John Scalzi - Old Man's War

Humble Bundle is a nonprofit that lets you pay what you want for a bundle of things, and the money goes to charity. They are most fameous for their game bundles, such as the Humble Indie Bundles, which have 5 or so independent games, but recently they have started branching out into music and ebooks. I got "Old Man's War" in the Humble eBook Bundle. I had heard of the author before, but I never read any of his work. Apparently, Scalzi is the president of the Sci Fi and Fantasy Writers of America, and he's written a bunch of novels.

The book is set in a universe where humans have had faster than light travel for about two centuries and have started colonizing other planets. Earth is kept in the dark about what goes on in outer space, leaving the Colonial Defense Forces in control. To go into outer space, you have to serve in the CDF's army for 10 years. You can't do that until you're 75, at which point they make you into a (young) super soldier. Thus, a lot of folks join the CDF to avoid death from old age. John Perry, the protagonist, is one such person.

I enjoyed the book. It has good action. The world is different enough to be interesting, but Scalzi keeps the focus on few enough elements of his world to avoid lots of boring descriptions. He grounds his science fictions in enough science fact that his descriptions seem like a plausible technological future (well, much of it), which is cool.

The book touches on a lot of interesting topics, too. The protagonist was anti-war on earth, but now he's a soldier. There are lots of discussions of the sci-fi physics. The question of what a person would be like if they were born as an adult and already with their job.

Overall, a very strong book.