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A review by rick2
Old Man's War by John Scalzi
3.0
Entertaining space war SciFi. Basically space Doom. I know Doom is already on Mars, but this is like Doom if we could go outside the solar system.
I can't remember who said it, maybe Kafka or Camus (google is no help), but it was to the extent, "Whenever you allude to a more interesting story within your story, you have to justify why you didn't tell that one."
I think it applies aptly here. This book is a fun romp through space war with some interesting sci fi concepts. But there was a lot of "oh yeah, punching and kicking and shooting" with what I imagined as heavy metal music playing.
I couldn't help but think of this as a text version of Doom with weird chicken/insect aliens. I would have appreciated a bit more worldbuilding and character development. I wanted more. There were a lot of "oh yeah, this persons only purpose is exposition" and "of course theyre going to do it that way to advance the plot." As such, I thought the nuance was lacking, but the space punching and kicking really carried the day, again a lot like Doom.
I can't remember who said it, maybe Kafka or Camus (google is no help), but it was to the extent, "Whenever you allude to a more interesting story within your story, you have to justify why you didn't tell that one."
I think it applies aptly here. This book is a fun romp through space war with some interesting sci fi concepts. But there was a lot of "oh yeah, punching and kicking and shooting" with what I imagined as heavy metal music playing.
I couldn't help but think of this as a text version of Doom with weird chicken/insect aliens. I would have appreciated a bit more worldbuilding and character development. I wanted more. There were a lot of "oh yeah, this persons only purpose is exposition" and "of course theyre going to do it that way to advance the plot." As such, I thought the nuance was lacking, but the space punching and kicking really carried the day, again a lot like Doom.