I know, I know – I’m late to the party on the Scalzi-love. That’s what I get for reading too many comics, probably…

John Perry joins the army on his 75th birthday after a quiet life as an advertising copy writer in middle America. He and his wife had both signed the Intent to Join ten years previously and had a few standard medical tests but it wasn’t binding. Now, with Kathy long dead and an adult son who no longer needs him, Perry feels like joining the army is a pretty good idea. They’ll make him younger, able to fight – and when your body’s failing you that sounds pretty damn tempting – and after five years, maybe ten, he’ll be cut loose, still young, and with a whole new life to lead.

All he has to do is accept he’ll never see Earth again.

The army in question is the Colonial Defense Force, mankind’s only front in an ongoing interstellar game of tug with hundreds of other alien races. It seems that there are only limited number of planets available for colonization out there, and there aren’t many races inclined to share.

Old Man’s War follows Perry as he receives a fantastic new body grown from the DNA taken from him ten years before, goes through basic training, and is thrown into combat. Anchored by Perry’s dry wit, the book is by turns funny, sad and horrific as he discovers that going to war against aliens isn’t all it’s cracked up to be when you and your friends have a survival rate of less than 25%. And as Perry progresses through the ranks, he comes to question the wisdom of the CDF’s strategy – especially when he encounters a Special Forces soldier who bears a striking resemblance to his late wife; just who are the Ghost Brigade anyway?

John Scalzi’s first entry into his popular series of books is, to put it bluntly, great. I don’t want to say it’s rip-roaring because that sounds a little hyperbolic, but it is rip-roaring. It’s fast paced, well-written with sharp characterization, an engaging narrative and plenty of twists. It’s got enough SCIENCE! to keep harder sci-fi readers interested without overwhelming more casual sci-fi readers like me.

Plus, it has a scene with a battle between humans and tiny Lilliputian-type aliens which involves lots of stomping – and while that sounds inherently funny, it’s actually a scene where the futility of it all really hits Perry.

For people who enjoy science-fiction, even casually, I really can’t recommend this enough.

Old Man’s War is available on Amazon, and also at all good bookstores, but I don’t get a commission from them so, you know…