A review by brainstrain91
Old Man's War by John Scalzi

4.0

Tightly focused and intensely paced. It is, refreshingly, not a space opera at all. It is the single perspective of a single soldier in a very unusual fighting force. It seems not a lot of sci-fi or fantasy writers are interested in single-perspective novels these days. It's a shame, because they're tremendously powerful.

Scalzi leans heavily on dialogue, but his dialogue is good. The pacing is almost too brisk - I had trouble reading more than 50-60 pages in a sitting - but I would not have wanted more padding. The world-building is utilitarian, but highly effective.

It's a singularly great novel. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.