January Book of the Month: Old Man's War by John Scalzi

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RafnX

Trakanon Raider
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Haven't read a sci-fi book in a while but the blurb sounds interesting .
Thanks for the link, look forward to reading this on my journey too and from work this week.
 
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Merkins4Brazil_sl

shitlord
1,347
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Read it a while back, I enjoy Scalzi. Curious to hear you all chime in.

P.S. book 2 in the series was not nearly as good by half. Try Fuzzy Nation instead
 
Cantatus

Cantatus

Lord Nagafen Raider
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Merkins4Brazil_sl said:
P.S. book 2 in the series was not nearly as good by half. Try Fuzzy Nation instead
Click to expand...
Agreed on book 2. It really didn't have any of the charm of the first and seemed like it wanted to be more of a straightforward action tale. Thankfully,The Last Colonyrecaptured a lot of the feel of the first, though not entirely, but I felt it did end the "trilogy" in a satisfactory way.
 
chaos

chaos

Buzzfeed Editor
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Alright. I liked this book for what it was. It felt like kind of "sci-fi lite" which isn't a bad thing. I could see this book being approachable to people who typically wouldn't consider sci-fi to be their thing.

It did fall short in some respects. It seemed to build up to a climax that never happened. The standoff with the Rray didn't really meet expectations. The Consu were interesting, at least at first, but the actual meeting with them felt kind of like bullshit. There was a lot of talk about a huge, expansive universe but the text didn't do a good job of conveying that. Instead we were relegated to a small corner of it. And the tiny aliens were ridiculous. I guess that was supposed to be funny. It wasn't.

I don't think I would read the rest of the books in the series, especially knowing that people here said there was a decline in quality to the second one. I don't regret reading it or anything, it was a good and easy read, but I don't feel invested in the universe or care to slog through another lesser quality book.
 
Void

Void

BAU BAU
<Gold Donor>
9,761
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I liked it well enough, particularly since it didn't beat us over the head with descriptions of people, places, and things. I tend to get discouraged by lengthy descriptions of every tapestry on every wall, so a book that just gives you the basics and lets you form your own mental images of the characters always has a leg up in my mind.

I agree with what chaos said about it being a good book for people that wouldn't want to read "harder" sci-fi, and while I've read my share of that, I think that's why this book sat well with me. It was an easy, quick read after slogging through (but enjoying) Wise Man's Fear, so the contrast with how quickly things happened and how immediately engaging the main character was probably made the book seem better even better for me.

The chance meeting with his wife is one of those events that you just have to accept, but normally it would bother me quite a bit. From the name of the next book I have to assume that is the direction it takes. I'll probably read them because they should be fast and easy reads, and I liked it well enough. Sometimes I need something quick and easy as a little refresher, so these will probably get worked in here and there over the next few months until I'm done with them.

If asked, I would recommend it to anyone that vaguely likes to read this sort of book. There's not much *not* to like, and it is pretty accessible to almost any moderate-level reader.
 
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Smocca_sl

shitlord
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It was an okay read but in the end I was mostly just bored. I felt like nothing happened. The parts that were interesting weren't really explored that well and even when he went into detail it just felt so dry.

A lot of the time I felt like he cut short the suspense with the way he writes. He's got this way of telling you exactly what's going to happen (or not happen) by either transparently lying or bluntly telling you the truth. "I knew Jane was going to die" which clearly meant she wasn't. "I never saw Jane again... but I did hear from her LOL, and when I say never I mean probably not til next book." If you do that kind of thing once or twice it can have an effect but after that it just kind of saps any sort of suspense from the story.

I hate to be so negative. It definitely wasn't terrible. But I don't see myself reading any more in the series.
 
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Teddite

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I can't do much but repeat what everyone else has already said. I enjoyed it, but not to the point that I would hold off other books I'm waiting to read to continue the series. I suppose I do tend to enjoy more descriptions of things in my books.
 
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Merkins4Brazil_sl

shitlord
1,347
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There is something very generic about the way Scalzi writes, He sets up a premise well and starts heading in an interesting direction than lets the story run it's course. He never seems to add much more beyond what is introduced in the first act. He telegraphs exactly where he is going, M Night Shamalan he aint. He is not a bad writer, all his works I have read so far are light fun reads, but if you are searching for rich worlds, deep characters and original conflicts there are other writers who trounce him in all those departments.

I hope you guys pick something a little meatier next book, I have already read American Gods (bizarrely it was 3 weeks after taking a road trip almost exactly mirroring the path of the character). Gaiman never disappoints.
 
Aevry

Aevry

Mobile Game Hunter
462
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Instead of a book-of-the-month club, can we switch to a book of the week? I dunno about you guys, but I tend to devour a book (that doesn't suck) in a day or less.
 
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Smocca_sl

shitlord
26
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I probably wouldn't participate more than once a month if it was that frequent. It's just not practical to have so much of my reading chosen by other people.

Like this month's book was kind of a chore, for example, so if I was reading something similar every week it just wouldn't be worth it. Once a month is nice since it forces me to branch out a little bit.
 
chaos

chaos

Buzzfeed Editor
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Once per week is way too frequent. Before we get ahead of ourselves we should let this thing get off the ground first. One month and it isn't a dismal failure, lets look forward to the coming months and see where to go from there.
 
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mysterion_sl

shitlord
151
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finished it in 2 sessions, enjoyed the story a lot, homage to starship troopers. all the aliens were fine, you got to meet some strange things out there.
at first i found his technique of those hard, fast cuts disturbing, but after a while it gave the story an interesting pace.

checking out ghost brigade soon/next.
 
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Lenardo

Vyemm Raider
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read it a week ago, just because,

liked the book the premise was decent, for the read it was, it was good. I also read ghost brigade and last colony and imo last colony was "better" than the other two but there was so much left open that could have been explored further/made more complex/went off on that potentially was left off that could have made the book "better" overall.
for instance:
spoilering for those that have not read
the werewolves- never expounded upon, just there- no other analogue creatures on the planet similarly built?
many ways this could have gone.

1- the route chosen, they were there, not much
2- fallen civilization route they "lost" the fight vs the consu and they find ruins/tech
3- the enhancement jane got..why did they not do it for him as well?
4- since the enhancements are built into the DNA and they are fertile.....are the traits dominant(they should be)
5- are all ex-warriors from the ghost brigade & those that quit the Corps going to get the dna enhancment?
this means in ~10 generations there will be millions of "normal" humans that are enhanced.

6- Zoe....she could do so much more- i need to get zoe's book to see if he does anything

etc
 
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Seventh

Golden Squire
892
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I read the second and third books in this series, and anyone that enjoyed the first one should like the next two as well. It's quick, easy page-turning stuff and a just lot of fun to read.
 
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Wolfen_sl

shitlord
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As others have said, this book is "light" scifi. The book doesn't really make you think in any way. It just skims along until it ends. I did enjoy the humor, especially in the first part. Overall, I found the book to be average at best. It did not leave me with an urgent need to read the other ones.
 
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