpopulated countries like India or China. Americans have to join the CDF in order to become colonists, must be of at least age 75 to join, and once they do they can't ever go back to Earth.
John Perry is the narrator of the book - it's written in first person. His wife having died a few years before, he enlists, and like most of his new-found friends in their "Old Farts" clique, wonders what they're going to do with a number of geriatric soldiers.
The answer, they find, is simple: they give them new bodies. Soon all of those geriatrics are in twenty year old bodies, completely with trademarked patented SmartBlood (tm), green skin, and amazing physical capabilities. Then it's off to boot camp.
Humanity is greatly outnumbered in the stars. Most of the races spend their time constantly fighting; the ones that don't fight typically get run over by those who do. Thus, humanity is constantly doing battle with various races.
For instance, there are the enigmatic Consu. The Consu have powerful force fields, an unattackable home system, and a very honor-bound, codified, type of battle. Just why they don't wipe out everyone else is a mystery.
There are some "throw away" type races, ones you only see briefly. Perry takes place in a raid that almost feels right out of the Starship Troopers raid on the Skinnies. He almost loses his mind when they take out the most human-like of enemy aliens - aliens who are only one inch high, and whose ground-based weapons can barely hurt a person. (That section there is probably the funniest part of the entire book - yet still touching at the same time as he tries to reconcile what he's become to who he is).
In Starship Troopers there's a military catastrophe, some small resolution to it, and life (and the wars) goes on. Same here - over 95,000 soldiers are killed when one set of aliens, less technologically advanced than humanity, finds out a way to predict where skip drive spaceships will enter a system. Ferris being one of the few survivors of that raid has to wonder if he's going mad, while being recruited into finding out what happened and helping to keep it from happening again.
And then...it's done.
It's the kind of book that can easily have sequels (and, indeed, there are) - yet it doesn't need it, despite the fact that it doesn't really conclude. It's almost nicer that way. I can honestly say it's one of the few times I've thought about getting the sequel and thought "You know what? Maybe not."
(Think how much happier we'd all be if we'd done that with The Matrix!)