Old Man’s War
I read Old Man’s War right when it came out, since it was highly recommended to me. That was 2005, almost 20 years ago! That was also my introduction to John Scalzi and I must have read about 90% of his bibliography by now. He specializes in mostly wise-ass cracking characters (not just protagonist, everyone in his books are wiseasses), a pretty good hook, a great line, and a decent sinker. Usually a winning formula for his books.
Old Man War kicks off the Old Man War’s universe of books (about 6 or 7 strong, depending on how you count), and the premise of it was that in the future, 75 year olds can sign up to be part of the Colonial Marines. No one knows how it works when they first sign up, and you later find out that the United Colonies are a separate government entity from Earth. They are of Earth, but do not really represent Earth. they do have ties back to earth, and recruit from Earth as well as build amazing things like space elevators and faster than light spaceships and have lots of colonies out there, but they don’t interface with the denizens of Earth due to some long standing treaty.
Hence, old folks sign up to be part of the colonies marines without knowing much. The first half of the book shows how that happens and that by itself would have made a great novel. The rest of the book is about the boot camp and then a few fights that culminate in the protagonist meeting his long-since dead wife.
Everything is handed extremely tightly and no real loose ends are left to make the reader wonder. The entire book is self-contained, but there are hints to sequels (hint, the sequels happen).
If there’s any doubt that this is a highly recommend, then lets put that to rest. This is still one of the best science fiction novels I’ve read in the last 20 years. Compelling, not over long, great conversations, and wonderful characters and even a bit of a poignant story.
Highly recommend! and the rest of the series too.