Reviews tagging 'Death'

Old Man's War by John Scalzi

23 reviews

princess_merida's review against another edition

adventurous funny informative fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Murder, and War

Moderate: Grief

ricarmoo's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

This book is exactly what I was hoping it would be: a fun, easy to read, sci-fi romp with just the right mix of over the top technology and genuine heart.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book - I really had just wanted to read a pulpy story about humans blasting alien bugs to smithereens and, while I got that, I found it had a lot more going for it than that. I enjoyed the fact that there were some genuinely interesting questions raised about war and fighting, as well as some quite tough discussions about aging and loss.

The action was pretty great and the sci-fi future tech was believably unbelievable. I was pretty gripped and really got engrossed in the action, even if I could see where the general story was moving throughout. That said, it even got a few gasps out of me at times and I did really feel a couple of the losses much more than I would have expected to.

Overall, it was exactly the book I needed it to be. I enjoyed my time with this book a lot

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gore, Violence, Colonisation, and War

gashrot's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Space opera sympathique, mais très léger dans son traitement de plusieurs questions éthiques soulevé par le livre alors que certaines sont au centre de l'intrigue

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, and War

Moderate: Gore and Sexual content

Minor: Infidelity

marktheshark's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing and Sexual content

Moderate: Death, Violence, Grief, and War

chigh's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I started reading Scalzi with Starter Villain, which I loved it's hilarious, light-hearted, supervillain story. To see if I liked Scalzi's writing further, I decided to go with  the Old Man's War series. I'm not sure that was a good decision. That statement is not a reflection upon this book. 

It's a pretty good book. I at least superficially liked the characters with in it. I'm not one to overly like war/military stories, but I did choose to read it). I didn't like the Full Metal Jacket cliché of "boot camp". But I did like the story of taking "elderly" people and giving them new life and putting them in new situations. I would like to have seen more, intentionally diverse characters in main roles and more interactions between them rather than battle scenes. Perhaps it's what they've been through that makes the characters, but we'll never know because it wasn't written that way. 

Because this series name is the same as this book, if it continues with nothing but war and battle, I may lose interest. I'd prefer conflict of a different nature.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Xenophobia, and War

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No

2.0

This is my second book by John Scalzi and I’m beginning to think that they are not the author for me.  Their humor makes me cringe in secondhand embarrassment and I’m pretty sure it is not meant to have that effect.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Ableism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Islamophobia, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Deportation, and Pandemic/Epidemic

katy_bee's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny informative tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Scalzi has become one of my go-to authors for good easy reads. This one has echoes of the Forever War and there's a fair amount of the inhumanity of war but it's lighter in tone with more humour. I just enjoy being along for the ride

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racism, Sexual content, and Grief

millydrisco's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Xenophobia, Mass/school shootings, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Racism, Blood, Medical content, Grief, and Medical trauma

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Cursing, Infertility, Racial slurs, Racism, and Murder

eliaa's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content and Cannibalism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Cancer, Infidelity, and Pandemic/Epidemic

jacsu's review against another edition

adventurous funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This was a very interesting idea. When you hit 75 you can join the Colonial Defense Forces (outer space military) and they, theoretically, make you young again. Of course, there’s always more to it than that. The main character gets thrown into situations that he’s both very prepared for in one way but totally unprepared for in others. The relationships, mainly friendships, are interesting and I loved following the main group of old people in the novel. There were some unexpected moments, including what’s actually going on with the CDF and the soldiers in the main infantry and the special forces. There’s humor throughout and I found Scalzi’s writing style to be enjoyable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Medical content, and War

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Body shaming, Cancer, Chronic illness, Fatphobia, Genocide, Infidelity, Grief, Alcohol, and Colonisation