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Wednesday, April 6, 2005

Reading List: Old Man's War

Scalzi, John. Old Man's War. New York: Tor, 2005. ISBN 0-7653-0940-8.
I don't read a lot of contemporary science fiction, but the review by Glenn Reynolds and those of other bloggers he cited on Instapundit motivated me to do the almost unthinkable--buy a just-out science fiction first novel in hardback--and I'm glad I did. It's been a long time since I last devoured a three hundred page novel in less than 36 hours in three big gulps, but this is that kind of page-turner. It will inevitably be compared to Heinlein's Starship Troopers. Remarkably, it stands up well beside the work of the Master, and also explores the kinds of questions of human identity which run through much of Heinlein's later work. The story is in no way derivative, however; this is a thoroughly original work, and even more significant for being the author's first novel in print. Here's a writer to watch.

Posted at April 6, 2005 16:12