Published January 15th 2007
“John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife’s grave. Then he joined the army.
The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce– and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. So: we fight. To defend Earth, and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding.
Earth itself is a backwater. The bulk of humanity’s resources are in the hands of the Colonial Defense Force. Everybody knows that when you reach retirement age, you can join the CDF. They don’t want young people; they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. You’ll be taken off Earth and never allowed to return. You’ll serve two years at the front. And if you survive, you’ll be given a generous homestead stake of your own, on one of our hard-won colony planets.
John Perry is taking that deal. He has only the vaguest idea what to expect. Because the actual fight, light-years from home, is far, far harder than he can imagine–and what he will become is far stranger.”
After someone in Instagram recommended this book to me, I ordered it right away. The first line of the synopsis had me interested immediately. I had pretty high hopes for this book and it definitely didn’t let me down.
This book is so amazingly well written. Everything was described in a way that I could picture easily, despite how complex and futuristic everything was. Sometimes it become really techy and I was on the verge of getting bored. But after a while, all the tech talk went away so it didn’t bug me too much.
The first person narrative actually worked really, really well for this book. The protagonist is funny, sarcastic, and really likable. His humor was one of my favorite things about this book. At times, John would make a joke or comment and I would laugh out loud.
I don’t have a lot to say for this review because I was so wrapped up in the story and the characters that I forgot to be critical, which is really rare for me.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was fun and interesting but at the same time, there was a lot about this book that was very thought provoking. I read the whole book in a couple of days because I just couldn’t put it down. I’ll definitely be getting the sequel. If you like science fiction, space, or just a really well written, imaginative story, I highly recommend Old Man’s War. This is definitely one of my new favorites.
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