Yep, I quite enjoyed it.

I just finished Charles Stross' "The Family Trade" which has some overtones of Zelazny's Amber series, though it seems like only half a novel at 300 pages.

From the publisher notes:
Though a lot of SF writers are more or less efficiently continuing the tradition of Robert A. Heinlein, Scalzi's astonishingly proficient first novel reads like an original work by the late grand master.

In the tradition of Heinlein? Good enough for me to want to check it out.

So I take it you won't be posting much now since you'll be too busy reading? :) I finished this book in about 12 hours of nonstop reading.

Re The Family Trade, the last page was just a divider between the first book and the sequel. Very annoying. "The Hidden Family" and "The Clan Corporate" are next. Old Man's War was a good read, not ultimately convincing but i'm looking forward to more of Scalzi's work.

My SF tastes still run to Ian M Banks (Though the recent "The Algebraist" was a deeply slow read until i suspected that the at-times-glacial plot action was a metaphor for the patient pace of life of the very long lived Dwellers)

I was wired after a particularly hectic day that started at 0600. The highlight was enduring a freak of nature that saw us subjected to a drenching rainstorm followed by a dust storm. I made it back to the tent around 2200, settled into my sleeping bag, and picked up the as-yet unread "Old Man's War" with the intention of reading it until I wound down enough to sleep. I figured I'd be out like a light in 15 minutes.

The next thing I know my alarm was going off at 0530 for PT.

Man, that day sucked... But I just couldn't put the book down!

I thought "Old Man's War" was about the most optimistic science fiction I've read since 1969. I could put it down, but it was a fun read. I just wish Scalzi's website had a contact me feature. What is he--a shy author?

"What is he--a shy author?"

Not especially.

I actually did just put my address back up on my site -- it had been down because I had switched hosting and I simply hadn't posted it back up. But by all means, feel free to e-mail.

Agreed, Scalzi's book is lots of fun. But a better recent homage to Starship Troopers is Robert Buettner's new novel, Orphanage, about an angry asocial outcast who joins the military to fight an alien assault on earth. Orphanage is funny, thoughtful, and vastly more intense than Scalzi's book. Check it out.

...The 'Dayton Daily News'...! (Mr. Scalzi writes for that newspaper) Wow, a fellow traveler from around Dayton. I'm from Clayton, which is right next to Englewood, right off of I-70. Everyone from Ohio now agitate for local appearances by Mr. Scalzi.

I liked it better than Weber or Ringo. (On the other hand, I still like Drake's Slammers stuff more, but it's pretty grim and not really to everyone's taste.)

I've enjoyed Orphanage a lot (could not help but burst into loud laughter when reading the last page of chapter 19) and I will certainly purchase Buettner's next book (Orphan's Revenge, due out in Sept. according to amazon) -- I happen to think Scalzi has produced the better novel (but I am an admitted Scalzi fan) and I am looking forward to buying and reading his future novels (he has sold two of them). Technically, Old Man's War is not his first novel -- his first novel, Agent to the Stars, is available on his Web page but is also slated to come out in a limited edition hardcover. (He also has written a variety of non-fiction books.)

No way! For some reason I bought "Agent" back when it first showed up, and then I never actually read it. It's been on my hard drive through three separate system restores. One of these days I'll get around to it...

I purchased the book based on this review and the comments/preview over at Amazon. Looking forward to it...