Hey, Asshole!

   Co-incidentally to the previous entry, one of the new books I referred to in the entry before that was, indeed, Old Man's War, by John Scalzi. Matt and I had gone into The World's Biggest Bookstore to look for book ten in The Guardians of Ga'Hoole series, and there it was, in a brand spanking new, trade paperback version, glistening at me invitingly. How could I resist?
   Beside it was a hardcover of The Ghost Brigades for almost double the price. I resisted.
   What follows is my non-professional, highly opinionated, personal review. Be aware that while I have tried to be circumspect, some of the statements made in this review may verge on being spoilerish. Proceed at your own risk.


Old Man's War, by 2006 John W. Campbell Award winner John M. Scalzi.

'Disturbing a corpse'

   Anyone who has spent a bit of time reading one of John Scalzi's blogs has read the first sentences of Old Man's War. For the three people reading this who that sentence does not describe, here they are:

I did two things on my seventy-fifth birthday. I visited my wife's grave. Then I joined the army.

   With those words, spoken by John Perry, the story's narrator and main character, Scalzi serves notice that the novel's title is not at all figurative, and launches into fifty pages of non-stop, rollicking exposition.
   In and around his massive info dump, Scalzi gets his characters into space, where they eat well, take some tests, undergo some medical procedures, and have sex. A lot of sex. All of which serves as a backdrop for another sixty pages of Scalzi's best impersonation of Austin Powers' boss.

'Building a better you'

   Scalzi's prose is simple, and straight-forward. His characters are the same. No one other than John Perry is any more than a cardboard cutout of a person. If it wasn't for all the sex going on I might have thought I was reading young adult fiction. He tries hard to make his recruits a light hearted, ironically flippant, yet intellectually diverse group, but the 'clever' dialogue just never works for me.
   As well, he does no more than skim the surface of any social, political, or philosophical implications of what the characters in the story experience. This is not a deep book. It also seems to leave some issues hanging unresolved. For example, we are led down a descriptive path that may lead to the conclusion that there's something amiss in the state of The Colonial Union, but we step off that path, and only ever glimpse it again from afar. Another question is exactly what happens to the original 'John Perry' after the medical procedure he undergoes in the first part of the book. The question is asked, and never satisfactorily answered.
   That doesn't make it an unentertaining book, however. John's literary voice is agreeable, and easily draws his reader into the story. It must be remembered, as well, that this is the first of three novels to be set in this universe, and he may delve more deeply into things later. One could interpret unresolved issues as hanging threads, waiting to be picked up again later in the story.
   One thing Scalzi does exceptionally well is lampoon bureaucracy. The owner's manual John Perry receives along with his new 'military equipment' is priceless. I couldn't help myself, and had to read it out loud in the voice of a narrator of a sixties style military propaganda film: "in the event of a nuclear explosion, crawl under your desk and hold a text book over your head. This will protect you from the radiation." Yeah, right.

'I work for a living!'

   Part two of the novel opens with the most common military cliche there is; the abusive Drill Sergeant. I don't know, maybe there's no way around it in a military story. Scalzi attempts to mitigate the situation somewhat by acknowledging it, but a nod and a wink to the reader; a figurative voice saying, "yeah, I know it's a cliche, so sue me," doesn't make it OK. He tries to make it seem different from every single other war movie you've ever seen, but it doesn't fool anyone. He keeps talking about Master Sergeant Antonio Ruiz, but all I can see is Lou Gossett Jr. I was actually surprised when he didn't trot out the 'queers and steers' line.
   The whole book is like that, actually.There's nothing new here. Anyone who has read a significant amount of science fiction in the past has already read several books that deal with the themes and concepts Scalzi is exploring here, and deal with them in much more depth. Again, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, pending a reading of The Ghost Brigades, and The Last Colony, but this novel did not challenge me.
   Not that there's anything wrong with that. Many readers don't want to be challenged. They don't want to be asked to think about the philosophical implications of death and rebirth, the social implications of technology that allows it, and the political implications of a society based on it. They just want to read about military supermen kicking evil alien ass across the galaxy. This novel is somewhere in the middle. It's an entertaining two-day read that flirts with making you think.
   And by the end, Scalzi comes back to what drives the best stories: characters who care about each other. While I did not find it intellectually challenging, Old Man's War was emotionally satisfying. As John Perry begins to develop a relationship with one of the most unlikely of fellow officers, the readers begin to truly care about him for the first time. Just in time, for the book is over, and now I do want to know more about what happens. When does The Ghost Brigades come out in paper, John?

tags:Books