Old Man's War

I want to start by saying that I have a great time reading this book. It was fun, entertaining, fast, and funny, though I can totally understand someone not finding enjoyment in the humor. The writing makes for an easily digestible book that flies by in the blink of an eye. There are some cool aliens and some cool military stuff, i suppose.

While I did enjoy myself, there are also a number of flaws that kept me from thinking that this is a piece of high literary sci-fi. There seems to be a purposeful lack of descriptive writing when it comes to anything: people, places, combat, aliens, or emotions. I had a hard time actually conjuring any mental image of anything, leaving my view into the world clouded and muddled. Perhaps that's just Scalzi's writing style, but it didn't agree with me. Secondly, I was hoping that the scope of the story would increase over time, but ended up being disappointment. Not that every sci-fi book has to end on some grand scale, but the world of Old Man's War felt rather tight and constrictive a setting as big as the universe.

Lastly, and perhaps most damning, was the strength of it's message. For a book all about the ethics and horrors of war, Scalzi is rather timid when it comes to his anti-war stance. There are moments that seem to either glorify or otherwise shrug off the the violent acts being committed, and yet Scalzi seems determined to make you know that he, deep down, doesn't actually like it. The same can be said about his messages on the ethics of cloning/consciousness transferring. Everything feels mixed and wishy-washy. It's clear that the main point of Old Man's War isn't meant to be some condemnation of war, but if that was the case why include these half-baked attempts at it. I just wish that the direction was more clear.

All of that being said, I still enjoyed the book for what it is: A fun action-movie like military adventure that has some cool aliens thrown in. Not sure as of yet that will continue the series, as six books is quite a lot of this type of thing.