Rowan Tree and Red Thread

I've just finished Old Man's War by John Scalzi. I enjoyed middling-much, but really can't see what all the fuss was about. It's a well done first novel, very much in the Heinlein mould, with some hard to swallow moments where my suspension of disbelief just choked. (nhw will recognize at least one such moment.)


What I really can't believe are the author and reviewer quotes on the cover. "sidesteps most of the clichés of military science fiction" says the San Francisco Chronicle. Really? I count the basic training, the gradual dying off of the new friends formed in the early days, the meaningless combats with aliens with poorly described motivations, the sudden reversal and chaotic failure of the push against the dangerously underestimated enemy and the final turnabout against said enemy and bitter-sweet victory all as at least not particularly original, if not necessarily cliches.

I've read that the narrator is very much an unreliable one, and that we're to find out more about the political framework that supports the frankly unbelievable set-up with volunteers joining up blind to participate in endless war against interesting but not very defined aliens in later books, but I didn't get even much of a hint of that from this novel.


That said I did enjoy the book as a quick read with some good characterisation. It just didn't set me alight the way I was expecting from some of the buzz I'd read beforehand.

One other thing. What the fuck is going on with Tor's trade paperback covers? My copy curled up like a pubic hair, front and back cover both. Most other paperback cover books in my possession manage to survive my rough touch, so what's the problem with Tor's covers?