I finished Old Man’s War early this afternoon. It was terrific. It was just what I hoped it would be, and I think it easily holds its own with books such as Starship Troopers and The Forever War.

I found myself getting a little misty-eyed in one scene where Jane seems to decide that she wants to be like John’s dead wife. I thought that was a really good scene. But the scene that stole the show and just blew me away had to be the scene where the special forces ("Ghost Brigades") essentially do a HALO drop from orbit around the planet. That was incredible.

I find that the more I write and work with crit groups, the more I have a little voice in my head trying to understand what the writer was doing when telling the story.  But that didn’t happen this time.  This was a science fiction story the way a science fiction story should be told.

One thing I noted, and I’m probably the last person to notice this, the main character’s name is John, and prior to joining the Colonial Defense Forces, he was a writer.  By a strange coincidence, the author of the book’s name is John, and of course, he is a writer too.  Hmm? 🙂

I’m looking forward to starting on the sequel, The Ghost Brigades, as soon as I finish Rainbow’s End.