Old Man’s War by John Scalzi – Book Review
Rating: 7/10
[easyazon_image add_to_cart=”no” align=”left” asin=”0765348276″ cloaking=”default” height=”500″ localization=”default” locale=”US” nofollow=”default” new_window=”default” src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51e343A7TCL.jpg” tag=”buzmag-20″ width=”310″]Getting old isn’t for sissies. Once you turn 30, your back starts to ache, arthritis is your middle name, and ED stands for something other than eating disorder. Then there’s that whole dying thing. Sucks doesn’t it? But what if getting old wasn’t inevitable? What if “turning back the clock” was as simple as a handshake and a couple of triplicate forms?
Sound cliché? Well, no one can blame you. After all, how many novels have been written with this same exact premise? Answer: a lot of them. Old Man’s War has all of the above. But don’t go mistaking it for Death Becomes Her.
John Perry is old, seventy five, to be exact. He should be happy to have lived so long. But life hasn’t been kind to ‘ole John. His back’s crooked, his organs aren’t exactly in tip-top shape, and to make things worse, his wife of forty some years is dead. Feeling depressed and uncertain where to turn Perry signs his life away to the Colonial Defense Forces, a shadowy organization that recruits the aged and infirm to populate the stars.
Clutching his one-way ticket to nowhere, Perry makes his bed and lies in it, and what a bed it is! Armed with a new, 19 year-old body Perry’s life goes from stalled to fantastic. In a space of a week, he goes from being just another old guy to discovering superhuman powers he never knew possible (cough *sex* cough). Just as soon as he gets used to the party, he finds himself on the frontlines of an intergalactic war, protecting the humanity against some of the worst E.T.’s the universe has to offer.
It’s a life of heroism, danger, and camaraderie. There’s just one thing missing: his wife.
An entertaining romp equal parts escapism and critique, Old Man’s War belongs in the category of fantastic (in the literary sense) sci-fi. The prose may not be Lovecraftian, it’s got everything else. Weird looking aliens, giant space ships, hook-ups, break ups, the whole bit. Mass Effect, for the geriatric crowd.
Old Man’s War is the perfect beach read for 2010.
John Winn – Staff Writer
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John Winn
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