Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Tor Books; Reprint edition (December 27, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN: 0765315246
Author John Scalzi hits one out of the park with this, his first novel. In the future, a single corporation has managed to gain monopoly control of ’skip’ drives, FTL devices leading humanity to the stars. Earth’s political system is pretty much unaffected by this, as the corporation doesn’t fight for space on that crowded planet - instead, it expands and profits in deep space.
Much detail beyond that and the review becomes a spoiler for some of the most enjoyable features of the novel. There is fighting, there are puzzles and quandries. There are truely interesting sociological & technological bits scattered hither and yon. The best is tha the characters, while startled and in many ways shaken to their cores, remain true throughout the novel.
Mr. Scalzi thanks Heinlein for inspiration, and that inspiration - not duplication - shows through the work. Rarely has it been my pleasure to find a better expansion on Heinlein’s theme of “it’s people that
matter”. Of course, ‘people’ is deliberately vague in a sci-fi work of this sort, and part of the fun is watching the characters’ definitions adapt to the new environment they find themselves in.
A TRUELY impressive work, especially for a first time author. Highly reccommended. Not directly OA relevant due to the sociopolitical scenario Mr. Scalzi puts forth, but much of the concepts are quite useful and wonderful.
SPOILER ALERTS:
The worst part of the book, to me, is a certain lack of lateral thinking. Mr. Scalzi, like everyone, is human, and limits his approach to human-level concerns. His technological possibilities offer radical expansions on some of the core functions of combat - and here’s the spoiler, the stars are at war. Many species exist (some perhaps not quite biologically plausible, IMO) fighting over similar real estate & resources. Yet, given the ability to go between the stars, no planet-busting weapons are developed or utilized. No robotic/AI systems are used, the sole intelligence seems to be biological across the setting. Augmentation is systemic - IE, you won’t be seeing massively nonhuman augmentation to humans, instead you tend to see ’supermen’ and ‘-women’.
While he does an exceptional job of exploring some of the social aspects of the technologies he posits, the dispersal of the technology does not appear realistic to me. IE - the cross over between drive technology and weapons systems seems lacking, given the vast numbers of deaths combat typically entails within the storyline.
Note that this is a stretch - the book’s VERY enjoyable. It’s just the worst that I can come up with! (Which tends to say something quite nice about the novel overall)
-JB
Editor’s Note: Mr. Scalzi certainly did hit this “out of the park” — Old Man’s War recently won was nominated for the 2006 Hugo award for best novel. Not bad at all for a first novel… Mr. Scalzi informs me as of 25 October that he did not win the Hugo, but did win the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Correction noted.
Mr. Scalzi’s weblog can be found here. More about the reviewer, John B, here.