My Review

Scalzi is imaginative and provocative, especially when it comes to what seems to be the major theme of both Old Man’s War and The Android’s Dream: what it means to be human.In this story we have a protagonist who is physically less human than he once was, and who goes through a period of fearing the loss of his psychological humanity as well. He and the others have to face and answer for themselves questions about how they are human, how human they are, and how much it really matters.

Other issues Scalzi raises include youth and aging, death (natural and otherwise), purpose, and identity. Some with more subtlety than others.

Though at times he tends to tell more than show, the story is entertaining, the themes are probing, and the writing is great. This is the first in a series of four (so far), so there are some elements that you can be certain of from early on—like you could be certain that a team from the Enterprise would always return with Kirk, but without an unnamed security guard or two—but there are a great many surprises along the way.

Genre

Sci-Fi / Science Fantasy

Back Cover

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.