Old Man's War

Jane, an important secondary character and love interest, is a genetically modified human whose consciousness was born six years before the novel’s opening, when her mind was created and placed inside the body of John’s wife, Katherine. As a result, she has no memory of life before enlistment in the Ghost Brigade. She is a calculating and precise soldier, moving to a commanding role within the Ghost Brigade because of her military prowess. She is also intelligent, serving in a tactical role and developing the plans of attack for the final battle on Coral. Additionally, she orchestrates a way for John to join the Ghost Brigade by convincing her commanding officer to allow him to serve first as a liaison and then as a member—largely so that she can protect him and remain with him.

Through her relationship with John, Jane changes, learning to value human connection. Because she was born into the military and has no memories outside the war, she is initially cold and distant, throwing John across the room during their first meeting when he tries to talk to her. However, when John sends her a picture of him and Katherine on their wedding day, she begins to question what it means to be human. She pursues a friendship with John, asking him questions each night to learn more about Katherine and John’s life on Earth. When John proposes that they retire from the military together, she initially resists, but in the novel’s final pages, she sends John a postcard of the place she envisions retiring, revealing to John that she wants to “learn how to be human for the first time” (351). This moment marks her character growth, as she is now dedicated to exploring personal connection and the nature of humanity.

Harry is a supporting character and friend to John. On Earth, he was a physics teacher. Like John, he joins the CDF at the age of 75 for the chance at a new life; he is also intrigued by the Colonial Union’s scientific advancement. He serves largely as a source of exposition for John and the reader, helping to explain the science behind things like the beanstalk and the act of “skipping.”

While John is practical and willing to follow the orders of the CDF because of the opportunity it is giving him, Harry is the first recruit to question the CDF, opening John’s mind to what is happening within the Colonial Union broadly. The first time they meet on the beanstalk, Harry explains its massive cost and the physics behind it, which should theoretically be impossible based on the scientific understanding of humans on Earth. This conversation leads John to question the motives and the goals of the CU, which keeps Earth in a state of comparative underdevelopment. Although Harry does not openly defy the CDF, he nonetheless asks questions more boldly and openly than the others. Thanks to John, Harry is ultimately transferred to the CDF research team, where he experiments with the science behind the skip drive tracker. Though no longer participating in combat, Harry thus continues to uphold the very military machine that he questions, raising questions about complicity and The Ethics of War.

Viveros is John’s corporal for his first few battles in the CDF, serving as his direct commanding officer. She is originally from Peru, where her father, Pedro, was president. Her father, mother, and siblings were killed in a military coup, leaving Viveros as the only surviving member of her family. She is tactically intelligent, helping John to survive his first battle when Consu soldiers ambush them.

Viveros serves an important role in John’s development, as she helps John to understand the complexities of the CDF and their motives. She admits to John that she believes the CDF frequently uses violence instead of diplomacy, fighting wars that could be prevented if the CDF were willing to communicate with alien species. Despite this, she explains that she continues to follow orders because she is just one person. Her goal is to “[b]ecome the people who are giving the orders, not just following them” (203). In this way, Viveros humanizes military service for John. They form a friendship based on shared recognition of the brutality of the CDF while also identifying their feelings of helplessness within the military. When she dies, John describes her as a “cog” in the machine, conveying her overall role for the CDF and implying the futility of her belief that she could fundamentally change the military. However, he also makes it clear that he will “miss” her, emphasizing her value as a person rather than her military prowess.