Old Man's War
My pal John arranged for me to get ahold of a prerelease copy of his book, Old Man's War. I finished it the other night, and I gotta say�it's fantastic. Truly. And I'm not just saying that because he's a friend of mine (nor because there's a bit character in the book named after me). In fact, these things generally cause me to be more critical, rather than less.

But truly, it's an excellent read, combining the breezy pacing of Heinlein's space operas, the grit of Haldeman's Forever series and the seat-of-the-pants approach to revolutionary ideas that made Philip K. Dick's stories so ripe for poaching by Hollywood.

Plus, it's damn funny.

The fundamental humanity of the book is, I think, what's going to make some waves in the sci-fi community. So much of recent sci-fi is about lit'rary style�at the expense of the story and the characters. John knows enough about writing to get out of his own way, stylistically, and let the story tell itself. It's reminiscent of Orson Scott Card's work in its clarity (and, come to think of it, its snappy dialogue), which is, to me, a very significant thing.

This isn't the next Neuromancer. This isn't the next Perdido Street Station. Those are both compliments; John's done something which is, in my opinion, far more difficult than crowbarring "edgy" prose or freebasing surreal (and thus almost entirely inaccessible) universes: He's written a story that can touch you.

I think modern sci-fi readers are hungry for something that is both accessible and well-written. Maybe I'm wrong; maybe the market won't give a second glance to a writer who doesn't scream "look at what I can do!" on every page. But my gut feeling is that the book�especially as a debut novel�will do very, very well. It certainly deserves to.

Here's the Amazon link. Enjoy.