Episode 15 – Old Man’s War Sci Fi Series

“I did two things on my seventy-fifth birthday. I visited my wife’s grave. Then I joined the army. Visiting Kathy’s grave was the less dramatic of the two.”

I have such a fun series of 3 books lined up for review today – from my favorite genre, Sci Fi.

Old Man’s War series is a set of 6 sci fi novels by John Scalzi – one that is so gripping that I listened to the first three of the series back to back on Audible

The first three novels are Old Man’s War, Ghost Brigades and The Last Colony.

Such a joy ride this was!

Lets’ start with the first one – Old Man’s war.
The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce– and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. So: we fight. To defend Earth, and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate.

Earth isn’t the centre of humanity -which is kept in ignorance whilst providing a constant supply of soldiers [which are essentially older people who are given new bodies] by the Colonial Defence Forces .

I liked this book the best of the series. For a book published in 2005, it really does do a fabulous job in envisioning transfer of conscious and questioning what identity means. It introduces the concept of time dilation and use of ‘brain pals’ to communicate – one that eerily sounds akin to the brain machine interfaces that Elon’s company Neuralink is working towards.

“What is it like when you lose someone you love?” Jane asked.
“You die, too. And you wait around for your body to catch up.”

The second book – Ghost Brigades is probably my least favorite of the three and yet I loved the protagonist, Jared Dirac. When the first had old people signing up to go out into the galaxy to fight in the alien war, the second book focuses on Special forces of the CDF.
The elite soldiers – perfect for fighting alien races are created from the DNA of the dead humans. Imagine being born into an adult body and unravelling experiences over time with help from your brain pal. Being integrated with your unit to feel and hear everything they do. They are fast, strong, green and socially inept.
Jared Dirac is the super human hybrid created from that of humanity’s greater traitor – Boutin, the scientist who has joined enemy alien forces and knows CDFs biggest secrets.

It is interesting how each of the alien races is described – from the Oben to the Consu beyond just the physical characteristics which is what most movies focus on.

Here is a quote.
Fear isn’t the desire to avoid death or pain. Fear is rooted in the knowledge that what you recognize as yourself can cease to exist. Fear is existential.”

Finally, the third book of the series – The Last colony, now circles back to John Perry and his wife from the Special forces, Carl Sagan who have been recalled from their life of tranquillity and retirement as leaders of a new colony, Roanoke – to be populated by settlers across major human worlds. Focused on the life of settlers in the new colony at large in the first half, the half soon spirals into full blown war between the worlds. How does Perry protect his family and the colony with the limited information CDF has been providing them without turning traitorous.

Scalzi brings in humor – a dry kind across his books.

“I seem to be good at speaking the politicians’ language,” Szilard said. “Apparently there’s an advantage around here to being mildly socially retarded, and that’s the Special Forces for sure.”

From <https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/18279847-the-last-colony>

I wonder what makes a good sci-fi – and it struck me it is mostly two things.

One the journey into the future that the author manages to take us into – exploring thought experiments [ what is we lived in a world where consciousness is transferable, what happens if there is centralized control of our thoughts aka, Black Mirror]. The other is the fact that across all of those experiments, it retains the characterization and what it essentially means for us to be human.

Do pick up the books and also let me know other sci-fi books you have absolutely enjoyed!