If the Right end of the blogosphere had an official science fiction novel, it would be Old Man's War by John Scalzi. Its sales were heavily pushed by various bloggers, particularly Glenn Reynolds. On Reynold's recommendation, I read it.It's very original, finely-crafted military science fiction. It is somewhat similar to Starship Troopers, albeit without the political discourse. Scalzi's prose is riveting, particularly his dialogues. Here's the opening line:
I did two things on my seventy-fifth birthday. I visited my wife's grave. Then I joined the army.
That's a hook if I ever read one. It only gets better from that point on.
I also read most of the the sequel The Ghost Brigades. I set it down a few weeks ago and haven't gotten around to finishing it. It was bad, but it just didn't grab me.
Skip The Ghost Brigades. But if you want a good, romping scifi novel, you should definitely read Old Man's War.
3 comments:
john, have you ever read Ender's Game? It is one of the best scifi books I've ever read. Orson Scott Card wrote it along with 2 others in the series. I read the second in the series and it was really good, as well.
I adore Ender's Game, and just listened to it again on CD during a long car trip.
Ender's Shadow is also very good. It's essenceially the same story as Ender's Game, but told entirely from Bean's perspective.
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