“What is it like when you lose someone you love?” Jane asked.
“You die too,” I said. “And you wait around for your body to catch up.”
“Is that what you’re doing now?” Jane said. “Waiting for your body to catch up, I mean.”
“Not, not anymore,” I said. “You eventually get to live again. You just live a different life, is all.”
Much to the glee of many of our readers, the book club selection for the next two months (September/October) is 2006 Hugo Award nominee Old Man’s War by John Scalzi.
John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife’s grave. Then he joined the army.
The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce-and aliens willing to fight for them are common. The universe, it turns out, is a hostile place.
So: we fight. To defend Earth (a target for our new enemies, should we let them get close enough) and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has gone on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding.
Earth itself is a backwater. The bulk of humanity’s resources are in the hands of the Colonial Defense Force, which shields the home planet from too much knowledge of the situation. What’s known to everybody is that when you reach retirement age, you can join the CDF. They don’t want young people; they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. You’ll be taken off Earth and never allowed to return. You’ll serve your time at the front. And if you survive, you’ll be given a generous homestead stake of your own, on one of our hard-won colony planets.
John Perry is taking that deal. He has only the vaguest idea what to expect. Because the actual fight, light-years from home, is far, far harder than he can imagine-and what he will become is far stranger.
I have my copy and have started. I’m a noob to the club here, is there a precedural protocol? Do we go by chapters? Do we just read and go? Discuss as we read or wait until the end?
As this is a spoiler thread for the novel, if you want to comment as you’re reading you need to be aware that the end might come up… but it’s up to you. We have people who post as they read, and others who wait until they finish the book to post, and people who do both (ahem, me!) depending on the book in question.
When this book first started appearing on the voting lists, I picked it up and read it. Since then, I’ve been waiting for it to win.
I’ve always wonder about the brain transfer, and is it really transfering the person or making a copy in the new person, and then the old copy dies? You get to watch your new copy come to life and then you die.
It’s a really interesting quesiton. Hang on a second…
“Old Man”
By Church H. Tucker
I gasp.
My eyes are open, and I can see the… I don’t know.
I hear voices, but I can’t make sense of the sounds.
I try to shake my head clear, but I can’t move it. I can’t move anything.
I remember the new, young, clone body that was meant to replace my aging one. A younger me, or it would have been if I had been an athlete at that age. Also, it was green.
Wait. Green?
I gasp again. I’m breathing. Barely enough, but I’m breathing.
Right. Army green. It is a body designed for fighting. I can’t remember why it is green. But they don’t tell you that when you sign up. They don’t even tell you it’s a clone body. They just say you’ll get a new lease on life. I thought they had some kind of fountain of youth. Which I suppose they do. Just not what I expected.
Those eyes.
I gasp again.
Those eyes weren’t human. They looked more like a cat’s. There was some kind of fad for contacts that looked like cat’s eyes a while ago. But those weren’t contacts. Those were the eyes in my head.
In my head.
That’s right. There was a procedure. The doctor was transferring my consciousness to the clone body. It was surreal. I was aware the entire time. I was lying on the bed.
Deep breath. That’s better.
I’m still on the bed. That’s not right.
Wait a minute. Think.
There was a procedure. The doctor… What was his name? Nevermind. The doctor hooked me up to a machine and I was out of myself. No, I was in myself and in… it. Me. The new me. For a few seconds I was seeing out of two sets of eyes, and hearing myself speaking out of two mouths. With two sets of ears. I didn’t know where me was.
Deep breath.
Something went wrong. I was back in the old me. The now me. I remember looking at those eyes. Those cat’s eyes. And they were looking back.
I don’t remember after that. Did I black out?
There’s a light.
Deep breath.
The doctor is here. Shining a light in my eyes. I blink.
I can blink.
I try moving my head again. I don’t think I can. All I can do is look at the doctor.
Russell. His name is Russell.
Deep breath.
“John?” he says.
I try to speak. I can’t.
“John, can you hear me?”
I try to move my lips. They quiver. But I can’t make them work.
Dr. Russell. Russell is his last name. What’s his first name? Nevermind.
“John, if you can hear me, blink.”
I can blink. Once.
Deep breath.
“Can you move anything else? Blink twice for no.”
I blink twice.
He sighs.
“I’m sorry,” he says.
“It didn’t work,” I want to say, “Why didn’t it work?”
He’s holding a needle. “I’m going to need to take some blood. This may hurt.”
It does. I hiss.
Deep breath.
He does something off to the side. I can’t turn my head.
He’s over me again. He looks grim.
“You’ll be happy to know that the transfer was a success.”
I blink. Twice.
“You’re still getting used to your new body.”
Deep breath.
I don’t understand. He’s talking to me now. He knows it didn’t work.
“Unfortunately, a ‘move’ command is something of a cheat.”
Wait. What?
“What really happens is that the data is copied.”
I don’t understand.
“A move is really a copy and a delete.”
Deep breath.
“You’ve been copied successfully. You should have been deleted already.”
I blink twice.
“I know, but you agreed to this when you signed the enlistment papers. I’m sorry.”
I blink twice.
“Of course, your clone will have no idea that his mind is not the original one. And nobody will disabuse him of that idea.” He grimaced.
Deep breath.
“If it makes you feel any better, and it probably won’t, I’ve been through it twice. So I’m more removed from the original me than your clone is. Naturally, they–we don’t like to talk about the dynamics of this. You are an unsual case.”
I blink twice.
He tilts his head to the side. “We will study you, of course, since it’s very rare for someone to resist the effects of these drugs.” He brightens, “Your genes may end up in future clones. From a genetic standpoint, you might be a very successful specimen.”
I blink twice.
His face falls. “I’m sorry.” He has another needle. “I want you to relax.”
When I feel the pain of the injection, I hiss.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Scalzi.” he says, as my chest tightens.
I used an Audible credit for this one, and glad for it! The narration was top notch. I did something with this book that might indicate how much I enjoyed it: I listened to the entire thing in a day. I’ll wait a bit before getting into any details in deference to whomever might just be starting it, but a thoroughly humorous, and sometimes very touching read. HiveMind FTW.
Wow. I just finished the book. 1/3 of the way through I shot a good friend an email saying, “Run, don’t walk to get this book. It is holding my attention the way Ender’s Game did” She introduced me to Ender’s Game and remembers how I carried that book around reading three words at a time in any given moment to simply keep reading it.
This book will sit proudly on my shelf. Kudos to you Scalzi. First book? Kudos.
I went to Chilis the other night and Barnes and Noble is next door. Popped in through the pouring rain and found Zoe’s Tale. So I had to get it. Read it in all of 6 hours or so. I now own…everything Scalzi has done except for The Android’s Dream. Easily my favorite working author. Easily.
btw Solai, it’s his second book. First published. He’s also got 3 Hugo noms for best novel (06, 08, and 09) So the only Old Man’s War novel that wasn’t nominated was Ghost Brigade…which I don’t really understand but oh well. Last Colony missed winning by 9 votes. He’s also been nominated for METAtropolis, that audio book compilation thing read mostly by BSG alumni, as well as for Best Fan Writer (Which he went onto win the next year). He also won one for a book about his Blog, Whatever. Also he won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.
I finished the book last night. I really liked the book very much. I have passed it to my husband and told him he will love it. I will have to find a way to fit the rest of the series into my reading schedule* I love the really different take on the idea of galactic war.
I’ll have more thoughtful reviews later but wanted to get that out there.
Thinkin back, I think my favorite scene in this book is the politician turned soldier that is like “We can all be homies!” and then all the aliens are like “Lol no.” and just porcupine him. Dummy
I just started and I really enjoyed the whole opening cemetery scene. I share many of his views about cemeteries. I’m at the part where he gets his new body and names his BrainPal ‘asshole’. Literal LOL.
I enjoyed this so much I went and picked up the sequel, “Ghost Brigade” Different but awesome. Really gets into how the Ghost Brigade functions and how it is different from the standard soldiers. I recommend it.
Well dang it, I just don’t have time to read another book, and now you are recomending the ‘Ghost Brigade’. I’m going to have to ask for some days off to catch up. Honestly whan am I supposed to work, play Fallout3 and Twitter when everone keeps giving more recomendations?
I get that. And this is why I have the “to be read” bookshelves of doom. There are 281 listed books there so far and I’m only about half entered into my online tracker.
I gave the book to the hubby and he is really loving it as I knew he would. Hubby is also a writer and he really enjoys Scalzi’s use of language and phrasing.
I will get the sequel(s) and add them to the pile and maybe, just maybe, I will get to them someday.
