Old Man's War Series:
by John Scalzi · first published 2016
68% recommend27% neutral5% critical
Why HN recommends it
Enjoyable, fast-moving military sci-fi often described as Starship Troopers crossed with Hitchhikers Guide, with humor and a Forever War feel. Suits readers wanting accessible, fun space adventure over hard science.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…Speaker, which is an incredible exploration of empathy and responsibility, in addition to being a gripping, action-packed, science-literate read. Many more in this series, if you get into it. John Scalzi's Old Man's War series is fantastic, if you're into military science-fiction, or even if you're not. Smart, funny, engaging and accessible, and reminiscent of Heinlein at his prime, minus the weird incest fetish. Redshirts,…
on “Ask HN: I only read tech/business books – recommend me some fiction?” ↗Good book? I haven't read any decent sci-fi in awhile (last good one was re-reading John Scalzi's Old Man's War series) and I've been looking to read some more of the genre.
on “At the core of snowflakes, bacteria” ↗…Halting State Vernor Vinge: A Fire Upon The Deep Iain M. Banks: Culture novels, start with Player of Games David Louis Edelman: Jump 225 Trilogy Daniel Suarez: Daemon and Freedom(tm) John Scalzi: Old Man's War series Dan Simmons: Hyperion Self-improvement: The Talent Code Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion Non-fiction: Amusing Ourselves To Death (highly recommended)…
on “Ask HN: Interesting (Non software) books?” ↗…to put together this simple series recommendation engine in a couple hours. It still has some kinks to work out, but I was happy how it worked out as an exercise. So far the engine has found me the "Old Man's War" series by John Scalzi. (I ended up loving the first book of that series.)
on “A Recommendation Engine for Book Series” ↗Comedic sci fi is getting me back into it: John Scalzi writes a kickass tale- Old Man's War series Robert Kroese just hilarious - Starship Grifters Read a while ago and couldn't put it down - Avogadro Corp: The Singularity is Closer than it Appers by William Hertling
on “Ask HN: What is HN reading?” ↗Check out the Old Man's War series by John Scalzi. It's kind of a Starship Troopers meets Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy (A bit less absurd.)
on “Neal Stephenson Joins Magic Leap” ↗…The Forever War, but in such a minor way that it didn't bother me even once. Scalzi then turned that book into a series, all very well worth reading (except Sagan's Diary - give that a miss). After his Old Man's War series I read Redshirts (so and so), Agent to the Stars (good read) and now I'm reading Fuzzy Nation, which is shaping up nicely. In the afterword to Agent to the Stars Scalzi actually recommends other scifi…
on “Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?” ↗I'm more of the space battles and hard science SF fan. so: I only recently read The Three Body problem, I really really enjoyed it. Can't remember the author, it's Chinese. The Old Man's War series by Scalzi If you are interested in the singularity Stross's books come to mind, the best probably Accelerando. I think these are all in the last 10 years or so. But you need to ask someone younger…
on “Ask HN: Best Contemporary SF Books” ↗A few I really enjoyed in the last few months: - The Murderbot Diaries (Martha Wells) - Dune (Frank Herbert) - The Shadow of the Torturer (Gene Wolfe) - Old Man's War series (John Scalzi) - Bobiverse Series (Dennis E. Taylor)
on “Ask HN: Sci-Fi Book Recommendations” ↗Bobiverse series (Dennis E. Taylor) Old Man's War series (John Scalzi) The Murderbot Diaries (Martha Wells)
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite sci-fi books?” ↗The Old Man's War series by Scalzi is a solid example of this, but if you want to go much further back for a classic similar story, try "The Forever War" by Joe Haldeman. Absolutely wonderful, and a bit more neatly dry than Scalzi,…
on “Murderbot, she wrote” ↗You might enjoy John Scalzi's latest - The Shattering Peace. It's part of his Old Man's War series, and probably benefits from familiarity with his other books in that series, but is self contained enough to stand alone I think. It has a nice twist to spacetime and FTL travel physics. https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/09/16/the-shattering-peace-...
on “The pivot” ↗Old Man's War series by John Scalzi
on “What are your favorite sci-fi and fantasy books?” ↗John Scalzi's Old Man's War series is really enjoyable.
on “Ask HN: What are the best Sci-Fi books you've ever read?” ↗…liked: - The Murderbot Diaries (all of them) - Neuromancer, Mona Lisa Overdrive, Count Zero (Sprawl Trilogy) – perfection - Discworld series (almost all of them) - Bobiverse serise (all of them) - Old Man's War series - Every Man for Himself and God Against All: A Memoir – Werner Herzog's autobiography - The Songlines - Bruce Chatwin - Kissinger: A Biography (approval of Kissinger not required) - various collected…
on “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?” ↗