Old Man's War

Author: John Scalzi

There is something both delightfully old-fashioned and intriguingly up-to-date about John Scalzi's debut novel, Old Man's War. He originally published it on his website in 2002, where it proved so popular that Tor Books brought it out in 2005. It was the start of a career that has seen Scalzi consistently appear among the most popular writers in the genre today. The novel itself harks back to works like Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein, following a group of soldiers from recruitment and on into interplanetary warfare. What's different is that these are old people who have already lived a productive life before they join up; they are then put into a new, genetically-enhanced body and provided with an assortment of intriguing new technology.Old Man's War and its sequels are far from being gung-ho militaristic novels; our hero, John Perry, suffers psychological distress as a result of warfare, and it becomes far from clear whether the humans are actually on the right side in this war.Why it's on the list: Old Man's War topped a Tor.com poll for the best science fiction novel of 2000-2010, and a Locus poll for the best novel of the twenty-first century. The updating of Heinlein proves that traditional forms of science fiction still have immense appeal among science fiction readers today.

Books in Old Man's War Series (7)

Old Man's War

The Ghost Brigades

Old Manâ€™s War Series

Zoe S Tale

The Human Division

The End Of All Things