He also has many critics. As Scalzi himself concedes, he dropped the ball when, as president of the Science Fiction Writers Association, he signed off on an issue of the SFWA Bulletin which many found offensive. His most vocal critics argue that he has overstated the popularity of his blog and shamelessly campaigned for awards. He has also caught a great deal of flak from his social justice allies ("How John Scalzi pissed me off" is far from the only example). The Sad and Rabid Puppies often cite Redshirts as an example of all that is wrong with the Hugo Awards.
For my part, I have to concede that as a fellow alumnus of the University of Chicago, I might be a little predisposed towards liking Scalzi. I have often enjoyed reading Scalzi's blog and find myself in agreement with him on most issues; in addition to the above mentioned "Straight White Male" post, I also especially enjoyed his "Apologies: What, When and How" blog post. Our college experiences also seem to have been quite similar. The few times I have been turned off by the blog (or his twitter feed) is when he turns up the snark to eleven and/or comes across as a little too smug and condescending.
As for his fiction, I have found much to like but little to love. Scalzi writes well in a breezy style that makes for a quick "page turning" read (I finished this book in two days). His fiction often dances around important social issues, but rarely investigates them deeply; this is not, ironically, the kind of "message fiction" that the Puppies have been complaining about. As a result, while I enjoy reading the books, they do not leave a lasting impression.
Old Man's War, which I believe was Scalzi's first published novel, is no exception. Part of a long line of imitators of Heinlein's Starship Troopers, which includes Joe Haldeman's The Forever War, and John Steakley's Armor and many others, Old Man's War follows John Perry one of the newest recruits in the Colonial Defense Forces. Scalzi departs from his progenitors by imagining a world in which the old enlist to fight in return for being given new younger genetically enhanced bodies supplemented by nanotechnology. Other than this, the first half of the book is basically a retelling of Heinlein's Starship Troopers: Perry's raid on the Whaidian's home world is reminiscent of Rico's raid on the Skinnies, while Perry's first experience on Coral is akin to Rico's in the first Battle of Klendathu. The second half of the book gets a bit more interesting as Perry is confronted with the clone of his long dead wife, and there is an interesting discussion of the ways in which combat would differ if soldiers could withstand damage that would be catastrophic to a human body. The books ends in a reasonably satisfying way that is (slightly) reminiscent of the ending of The Forever War.
As for its discussions of deeper social issues, there is not much there. The by-now typical debate about whether or not their society should be at war (as opposed to negotiating with the alien races) occurs, but any serious discussion is curtailed with the deaths of the two main advocates for diplomacy. Perry has a psychological breakdown after participating in one massacre, but this is quickly dismissed as simply a phase all the soldiers go through; the discussion of the psychological effects of violence is considerably shallower than the one that redeems the otherwise pedestrian Armor by Steakley. There is nothing equivalent to Heinlein's ruminations on how best to govern society, or Haldeman's use of the time distorting effects of relativity to draw attention to the alienating impact of being sent off to war.
In sum, reading Scalzi's Old Man's War is like eating a meal saturated with MSG: it tastes pretty good as you are eating it, but you are left feeling hungry soon afterwards and worried about the long-term consequences for your health. All in all, on the R4 ratings scale, it is a perfectly decent ...
R4 Rating: 6 out of 10.
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