Reviews tagging 'War'

Old Man's War by John Scalzi

35 reviews

witcheep's review against another edition

Part 1 is interesting with the premise of transferring an old person's conciousness into a younger body in order to live the rest of their years young, fighting in a galactic interspecies war. I'm more interested in these scifi aging processess than the war.

However, there are underlying racists themes and very clear antagonizing of the opponent, altough the sole reason for war seems to be to fight for habitable territory on planets all over the space, even though humans like to stay mostly on planet Earth.

The second part begins with an army initiation into the warfare, and I lost interest by the first introductory sequence. Strict hierarchy and very authoritarian superiors seem to make me lose my interest; the scifi aspects are put on the back burner to dive deeper into the war aspect of the story. The scale of these two subjects just tipped so that the plot doesn't interest me enough to continue further.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Medical content, and War

meimayy's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

John Perry with the dry humour, signs up to be a soldier out there in the dangerous universe, where one can only expect the unexpected. I can appreciate the non-sugarcoated action.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Violence and War

theycallmespinthia's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Racism, Vomit, and Pandemic/Epidemic

chigh's review

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I started reading Scalzi with Starter Villain, which I loved it's hilarious, light-hearted, supervillain story. To see if I liked Scalzi's writing further, I decided to go with  the Old Man's War series. I'm not sure that was a good decision. That statement is not a reflection upon this book. 

It's a pretty good book. I at least superficially liked the characters with in it. I'm not one to overly like war/military stories, but I did choose to read it). I didn't like the Full Metal Jacket cliché of "boot camp". But I did like the story of taking "elderly" people and giving them new life and putting them in new situations. I would like to have seen more, intentionally diverse characters in main roles and more interactions between them rather than battle scenes. Perhaps it's what they've been through that makes the characters, but we'll never know because it wasn't written that way. 

Because this series name is the same as this book, if it continues with nothing but war and battle, I may lose interest. I'd prefer conflict of a different nature.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Xenophobia, and War

wickedgrumpy's review

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No

2.0

This is my second book by John Scalzi and I’m beginning to think that they are not the author for me.  Their humor makes me cringe in secondhand embarrassment and I’m pretty sure it is not meant to have that effect.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Ableism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Islamophobia, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Deportation, and Pandemic/Epidemic

katy_bee's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny informative tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Scalzi has become one of my go-to authors for good easy reads. This one has echoes of the Forever War and there's a fair amount of the inhumanity of war but it's lighter in tone with more humour. I just enjoy being along for the ride

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racism, Sexual content, and Grief

millydrisco's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Xenophobia, Mass/school shootings, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Racism, Blood, Medical content, Grief, and Medical trauma

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Cursing, Infertility, Racial slurs, Racism, and Murder

eliaa's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content and Cannibalism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Cancer, Infidelity, and Pandemic/Epidemic

jacsu's review

adventurous funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This was a very interesting idea. When you hit 75 you can join the Colonial Defense Forces (outer space military) and they, theoretically, make you young again. Of course, there’s always more to it than that. The main character gets thrown into situations that he’s both very prepared for in one way but totally unprepared for in others. The relationships, mainly friendships, are interesting and I loved following the main group of old people in the novel. There were some unexpected moments, including what’s actually going on with the CDF and the soldiers in the main infantry and the special forces. There’s humor throughout and I found Scalzi’s writing style to be enjoyable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Medical content, and War

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Body shaming, Cancer, Chronic illness, Fatphobia, Genocide, Infidelity, Grief, Alcohol, and Colonisation

concealed_journeys's review

adventurous dark fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism and War