Old Man's War

John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army.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. Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding.Earth itself is a backwater. The bulk of humanity's resources are in the hands of the Colonial Defence Force. Everybody knows that when you reach retirement age, you can join the CDF. They don't want young people; they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. You'll be taken off Earth and never allowed to return. You'll serve two years at the front. And if you survive, you'll be given a generous homestead stake of your own, on one of our hard-won colony planets.John Perry is taking that deal. He has only the vaguest idea what to expect. Because the actual fight, light-years from home, is far, far harder than he can imagine-and what he will become is far stranger.PRAISE FOR THE OLD MAN'S WAR SERIES"Clever dialogue, fast-paced story and strong characters." The Times"Great fun" Daily Telegraph

Winner of Locus Award Best First Novel 2006 (UK) Short-listed for Hugo Award For Best Novel 2006 (United States)

“John Scalzi is the most entertaining, accessible writer working in SF today”

Gripping and surpassingly original. It's Starship Troopers without the lectures . . . It's funny, it's sad, and it's true -- Cory Doctorow, author of Walkaway and Red Team Blues
I enjoyed Old Man's War immensely. A space war story with fast action, vivid characters, moral complexity, and cool speculative physics, set in a future you almost want to live into, and a universe you sincerely hope you don't live in already -- Ken MacLeod, author of Beyond the Hallowed Sky
-- Joe Hill, author of Heart-Shaped Box
Scalzi is one of the slickest writers that SF has ever produced Wall Street Journal
Clever dialogue, fast-paced story and strong characters The Times
It gladdens the reader's heart . . . great fun Daily Telegraph
Top-notch. His combat scenes are blood roiling Washington Post
Astonishingly proficient Publishers Weekly

John Scalzi is one of the most popular and acclaimed SF authors to emerge in the last decade. His debut Old Man's War won him science fiction's John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. His New York Times bestsellers include The Last Colony, Fuzzy Nation, his most recent novel Lock In, and also Redshirts, which won 2013's Hugo Award for Best Novel. Material from his widely read blog The Whatever (whatever.scalzi.com) has also earned him two other Hugo Awards. He lives in Ohio with his wife and daughter.

THE UNIVERSE IS A DANGEROUS PLACE At seventy-five years old, John Perry is after a fresh start - so, naturally, he joins the army. Earth's military machine can transform elderly recruits, restoring their lost youth. But in return, its Colonial Defence Force demands two years of hazardous service in space. This is how Perry finds himself in a new body, crafted from his original DNA. A genetically enhanced and upgraded new body, ready for battle.But upgrades alone won't keep Perry safe. He'll be fighting for his life on the front line as he defends humanity's colonies from hostile aliens. He'll pay the price for his choices, and he'll discover the universe is even more dangerous than he imagined. Praise for Old Man's War 'Classic SF seen from a modern perspective'Robert Charles Wilson'Clever dialogue, fast-paced story and strong characters' The Times

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.