Old Man's War - Softcover
With his wife dead and buried, and life nearly over at 75, John Perry takes the only logical course of action left: he joins the army. Now better known as the Colonial Defense Force (CDF), Perry's service-of-choice has extended its reach into interstellar space to pave the way for human colonization of other planets while fending off marauding aliens. The CDF has a trick up its sleeve that makes enlistment especially enticing for seniors: the promise of restoring their youth. After bonding with a group of fellow recruits who dub their clique the Old Farts, Perry finds himself in a new body crafted from his original DNA and upgraded for battle, including a brain-implanted computer. But all too quickly the Old Farts are separated, and Perry must fight for his life on various alien-infested battlegrounds. 'Scalzi's astonishingly proficient first novel reads like an original work by the late grand master, Robert A. Heinlein' Publishers Weekly 'Delivers fast-paced scenes of combat, and pays attention to the science underpinning his premise' San Francisco Chronicle
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About the Author:
John Scalzi is an author and online writer, known for his blog Whatever, at which he has written daily on a number of topics since 1998. Old Man's War, his first novel, was a finalist in the Hugo Awards.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:
“In this room right now are 1,022 recruits,“ Lt. Colonel Higgee said. “Two years from today, 400 of you will be dead.”
Higgee stood in the front of the theater, again. This time, he had a backdrop: Beta Pyxis III floated behind him, a massive marble streaked with blue, white, green and brown
“In the third year,“ he continued, “another 100 of you will die. Another 150 in years four and five. After ten years -- and yes, recruits, you will most likely be required to serve a full ten years -- 750 of you have been killed in the line of duty. Three quarters of you, gone. These have been the survival statistics -- not just for the last ten or twenty years, but for the over two hundred years the Colonial Defense Forces have been active.”
There was dead silence.
“I know what you’re thinking right now, because I was thinking it when I was in your place,“ Lt. Colonel Higgee said. “You’re thinking -- what the hell am I doing here? This guy is telling me I’m going to be dead in ten years! But remember that back home, you most likely would have been dead in ten years, too -- frail and old, dying a useless death. You may die in the Colonial Defense Forces. You probably will die in the Colonial Defense Forces. But your death will not be a useless one. You’ll have died to keep humanity alive in our universe.”
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- PublisherTor Books
- Publication date2007
- ISBN 10 0330452169
- ISBN 13 9780330452168
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages320
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Old Man's War: 1st in the 'Old Man's War' series of books
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Pan Macmillan / Tor
ISBN 10: 0330452169
ISBN 13: 9780330452168
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Book Description Paperback: 7" x 4½". Condition: Very Good: Light signs of wear. Cover Art: John Harris (illustrator). 2007 Edition. © 2005: 1st in the 'Old Man's War' series of books. Unknown publication date. 3rd printing of 2007 edition:- Synopsis: John Perry did two things on his seventy-fifth birthday. First he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army. The good news for humanity is that we have finally made it into interstellar space, The bad news is that there are few planets out there fit to live on - and plenty of alien races willing to compete for them. Therefore we must fight: to defend Earth itself, and to stake our claim to planetary living space. Far from Earth this conflict has been going on for decades, brutal, bloody and unyielding. Earth itself is now a backwater, with the bulk of humanity's resources in the hands of Colonial Defense Forces. But you cannot join the CDF until you reach retirement age because they don't want young people; only those with the knowledge and skills amassed during decades of living. Once you join CDF, you'll be taken off Earth and never allowed to return. First come two years at the front and, if you survive, you'll be given a generous homestead stake of your own on one of those hard-won colony planets. When John Perry agrees to this deal, he has only the vaguest idea of what to expect. Because, light-years from home, the actual fight he faces is harder than he could imagine. And what he himself will become is far stranger still:- Review(s): "Scalzi's astonishingly proficient first novel reads like an original work by the late grand master, Robert A Heinlein" - Publishers Weekly / "Delivers fast-paced scenes of combat" - San Francisco Chronicle / "Thought-provoking" - Entertainment Weekly / "I enjoyed 'Old Man's War' immensely. A space war story with fast action, vivid characters, moral complexity and cool speculative physics" - Ken MacLeod / "His speculative elements are top-notch. His combat scenes are blood-roiling. His dialogue is suitably snappy" - Paul DiFilippo, Washington Post:- (original cost £6.99). Seller Inventory # 19.003.00020
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Book Description Condition: Very Good. Book is in Used-VeryGood condition. Pages and cover are clean and intact. Used items may not include supplementary materials such as CDs or access codes. May show signs of minor shelf wear and contain very limited notes and highlighting. 0.4. Seller Inventory # 0330452169-2-3
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