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 aliens willing to fight for them are common. The universe, it turns out, is a hostile place. So: we fight. To defend Earth (a target for our new enemies, … our new enemies, should we let them get close enough) and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has gone 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, which shields the home planet from too much knowledge of the situation. What’s known to everybody is 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 your time 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.
Old Man’s War Series
#1 Old Man’s War
#2 The Ghost Brigades
#3 The Last Colony
#4 Zoe’s Tale
#5 The Human Division
#6 The End of All Things
Short fiction: “After the Coup”
Other Tor Books
The Android’s Dream
Agent to the Stars
Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded
Fuzzy Nation
Redshirts
Lock In
The Collapsing Empire (forthcoming)
At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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Imagine you are an old man. Your wife is dead and there is nothing left in your life. You could always join the army. In the future, the army will give you a new body and training. They want you because your decades of experience make you a better soldier. There is only one catch — ever if you survive, you can never return to earth. Scazo reminds me a lot about Hienlien in the way he puts ordinary people into extraordinary situations.
This book is an oddity. A military sci-fi with good details on the science (especially genetics and bio-tech). Although the book is a tad predictable, the writing is absolutely stellar. I highly recommend this book if you are a sci-fi fan of the golden era.
SCI FI can still be original
The offer on your 80th birthday of a healthy, strong young (Mil Spec) Body in exchange for battling BEMS, I would take that deal, how about you? In fact, take me now!
Great book, great series. Read this!!!
Every now and then I like to read books by authors I’ve never read before, especially those who are new to book writing. So when I find a book I really enjoy, one that strikes the part of me where I say to myself, “Yesss, this is good”. Any prolific reader knows what I am talking about, and John Scalzi’s “Old Mans War” was one of those books. Science fiction, action, life extension, multiple alien races, settled planets, and space battles!! And though not as important, just to say it had everything, some romance too! Being on the older side myself, what’s not to love reading about getting a second life, in a body far superior to the original body, but still his own. I won’t give too much plot away, but any fans of fun science fiction will not be disappointed in reading this first novel by a talented new writer. As an added bonus, I am currently reading follow up stories in this series and can state there are no bad ones in the bunch.
This story was Robert A. Heinlein’s book “Starship Trooper” grown up. It was such a unique book from first sentence to end. Please give it a try, I’m sure you’ll like it.
Really fantastic series.
Superbly enjoyable. Frankly everything Scalzi does is eminently readable and fun.
Everyone should read everything that John scalzi had written. Dust with Old Man’s War. Make site to tread The Last Colony AND Zoe’s Tale.