Old Man’s War

by John Scalzi · 2005

On his 75th birthday, John Perry visits his late wife's grave and then enlists in the Colonial Defense Force, humanity’s interstellar army. In a future where Earth is a backwater and habitable worlds are scarce, the CDF recruits retirees—people with decades of experience—to fight alien rivals for planetary real estate. Perry is whisked away to distant battlefields, transformed into a genetically enhanced soldier, and thrust into a brutal, centuries‑long war that tests his humanity and his resolve. If he survives, he’ll earn a homestead on a hard‑won colony; if not, he may never return home. Scalzi blends sharp humor, vivid world‑building, and high‑stakes combat to explore what it means to fight for a future when the cost is your very self.