A friend recently discovered an author she likes (J.M. Coetzee, for inquiring minds) and immediately embarked on the adventure of reading everything she can find by him. I envied her. My life of late has been all screenplay, all the time, and that has had some unexpected consequences, not the least of which is that I read much less new-to-me fiction than I did. That’s partly because all the learning about screenwriting is enough “new” for me right now; and because I spend more of my leisure time (hah, such as it is) watching films (more with the learning); and because most of my new-reading bandwidth is taken up with YA as I continue to make notes and build the framework for the YA novel that’s coming up on my project list.
And because I’m so damned tired a lot of the time that all I want is serious comfort. Comfort food (my mom’s tuna casserole, Nicola’s Portuguese soup, the kick-ass marrow-bone vegetable beef soup that I make that we call shtoup because it’s thick like stew but it’s not stew, no matter what Nicola says). And comfort reading. I’ve been revisiting a lot of old favorites lately — Travis McGee, Bone Dance, and I’ve got my eye on a bunch of Stephen King novellas.
But I’ve been reluctant to engage with writers whose work I don’t already know. And then along came Old Man’s War by John Scalzi. I’ve been reading Scalzi’s blog for a while, but not his fiction. And I really enjoyed this book.
I loved Heinlein from the first book of his I read (Time Enough For Love, if I recall correctly), and I love that Scalzi has captured the best spirit of RAH without rehashing him — this isn’t Heinlein-lite, it’s post-Heinlein, with a good story, interesting characters, cool ideas and accessible science. And as much to say about war — what it is, what it isn’t, how it changes those who wage it — as The Forever War or Ender’s Game. I love the voices, the relationships, the details of moving from one life into another… all the stuff I like, wrapped up in a story that has particular resonance for me right now.
And so now I too have found a new writer to read. Very exciting. Thanks, John, I liked your book.
And I would love to hear what new-to-you writers others have found — there’s nothing like sharing the wealth!
