Reviews with content warning for Death - Old Man's War

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Old Man's War by John Scalzi

19 reviews

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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wickedgrumpy's review

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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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katy_bee's review against another edition

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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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millydrisco's review against another edition

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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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eliaa's review against another edition

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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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jacsu's review

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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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