Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels discussion

This thread is for discussion of the second book in the Old Man's War series.

Finished Harry Potter #5, ready to start this one.

I'll re-read it closer to the month's end, but may discuss some stuff earlier. I liked it when I've read it several years ago

The library wait for this one is still 3 months away, so I'm probably going to play catch-up this spring. If I can find a used physical copy in the meantime I'll grab it.

My library says its still a 6 week wait, ugh.

I've got it through Kindle Unlimited. It goes quickly, as Scalzi has that Stephen King-ish knack for writing a flowing story. And it's interesting; I read it a few years ago & recall that I like it, but I didn't remember the plot.

Rebecca wrote: "My library says its still a 6 week wait, ugh."

You might want to get your reservation in for the next one to get ahead!

It's in the Open Library:

https://openlibrary.org/works/OL20802...

Allan wrote: "It's in the Open Library:

https://openlibrary.org/works/OL20802..."

Well, you've worn me down Allan, I finally signed up for an account (was really the easiest thing ever) and so I'll figure out how I can read it on my kindle and get started soon! 😂

Allan wrote: "You might want to get your reservation in for the next one to get ahead!"

That one will be ready in 2 weeks so I should be good assuming I can get through Brigades.

Rebecca wrote: "I'll figure out how I can read it on my kindle and get started soon!.."

I haven't figured out how to read it on a Kindle yet but I just read it on a browser. I'll see if I can figure it out too.

Allan wrote: "I haven't figured out how to read it on a Kindle yet but I just read it on a browser."

If you check a book not at Open Library but at Archive.org, where the book actually resides there are options at the top - borrow for 1 hour and (not always, e.g. not for this particular book) borrow for 14 days. if the latter then a link to epub and pdf will be below the scan on the right. it gives ascm-file which allows to download the book and open it on a device that opens such books (this is just like ebook loan from a library). For one hour loans there is a way to get the file but it is borderline legit so I won't go into details

Allan wrote: "Rebecca wrote: "My library says its still a 6 week wait, ugh."

You might want to get your reservation in for the next one to get ahead!"

Yeah I've put a hold on the whole series but they are all over the place in terms of wait times. Zoe's Tale already became available and I had to put it back in the queue. The Ghost Brigades is unfortunately the longest hold, so it's the bottleneck. (I haven't yet become willing to read a book length work in browser).

I've read a few on a browser in Open Library, even if they're 1 hour borrows. You only have to click a refresh button to renew. And you can resize it to suit your preferences. It's still a last resort, but the great thing about it is that they have books that are very hard to find elsewhere without buying. I'm cheap, I'd just rather read it for free.

Ya, I tried to get the kindle file but what I borrowed was just photo copies of each page. Kinda cool they have an AI reader though…except it’s grating and I couldn’t listen to it for more than 20 seconds.

Rebecca wrote: "Ya, I tried to get the kindle file but what I borrowed was just photo copies of each page. "

Yes, archive.org deals with scans. In 14-day loans an OCRed but not proof-read epub can be loaded

After a few sidetracks, I'm back on this one, reading thru Kindle. Should finish in the next few days. I'm probably going to bolt the schedule and listen to The Last Colony, but not until I've read The Sagan Diary novella.

I've got Armor on audio, so I'll do that first, then back to Scalzi

My copy of Armor is paper, so I can read them simultaneously. We had talked about a buddy read, are you ready to go?

I was at about 35% and stopped to read Armor. However, I needed an audio book & had The Last Colony queued, so I started that & switched back to The Ghost Brigades to try & stay in order. About 60% now.

It's been 6-7 years, so I'd forgotten the plot completely. The re-read is almost like a wholly new book. Enjoying it a lot. It's more complex & deeper than OMW, but still has Scalzi's readability with hardly any of his trademark snarkiness.

Allan wrote: "It's more complex & deeper than OMW"

Agreed, which pleasantly surprised me - too often sequels are milking story for money and thus weakker

Finished this today, really enjoyed this one - I stick with my comment above.

I’m at almost 30% are really liking the angle of this book. I find the brain-to-brain talking easy to follow.

But, did anyone pick up in the whole “we only take developed country citizens into the army, and developing countries are so bad, most ppl leave and join the colonies” bit? It felt a bit odd and unnecessary to to the story. Pretty crappy this far into the future we still haven’t all fully developed and those divisions still exist in this version of the future.

But, did anyone pick up in the whole “we only take developed country citizens into the army, and developing countries are so bad, most ppl leave and join the colonies” bit? It felt a bit odd and unnecessary to to the story. Pretty crappy this far into the future we still haven’t all fully developed and those divisions still exist in this version of the future.

Yeah, I remember that. True that it is unnecessary. But unfortunately, I have trouble envisioning a future where such divisions don't exist. The human tendency to form groups and value one's own group over all others is just too strong. Given what he wrote, Scalzi probably agrees.

I vaguely recall reading something from the first book that there was a major war on Earth that caused economic regression in some parts of the world (like south asia) over a long period.

Besides, "developing" status is really a euphemism, not meant to describe an actual process reaching an end stage of "developed." Poor countries are poor because they're exploited by rich countries, the same way the working poor exist because capitalism requires an underclass. Ie., a feature not a bug.

Kalin wrote: "Poor countries are poor because they're exploited by rich countries, the same way the working poor exist because capitalism requires an underclass. Ie., a feature not a bug."

As a citizen of a developing country, which for the last decade traded 1st and 2nd place (with Moldova) for the title of the poorest by GDP per capita European country and economist by trade I tend to disagree. First of all, I don't see 'developing' as a denigrating/belittling. Moreover, each country is multifaceted, so a state can be both developing and have something even some developed lack - e.g. there was a lot of talk about Trump's tax declarations - in Ukraine any candidate has to supply his income declaration (which includes assets as well) to enter the race... true, sometimes these declarations are questioned...

Back to the subject :) the claim that poor countries are poor because they're exploited by rich countries doesn't work well with countries, which turned rich from poor, from Japan and Switzerland to Israel. As well as earlier rich ones degrading over time like Spain... Moreover, more interesting cases are where countries with the same/similar culture, 'mentality' ended up split apart, and more 'capitalist' ones turn out richer - the case of two Germanies, two Koreas, mainland China and Taiwan and Hong Kong...

I just finished it; definitely did not like it as much as Old Man's War, mostly because the protagonists were all pretty empty characters. In terms of attitude and behaviour, I couldn't really tell you the difference between John Perry and Jared Dirac, despite their wildly different life experiences. Will continue with the next book when I find time though.

I thought I was really going to like this one but as the story developed I, like Kalin, found the lack of character depth a bit of a drag. The tech and political stuff was interesting, as was the last 10% or so, but I was ready for the conclusion to hit at around 50%. Still a fun book, with some nicely thought provoking sections. I gave a 3 stars I think, and OMW got 4, if memory serves me. Still continuing with the series, and especially excited for what Zoe’s Tale will get into! I’ll likely start TLC in two weeks.

I've also recently finished re-reading and like the first time I liked the story very much, possibly because it had breaking the fourth wall will mentioning other mil-SF and almost a parody of evil genius speech - like that metatext attempts here

I liked Old Man's War better, also

Kateblue wrote: "I liked Old Man's War better, also"

For me the first had a Heinleinian 50s-60s feel to it, the 2nd was like moving in SF a few decades forward