This is not an ordinary book: it's a BookCrossing book! BookCrossing books are world travelers - they like to have adventures and make new friends...and with your help, they can even write home to say what they've been doing! (You may remain anonymous if you wish.)

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Hardcover with dust jacket from the Friends of the Library sale.

Third in the series that began with Old Man's War: John Perry has moved to an established colony world with his wife and daughter and settled down to a quiet retirement, but maybe it's a bit too quiet for any of them. When they are given the opportunity to move to a brand new colony things get much more interesting..

Other copies on my BookCrossing shelf: 10514994 • 11840097 • 13936099 • 14192165

Monday, May 11, 2020: wishlist surprise hitching a ride to Utah.

USPS tracking 9549 0104 3303 0132 9860 71
ETA 6/1/20

Released for Davros-10's 2020 Science Fiction Challenge.

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I'm so glad you've found this book! Won't you make a journal entry so the previous readers know that it's safe with you?

How and where did you find the book? What did you think of it? What are you going to do with it next?

This is now your book, for you to do with as you please: keep it as long as you wish, pass it to a friend, or maybe even leave it where someone else can find it!

If you've ever wondered where your books go after they leave your hands, join BookCrossing and you may find out: you'll be able to follow your books as new readers make journal entries - sometimes from surprisingly far-flung locations.

BookCrossing: making the whole world a library!

Imagine my surprise, when not one book arrived, but a thick package containing three books :o
I’m really excited to fill in my last book from this series! Unfortunately, it will have to wait for longer than I would like as I have a stack of books that have to be read to be sent on.

THANK YOU!

LOL ~ it didn’t wait around after all, as I simply couldn’t resist🤣

Released into my Science Fiction Only Bookbox to find it’s next reader.

I'm claiming this one from the Science Fiction bookbox; have been dipping into more of Scalzi's work lately.

Later: Quite entertaining, though a bit heavier on the intergalactic-conspiracy level than I like. But - as usual - Scalzi's characters and their often-snarky dialog and intricate relationships sustained the story. And while I haven't read the previous books in the series, this one managed to set up everything I really needed to know without too much in the way of info-dumps. (I can see there'd be more of an emotional investment if one had read the books in order, though.)

This is a setting in which technology allows for the creation artificial bodies, ever-young and superpowered, into which human consciousnesses can be transferred. And these are used mainly as... supersoldiers, because, yeah... But in an interesting twist, the people tapped to be transferred to these bodies are all senior citizens. The idea seems to be that people who've already lived full lives might (a) really like to have young, healthy bodies again, and (b) might not mind so much that they're being sent to the front lines of a galactic war and might not live much longer.

But our protagonist John did survive his time in the service, and as a reward has been re-transferred, into a normal-human body this time - still youthful and healthy, but no longer Captain America. He's married to a woman who was an even more super soldier, created for the purpose as an adult human though she's only existed for sixteen years or so. She's also a clone of John's late wife, so that's... interesting. Oh, and their adopted daughter, now a teenager, completes their little family - she's the daughter of the man who nearly destroyed humanity in the interests of galactic peace, and is considered a near-deity by the alien Obins, two of whom live with the family as - well, something between bodyguards and worshippers and liaisons with the human civilizations.

But John's family is soon uprooted from the comfortable domestic life they've built on a backwater planet, to help kickstart a new colony in hopes that it can survive long enough to become self-sustaining. (We do get a lot of back info on why this is important, how it's usually done, and what dangers may apply. Oh, and we learn that the colonists will come from many different human countries/worlds, and will include volunteer "Colonial Mennonites", people who won positions through a lottery, others who competed in a reality gameshow, and some who were assigned because their community leaders wanted to get rid of them. Promising, eh? Sounds rather like something from Life, the Universe, and Everything...

The story gets pretty mega after a while, with galactic secrets being revealed, plots and machinations unfolding, and with John and his family and friends and a handful of trusted (mostly) allies having to pull some impressive strings in hopes of fixing things before war ensues.

For all the galaxy-spanning action and politicking, the story focuses on close personal relationships, and ends with a shift in the lives of John and his family.

Scalzi's end-notes have some entertaining info about the book - including his comments that this concludes the series, though he might revisit it someday. Turns out he will, indeed, with three more novels so far and several shorter works - some exploring the same events from different character-viewpoints.

[There's a TV Tropes page on the "Old Man's War" series, with some entertaining tidbits.]

Guidelines for safely visiting and stocking Little Free Libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the LFL site here.

I plan to leave this book, bagged against the elements, on a bench or railing at Wollaston Beach; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in MA here.]

*** Released for the 2021 e-less challenge. ***

*** Released for the 2021 The The challenge. ***

*** Released for the 2021 Science Fiction challenge. ***

*** Released for the 2021 Keep Them Moving challenge. ***