Old Man's War
2005 • 320 pages

Ratings615

Average rating4.1

15

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.


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Series

Featured Series

6 primary books26 released books

#1 in Old Man's War

Old Man's War is a 26-book series with 6 primary works first released in 2005 with contributions by John Scalzi.

#1
Old Man's War
#1.5
Questions for a Soldier
#2
The Ghost Brigades
#3
The Last Colony
#4
Zoe's Tale
#4.5
After the Coup
#5
The Human Division
#5.01
The B-Team
#5.02
Walk the Plank
#5.03
We Only Need the Heads
#5.04
A Voice in the Wilderness
#5.05
Tales From the Clarke

Reviews

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Jayson
Jayson DaySupporter

Loved it. Starship Troopers adjace.

April 15, 2016

Scalzi is awesome.

February 16, 2021

This was a very quick read and a very novel concept for a universe to be set in. It was a lot of fun and I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

November 25, 2016

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