Old Man’s War

And the Heinlein riff keeps moving right along. Except this time, it's a novel that explicitly credits Heinlein in its acknowledgments. John Scalzi's novel of humans at war in space looks back to Starship Troopers as its inspiration, and there are many similarities. But there are enough differences that allow Old Man's War to stand out from its sources with its own identity.

What separates Old Man's War from the prodigious stack of military speculative fiction is the technological conceit it turns on—citizens register to join the armed forces at age 75 with the promise of a revitalization process that will make them feel young again. Of course, what they get is far more radical than y of the signees can imagine, and the novel does a good job of building up the tension to the big reveal. The main character, John Perry, narrates throughout the novel, so our point-of-view is not remotely omniscient. Perry is a fine human narrator with faults all his own (for instance, he isn't nearly so funny as he thinks he is) whose humanity becomes vitally important as the plot moves on. Because Scalzi also creates some wonderful alien races, employing only a few clichés and more noticeably relying on the idea that we may never understand the motivations or actions of an alien race (the lecture that the recruits receive on this very fact is entertaining enough but foreshadows future events very nicely). Too often, aliens in simplistic SF are like the bugs in Heinlein's Starship Troopers, with motivations and processes that are easy for humans to relate to. Scalzi's aliens are like the Skinnies in Troopers, with motivations that we may be able to perceive the edges of but who humans truly never know. While this is most likely what we would find if we travel ever do find aliens, it is a difficult subject to write about, not the least of which because it is difficult to make the unknowable entertaining.

And entertaining is what this book ultimately is, a coming of age story with a 75 year-old protagonist. Perry discovers that the military isn't just revitalizing his body, they are providing him with an entirely new one based on his own DNA profile but modified for military specifications. Scalzi, through Perry, briefly explores what this fundamental change in condition means, and by itself it has been the foundation for longer deeper treatments. But Scalzi also uses these training moments to fully introduce the setting of his story—the universe that humans find themselves in and the method by which they are governed, mirroring the lectures in Starship Troopers. However, Scalzi doesn't lecture so much as have his characters reminisce; after all, the novel doesn't suggest a completely alternative governmental system as does Starship Troopers. But there is the interesting twist that the Colonial Defense Forces, the agency responsible for colonizing and defending those colonies, holds a monopoly on space exploration, and the reader is given a perspective from within that monopoly about why such a set-up is optimal.

After his training, Perry is sent off to battle humanity's foes, and the action is relatively straightforward, though somewhat light on the details of the battles. Scalzi lets the imagination of the reader provide the details as he generally paints battles with a broad stroke. After all, the battles are not really what this novel is about; instead it is about the effect of the new technology on the characters and their relationships with others, including aliens. And along the way, John thinks that he sees his dead wife in service, opening the door to a delightful (for the reader, a lot of other things to the characters) extrapolation of the technology that the story is about. Instead of remaining a war set in space, Scalzi opens wide the narrative opportunities with a supple twist, one which promises many more thought-provoking books down the line.

As a result, Scalzi skillfully dances along a narrative high wire, appealing to the relative simplistic battle fiction with an action yarn about fighting aliens while developing a fascinating technology that, at its core, reflects the very best that science fiction offers. And while the clichés of the former remain (Perry becomes a battle-decorated hero by the end of the novel), the underlying tensions are far greater than the clichés. Old Man's War is a delightful, smart and quick read, a very promising introduction to a new universe for which three other books have already been written.

The Ghost Brigades

It sounds like it could be military science-fiction but it really isn’t. It could also have been space opera, but it doesn’t quite go that far either. The Ghost Brigades does contain some interesting science-fiction concepts wrapped up in a discussion of responsibility and free will, coming together as a fairly interesting read without a lot of surprises.

I should point out that this novel by John Scalzi is actually the sequel to Old Man’s War, but you don’t have to read the first book to enjoy the second. All the background the reader might need is delivered via conversation among the characters, sometimes a little heavy-handedly, to be honest, but then exposition is sometimes the hardest part of a novel to write. The Colonial Union is Earth’s space military, in place to defend Earth’s colonies from the close to 600 species within its sphere of influence. The Special Forces branch of this military is made up of cloned humans who are genetically modified to have enhanced senses and reactions, as well as having a portable computer implanted in their brains for training and communication purposes. This is fairly standard science fiction fare, but Scalzi goes a step further by having the clones being born at the peak of their physical maturity—forced accelerated maturation, so that it does not take 18 years to develop a good soldier. The portable computer, called the BrainPal, teaches the soldier everything it needs to know, and within two weeks of birth, soldiers can take the field.

Into this world comes news that a human scientist has turned traitor, going over to the side of an alliance of three enemy races. Due to the sloppiness of the scientist (and it’s never really a good sign when the character later remarks to himself how stupid his act was), he leaves behind an experimental recording of his consciousness, which the military scientists decide to pour into a militarized clone of the scientist himself. Thus is born Jared Dirac, clone of Charles Boutin, whom authorities hope will not only remember why his donor-parent went rogue, but where he is and what he is specifically doing.

As Dirac goes through training and his first few battles, Scalzi does a nice job of developing the military life that the Special Forces must use. Dirac also has interactions with “realborn,” humans who are normal. The differences in their lives and upbringing are brought into relief through conversations between them as well as the fairly exacting details of Dirac’s career. This is the part of the novel that most resembles military science fiction, but only in the way that Heinlein’s Starship Troopers would be considered military SF: more time is spent in the barracks than in battle. Scalzi is more interested in the interaction of these modified humans with humans and with each other than to talk about the specific strategies of a space battle or an attack against an alien race. This has the interesting effect of pointing out Dirac’s humanity by discussing and exhibiting how inhuman he and others consider him to be.

But when Dirac painfully regains the first memory of Boutin’s life, the focus of the novel changes to an examination of who this character really is—is he Boutin, complete with his memories and responses, or is he Dirac going through some highly specialized training? Even his superiors are unsure of him, well aware of his potential for going rogue himself. What’s worse, Dirac now knows his true nature and also doesn’t know what to consider himself.

Scalzi has set up a fairly integrated and complete future human society. We don’t have the advantage of knowing what non-military life for humans is like. He has also established an interesting network of alien races, and when Dirac finally meets Boutin face-to-face, wonderfully pokes holes in the culture he has worked so hard to establish. Here also is perhaps the biggest weakness of The Ghost Brigades: Boutin’s rationale for his actions does not stand up in the face of logic. A renowned scientist would likely have thought more clearly through his reasoning for turning traitor—and for a man who claims to love his daughter as much as he does, her well-being never seems to be very important to Boutin.

Ultimately, as may be expected, Dirac and Boutin face off, with a result that is fairly predictable. On the one hand, I would have liked the effect of the conclusion to have had more effect on the other characters in the story as they the legacy and example of Dirac and Boutin. The events that follow the climax are important, though; just not personal enough. And they probably also help to set up the third book in the series. I just find it unfortunate that we spend the majority of the book examining the humanity of the main character only to have that purpose swept aside by the resolution of the conflict.

Outside of this flaw, The Ghost Brigades is an enjoyable read, positing a very believable future and using that setting to ask important questions concerning the nature of being human, questions that carry beyond the confines of the book. Ultimately, it’s an optimistic book about individuals, but like Heinlein, it questions the motives of humans when they get together into groups requiring politics. Also like Heinlein, the book is written in a deceptively simple style, putting the questions and conversation about the characters in place through their interaction without huge expository monologues. It’s a solid effort, and I look forward to reading more of Scalzi down the road.