back to the recs

[swan_tower]

In the vein of "writing-related program activites," I'm trying to catch up with my book recs. I've read a bunch of good things lately, so I'm going to try to post one each day this week. May not succeed, but hey, it's a goal.

Today's rec, therefore, is Old Man's War, by John Scalzi. Fun and funny military SF. The short form of the rec is, I picked the book up to read five pages and see what I thought of it, and a few hours later I'd finished the whole thing. Which is very nearly the best recommendation I can give any book.

Comments

[calico-reaction.livejournal.com]

*laughs*

I had the exact same experience when I picked it up! I also really enjoy the series as a whole, though I will say THE GHOST BRIGADE didn't stick with me nearly as well. Did you get around to reading THE SAGAN DIARIES? That was absolutely gorgeous!

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

So far I've only read OMW and TGB, but I do intend to pick up the others in time.

[sarcastibich.livejournal.com]

*nod*
Mike and I discovered Scalzi's books about a year ago, and quickly fell in love. The "Old Man's War" series is well done, but I HIGHLY recommend his book "The Android's Dream."

The blurb from the back of the latter:
A human diplomat kills his alien counterpart. Earth is on the verge of war with a vastly superior alien race. A lone man races against time and a host of enemies to find the one object that can save our planet and our people from alien enslavement...a sheep. Yes, you read that right. Welcome to "The Android's Dream." For Harry Creek it's a nightmare. All he wants is to do his uncomplicated mid-level diplomatic job with Earth's State Department. But his skills and past training get him tapped to save the planet-and to protect pet store owner Robin Baker, whose own past holds the key to the whereabouts of that lost sheep. Doing both will take Harry from lava-strewn battlefields to alien halls of power. All in a day's work. Maybe it's time for a raise.

The first line of the book is "Dirk Moeller didn't know if he could fart his way into a major diplomatic incident, but he was ready to find out."

Scalzi is fun. He just won a Hugo for Fan Writer (for his blog The Whatever, mostly, he doesn't write fan-fic that I know of) and has been Hugo nominated for his books a couple times. He was the author guest of honor at InConjunction this past summer, and was pretty fun to meet.

[eclectician.livejournal.com]

Oh man. Being able to reference Dick and Murakami at the same time... that's genius.

Incidentally, I believe OMW is a trilogy, not an ongoing series.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Since there are four books already (and one extra thing, The Sagan Diaries), that would be a Hitchhiker's-style trilogy.

[eclectician.livejournal.com]

Four? I thought The Last Colony was the last one...

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Zoe's Tale just came out recently, and I'm pretty sure Scalzi has said he's willing to write more.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Scalzi doesn't write fan-fic, no, but that isn't what the Fan Writer Hugo is for. (Though I would find it very interesting if it turned into that . . . but I'm not sure we want to kill off an entire generation of older SF writers by way of the resulting aneurysm.)

[mllelaurel.livejournal.com]

Heh. That was pretty much my experience with Old Man's War. I picked it up before bed, expecting to read a chapter or two and fall asleep. ...By the time I actually got to sleep, it was well in the AMs and the book was finished.