I bought this book from Audible and listened to it on my iPhone using the Audible app.
John Scalzi loves to dig into the idea of a person being able to change bodies like they change underwear. In this book changing bodies is not quite that easy, but it is a prominent element of this story. It just so happens that I really like the philosophical ideas that it brings up, it is very post human and appeals to me.
Narrated by William Dufris Old Man’s War presents some very cool ideas. Taking old people from Earth and moving their minds into young genetically enhanced space marines and then dealing with all of the repercussions of doing that. Good stuff.
Mr. Dufris delivers a great performance and gives all of the characters individual voices and emotions.
From the publisher:
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 of 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.
©2007 John Scalzi; (P)2007 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC
I rate this book an 8 out of 10 and recommend it to anyone who likes John Scalzi and/or military science fiction.
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