February 23, 2011, 4:17 pm
Movie deal for Old Man's War.
Also heard that Ridley Scott is doing the Forever War.
By the way, I was working on a list of SF stories that were completed screwed up as movies in the 80's and 90's, so much so they would be worth a remake. So far I have only a couple, but would appreciate suggestions
- Starship Troopers
- Running Man
- Total Recall (not as awful as the first two but had that same cheesy unserious style that brings it down for me)
I suppose some might put Robocop in this category but I am attached to that movie, in part because if there was an underlying novel I hadn't read it, and the campiness kind of worked.
July 20, 2008, 11:05 am
Tor.com recently went online, and apparently has a new John Scalzi short story from the Old Man's War universe and a new Charles Stross from his very enjoyable "Laundry" series (I have not mentioned the latter series very much, but it is sort of HP Lovecraft meets Men in Black crossed with Office Space. Really.)
March 22, 2006, 10:19 pm
Congrats to John Scalzi for his Hugo nomination for "Old Man's War". I hope he wins. I read a lot of science fiction including several of the other nominated books but Old Man's War was one of those instant classics, a book that 25 years from now could easily be included in a best of science fiction series. I also have to agree with Glenn Reynolds on the accesability of his work. If I wanted to get someone excited about science fiction, I would likely hand them "Enders Game", "The Foundation", and "Old Man's War"*. I just finished Vernor Vinge's "Deepness in the Sky", which was awesome. It and his previous book "Fire Upon the Deep" are beautiful and rich and deep and textured masterpieces, but I would never hand them to a SciFi first-timer. SciFi needs writers who bring the general population back to SciFi, and Scalzi along with Card and a few others will certainly help.
* Honestly, if you rank yourself as someone who hates or just doesn't read science fiction, give just one or two of these three a try. Scifi is not all cute robots and Imperial Star Destroyers. And for those looking for the next step beyond these books for more hard-core stuff I might suggest classics like "Mote in God's Eye", "Ringworld", "Dune", or about anything by Louis McMaster Bujold. After that, your ready for anything, from Charles Stross to Harlan Ellison (the latter if you want a good downer).
February 10, 2005, 10:16 pm
I just finished reading these three books, one after the other:
In basic outline, each book has exactly the same plot, about a man joining the army in some future war. Each have many of the classic war-story elements, including the tough over-the-top drill Sargent in basic training.
At the same time, all three are totally different, in different universes with different physics and different politics and enemies. And, perhaps most importantly, each with a different outlook on war and its necessity. Each one is awesome individually but created an amazing accidental trilogy when read together.
