I just finished John Scalzi’s science fiction novel Old Man’s War. This book has been highly praised by critics and even nominated for prestigious awards. In my first post to this blog, I have to say that I didn’t like it. Why?
Warning – spoilers below.
This book reads like a tribute to the venerable Robert A. Heinlein, one of the most respected science fiction writers of all time. To be honest I never read Heinlein when I was young, so I have no emotional connection from my past to this style of literature. I have tried to read Heinlein – but out of its original context, it feels very dated and even hokey to me compared to more modern science fiction.
Old Man’s War is more of the same. Scalzi uses the technique of lecturing the reader, which was used extensively by Heinlein, but the quality of these lectures and the conclusions that he draws seemed to be dubious most of the time. The situations were contrived as were the choices of what technologies function in his world and which don’t.
Things that annoyed me:
- Apparently, humans taste great. All the aliens in the galaxy seem to love the taste of human flesh.
- All soldiers have the same gun. Ever heard of diversity of forces? Different kits for different members of fighting force has been around for thousands of years.. but not in the future.
- Technologically advanced aliens have primitive cultures. Why do aliens always have better technology but inferior cultures to us lowly humans? The Consu have black-hole powered star-system shield, but they like to sacrifice themselves to false gods.
- Lectures with absurd conclusions. When a team of soldiers goes down to a planet where the colonists are dead, one of them get infected and killed. They wore no protective gear or took any quarantine precautions. The conclusion the author draws from this is that the galaxy holds dangers that we couldn’t possibly imagine. No! I can imagine a mask that stops you inhaling alien critters.
- Arbitrary limits on technology. According to the author, repairing the bodies of old people cannot be done – even though they can transfer souls between bodies and travel faster than light. Why? The bodies just wear out.. no reason given.
Too harsh?
For a better book in the same line-of-work, try When We Where Real, by William Barton, which of course is out of print.
Posted by mrrileyx 
Posted by mrrileyx 