Old Man's War

“Leaving Earth physically had been an irritating thing, thanks to Leon’s obnoxiousness, but leaving it emotionally had been surprisingly easy. I had decided a year before my departure that, yes, I would join the CDF; from there, it was simply a matter of making the arrangements and saying good-byes.”

John’s practicality is another character trait that defines him. As he discusses leaving Earth, something that one might expect to be extremely difficult after 75 years there, he notes how “easy” and “simple” it was. This lack of emotionality sets the stage for John’s military career, which will be largely defined by detachment and alienation.

“‘But I say unto you, Love your enemies,’ I quoted. ‘Bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.’”

In John’s first interaction with Jesse, they take turns quoting Bible verses. The quotes come from the Sermon on the Mount, which contains many of Jesus’s moral teachings. This one is ironic in context, as it discusses the importance of helping and being kind to everyone, even one’s enemies. However, Jesse and John are on the verge of joining the CDF and working to destroy humanity’s “enemies.”

“It says, ‘Until you can make one of these, don’t even think of challenging us.’ And the beanstalk is the only technology the CU has decided to show us. Think about what they haven’t let us know about. I can guarantee you the U.S. President has. And that it keeps him and every other leader on the planet in line.”

Harry often serves as a source of exposition for both John and the reader. Here, he discusses the beanstalk, which he views not so much as a useful tool as a show of the CU’s knowledge and power. His words thus introduce the theme of The Duality of Technological Advancement and emphasize the dangers of the CDF, which, at this point in the novel, has unclear motives.

“The Henry Hudson makes excellent speed, so by breakfast tomorrow the Earth will be a very small disk, and by dinner, nothing more than a bright point in the sky. This will probably be your last chance to see what was your homeworld. If that means something to you, I suggest you drop by.”

Campbell’s words to the new recruits reflect the CU’s lack of empathy for its soldiers. Campbell’s skeptical, dismissive tone suggests that he has become jaded about Earth and disconnected from the humans who live there. This emphasizes the theme of The Ethics of War. The CDF has little regard for the recruits or the lives they are leaving behind, seeing them only for their potential military strength.

“I mean, in about a minute, all that time I spent memorizing the constellations will be wasted effort. There’s no Orion or Ursa Minor or Cassiopeia where we’re going. This might sound stupid, but it’s entirely possible I’ll miss the constellations more than I’ll miss the money.”

As the CDF dehumanizes its recruits and enemies alike, minor characters like Alan work to bring humanity back into the military experience, reminding John that he is human even as he becomes a soldier. The thing that Alan will miss most about Earth lends insight into the human perspective. While stars exist throughout the universe, the imaginative grouping of stars into constellations requires an onlooker, and the particular groupings Alan notes are unique to Earth. As the recruits embark on their new journey, they risk losing sight of the things that have made them human.

“[A]nd I fell

waaaaaaaaaaaaay down

(and felt like I was being pressed hard through a fine mesh mattress)

and all the memories I ever had hit me in the face like a runaway brick wall

one clear flash of standing at the altar

watching kathy walk down the aisle

seeing her foot catch the front of her gown

a small stutter in her step

then she corrected beautifully

smile up at me as if to say

yeah like that’s going to stop me.”

In the moment that John is transported into his new body, Scalzi’s stylistic choices convey the impact that it has on him. The short, choppy lines, the lack of punctuation or capitalization, and the use of italicized and bolded text reflect the jarring sensation that John feels as he is literally taken out of his own body.

“I unlocked it, opened it, and took my old body’s left hand. On the ring finger was a simple gold band. I slipped it off and slipped it on my ring finger.”

As John leaves his old body for the last time, he stops to retrieve his wedding ring. This is an important moment for his character, as it foreshadows the importance that love plays in his life. While he is happy to have a new, stronger body, he still wants to be reminded of what makes him human: love and connection, which his ring symbolizes.

“[Kathy] said she wasn’t against war or the military in general, just that war and our military. She said that people have the right to defend themselves and that it was probably a nasty universe out there. And she said that beyond those noble reasons, we’d be young again to boot.”

As John discusses why he joined forces that both he and his wife once opposed, Kathy’s remarks develop the theme of the ethics of war. While they are morally opposed to much of what the CDF is doing, they push their misgivings aside by convincing themselves that they will be helping humanity by joining this particular struggle. The prospect of getting a younger body, though framed as an afterthought, is implied to be the real motivation. Indeed, it is key to the CDF’s recruiting process, which targets people who feel as though they have no reason to remain on Earth, using them to further the CU’s colonial project in exchange for the promise of a new life.

“Recruits, consider this next week as a bridge between your old lives and your new ones. In this time, which you will ultimately find all too brief, you can use these new bodies, designed for military use, to enjoy the pleasures you enjoyed as a civilian.”

When Higgee speaks to the recruits, he plays on their emotions, allowing them to have freedom and fun before they are sent to basic training. His words emphasize the theme of the duality of technological advancement. While the recruits’ lives are in some ways much better with their enhanced bodies, these same bodies will soon be used as weapons by the CDF.

“‘In this room right now are 1,022 recruits,’ Lieutenant Colonel Higgee said. ‘Two years from today, 400 of you will be dead.’ […] We were all ignoring [the screen] and focusing on Lieutenant Colonel Higgee. His statistic had gotten everyone’s attention, a feat considering the time (0600 hours) and the fact that most of us were still staggering from the last night of freedom we assumed we would have.”

When John and the recruits speak to Higgee the second time, after a week of enjoying their new bodies, his words starkly contrast with what he told them before. Then, he encouraged them to have fun; now, he is making it clear that the war they are entering is brutal and that most of them will die. This juxtaposition emphasizes the shift that is occurring in John’s life as he finally leaves his old one behind.

“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re thinking, you dumb shits. I know you’re enjoying my performance at the moment. How delightful! I’m just like all those drill instructors you’ve seen in the movies! Aren’t I just the fucking quaint one!”

Ruiz calls attention to the fact that he is a caricature of a drill sergeant. This is an example of metafiction, as Scalzi’s writing directly comments on the story he is telling. This creates humor, lightening the mood moments after the recruits are shown a brutal image of humans dying in war.

“I don’t really care about being platoon leader, but I think I care very much about making sure every recruit in this platoon has the skills and training they’re going to need to survive out there.”

John speaks these words to the people that he appoints as squad leaders in basic training. They lend insight into an important component of his character: He truly cares about not only his own survival but also the survival of his fellow soldiers. Instead of looking for glory or military advancement, he simply focuses on the thing that matters most to the new soldiers.

“Metaphysically, maybe you should feel attached to the colonies because, having been changed yourself, you appreciate the human potential to become something that will survive in the universe. More directly, you should care because the colonies represent the future of the human race, and changed or not, you’re still far closer to human than any other intelligent species out there.”

Oglethorpe, one of the commanding officers who talks to the recruits about alien species, is asked why enhanced soldiers should care about “ordinary” humans, including colonists; this is his response. While he gives a logical reason—CDF soldiers are humans’ close genetic relatives, modified in a way similar to evolution—his response also develops the theme of Colonization and the Conflict Between Self and Other. The CDF destroys other species on the grounds of their difference. However, neither Oglethorpe nor the other CDF leaders truly know if genetically modified humans are “far closer to human” than anything else; they simply push that narrative to justify their colonization.

“After we received an all clear from Lieutenant Keyes, I went back to get Watson. A group of eight-legged scavengers was already at him; I shot one and that encouraged the rest to disperse. They had made impressive progress on him in a short amount of time. I was sort of darkly surprised at how much less someone weighed after you subtracted his head and much of his soft tissues.”

Watson’s death, the first one that John witnesses in the war, is an important moment in his character arc, as he comes face-to-face with the war’s brutality for the first time. His efforts to carry Watson back to the morgue metaphorically represent his efforts to hold on to his humanity; he does so alone because no one else is interested in yet another soldier’s death. Additionally, John’s dark humor permeates his description, lending comic relief to an otherwise sad moment.

“[They] all got the same treatment, which centered on two facts. The first was that when new guys come in, it was because some old guy was gone—and typically ‘gone’ meant ‘dead.’ Institutionally, soldiers can be replaced like cogs. On the platoon and squad level, however, you’re replacing a friend, a squadmate, someone who had fought and won and died.”

As John reflects on the arrival of new recruits, his thoughts emphasize the theme of the ethics of war. To the CU, the soldiers are just “cogs,” able to be easily replaced. However, as John has to witness each death, he humanizes war, insisting that these living human beings are more than just replaceable parts.

“[N]o matter what you think, Private, your responsibility right now isn’t to the universe or to humanity at large—it’s to me, your squadmates, your platoon and to the CDF. When you’re given an order, you’ll follow it. If you go beyond the scope of your orders, you’re going to have to answer to me.”

Viveros’s anger toward Bender connects to the motif of following orders and explores its complexity. She understands that the orders they are following benefit the CDF, a brutal war machine. However, following these same orders is the only thing that keeps her and the other soldiers alive as they fight for their survival. This duality emphasizes the ethics of war, as the CDF interlinks the soldiers’ lives with its own military plans to ensure success.

“The CDF avoided a wide-scale random bombing of major cities, since wanton civilian death was not the goal. […] [T]he thinking was the Whaidians would have enough problems with the disease, famine and the political and social unrest that inevitably comes as a result of having your industrial and technological base yanked out from under you. Therefore, going after the civilian population was seen as inhumane and (equally as important to the CDF brass) an inefficient use of resources.”

John’s thoughts about their battle with the Whaidians are loaded with irony. He points out that the CDF doesn’t want to kill Whaidian civilians directly yet has no problem destroying their infrastructure, causing famine, and obliterating their civilization. While this may assuage the guilt some soldiers feel, it is effectively a different form of genocide—just one that requires fewer “resources.”

“Thomas’ death was a reminder that not only don’t we know what we’re up against out here, sometimes we simply can’t imagine what we’re up against. Thomas made the mistake of assuming the enemy would be more like us than not. He was wrong. He died because of it.”

John’s factual account of Thomas’s death—simply reporting that he was “wrong” and “died”—reflects the dehumanization of the CDF soldiers. At the start of the novel, he was committed to his new friends. Now, Thomas becomes just another soldier who dies in the middle of a brutal war.

“[Jane] moved fast, faster than even normal CDF, grabbed me, and slammed me against a nearby bulkhead. I was pretty sure I felt one of my newly repaired ribs crack. […] ‘Who the fuck are you,’ Jane hissed at me, ‘and what are you trying to pull?’”

Jane’s initial reaction to John contrasts with his feelings for her, born of her resemblance to his wife: She reacts with violence and rage. This response serves as characterization, reflecting her backstory as a member of the Ghost Brigade. Jane has never known anything but war and consequently distrusts human connection.

“We have a life of memories and experiences to stabilize us. Even younger soldiers in traditional armies have twenty years of experiences. In a real sense, these Special Forces troops are children warriors. It’s ethically borderline.”

The leader of the Ghost Brigade, Mendel, tries to help John understand the complexities of its soldiers, who are born simply to fight and know nothing else of the world they enter. His comment that it is “ethically borderline” points to the theme of the ethics of war, as the CDF is not only creating human beings simply to put them in combat but doing so when they are in some ways the functional equivalent of children.

“‘You know you’re human, sir,’ Mendel said. ‘And so do we. You and we are closer than you think. We know about how the CDF picks its recruits. You’re fighting for colonists you’ve never met—colonists who were your country’s enemy at one point. Why do you fight for them?’”

Mendel again discusses the ethics of creating genetically modified soldiers. Here, his words develop the theme of colonization and the conflict between self and other, as he points out that the CDF soldiers, the colonists, and the humans back on Earth are all distinctly different in biology, experience, or both. His words raise the question of where “humanity” ends and “Other” begins, especially as genetic modification continues to lead the CDF away from humanity’s origins.

“We know we’re the Frankenstein monster. We know we’re put together from bits and pieces of the dead. We look in a mirror and we know we’re seeing somebody else, and that the only reason we exist is because they don’t—and that they are lost to us forever.”

This metaphor and allusion are spoken by Jane as she tries to get John to understand how she feels being born a soldier. Her words lend insight into her character, pointing toward her internal conflict. Like Frankenstein’s monster, she is created from pieces of others and lacks her own history or origin story—a scenario that interrogates the boundaries of humanity.

“For another thing, it’d give you a chance to live those lives you all dreamt about. You know, the pasts you make up for yourselves. Us normal CDF get to have that life before we go into the service. You could have it afterward.”

As John implores Jane to join him in “retirement,” his words foreshadow the romantic involvement that later novels in the series explore. He tries to help Jane understand the thing that makes them human: love and connection. Although these were missing from her past, he believes that their love can give them both a reason to want to have a life after the CDF.