3.5 out of 5 stars
“How do you like your peace now, mother fucker?” she cried as Bender’s liquified organs stained the lower half of her legs.
War is hell. Now imagine shipping off to war at the age of seventy five. That’s what our elderly main character, John Perry, does when he hits that ripe old age. Launched into space, never to return to Earth, to become a soldier in the war against aliens.
Humans are desperately trying to colonize other planets, but then again, so are other sentient races. Habitable planets are rare and the fight to claim them is an interstellar war. To prolong the human race, drastic measures are needed.
Which, brings us back around to the state of affairs on Earth. At the age of sixty five, people can enlist into the Colonial Defense Forces (CDF), they give a sample of DNA, then wait to see if they make it to the age of seventy five. They have the option to back out if they so choose, should they decide to follow the plan, they are launched to a space station where they begin their training. Most people assume that the CDF must have the technology to make you young again. How could elderly soldiers possibly be useful?
They’re not physiologically, but mentally, they have seven and a half decades of experience to help them cope with radical changes. The simple solution is, to put them in new bodies. If they survive two years active duty, they have the option to re-enlist or retire to a new colony and live out the rest of their days. The trick is surviving two years of alien warfare.
This was a fun, action packed introduction to a series. There was minimal drama and the characters were not deeply fleshed out but they were still enjoyable. If you’re looking for fast action in space, this is a good place to start.
cupcakesandmachetes 
The problem with the novel, for me, was that it *didn’t* make use of their life experiences. Their minds seemed to regress to the ages that their bodies did, and they showed no more wisdom than if they never gotten past their 20s.
Very good point! I can definitely see that.
This sounds great. Very different
I liked the combination of war, space and aliens.
I like the old person thing. Makes me feel that might have a chance to fight aliens in another 30/40 years!
That would actually be a pretty rad way to go out.
That’s a pretty interesting spin on the whole aliens vs. humans thing! Sounds neat. 🙂
Definitely worth a read, but did not blow me away unfortunately. It may have actually needed more drama. The MC was pretty calm about some really fucked situations.