I just completed reading Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi. It’s the first thing I’ve read written by him. I see from the write-up in Wikipedia that he’s been nominated multiple times for Hugo Awards, including for the aforementioned novel.
What is your opinion of his works, if you have read any of them? 
OMG! I love Scalzi.
Read Red Shirts, a hilarious parody of Star Trek red shirts. This was the first book of his I read, and I loved it.
Fuzzy Nation takes place in the Old Man’s War universe but is a standalone book, and is excellent. This was the second book of his I read, and it is very enjoyable.
His new series (Collapsing Empire) has been good so far with the first book. The second book is coming out in October and I cannot wait!
My only complaint is that sometimes his books cross back and forth between serious and goofy. Like sometimes the solutions to the problem du jour are kind of a cornball solution you might see in a mediocre Star Trek episode. But, it is a minor quibble, the vast majority of the time he’s a true pleasure to read.
That’s literally the only book I’ve read by him, and it was a few months ago. I liked it enough to go looking for the sequel for free in the library, but it wasn’t available, and I didn’t like it enough to go pay for it on Amazon.
Old Man’s War was an interesting premise (actually, quite a few interesting ideas jammed together), and I will probably get around to reading a sequel, but there was also something about his writing that bugged me…maybe a certain sameness to the voices of the characters, maybe something juvenile about the plotting.
Checking his bibliography, I see I’ve read twelve of his books. So I guess I can sum him up with some fairness.
He writes light entertaining sci-fi. If that’s what you’re looking for, he does it pretty well. But if you’re looking for great depth and insight, try somebody else.
Old Man’s War was the first John Scalzi book I read. I enjoyed it but not enough to continue reading the series. Later, I read The Collapsing Empire, which I thought was much better. If you’re looking for another Scalzi book, I’d recommend that. I’ve also read good things about the Head On series.
I don’t read a ton of fiction these days, but I’m a big fan of his essays.
I’ve read all of them. Scalzi is pleasant, clever, and enjoyable. He’s nothing much stylistically. Get the audio recordings read by Wil Wheaton rather than looking for emotion on the written page.
I enjoyed Old Man’s War and Lock In, though not enough to continue with either series…if you’re at all familiar with Star Trek and the like Redshirts is a very entertaining standalone comic read (perhaps his best work?)
I’m not a fan. There’s just something about his writing style that doesn’t appeal to me, but I’m not sure what it is. He is going to be in Albuquerque this weekend for Bubonicon as a speaker and I’m trying to decide if I’m interested enough to see if I find him interesting in person. Or if I’m interested to see him on Wednesday in Santa Fe instead of dealing with a full-blown convention.
I like him, more for his light sci-fi so far. I’ve gotten his Collapsing Empire and I am looking forward to trying it.
You will enjoy it. I’m excited for the next book.
I saw him described as a better blogger than writer, and think I agree. Redshirts was kinda fun. I started but didn’t finish Old Man’s War.
But I check out his blog pretty regularly: http://whatever.scalzi.com
I liked Old Man’s War and subsequent writings, but I liked his Collapsing Empire more.
I’m a big fan. With his straightforward style, big ideas and generous helpings of snark, he’s pretty much Heinlein for a new century. The Old Man’s War series is terrific; his short story “The Life of the Mind” in The End of All Things (so far the last book in the series) is the best revenge story I’ve ever read. Lock In and its sequel are pretty good, but not his best. I enjoyed Fuzzy Nation very much, especially for the dramatic courtroom scenes. *Redshirts * is even better - metaphysical in a way, very funny, but also oddly touching by the end. “An Election” is a hilarious political short story. I enjoyed The Collapsing Empire and look forward to the sequel.
I’m… fine with Scalzi’s books. In the sense that I’m not an avid fan reading his bibliography over and over, but I’ve quite enjoyed a few books by him.
There’s enough variety and tend to be good page turners. I have a certain fondness for Android’s Dream for the whole bunch of cyberpunk meta references and the balls-to-the-ball insanity of the twists and turns of the story.
And I’m not even a big sci-fi guy.
I loved Old Man’s War. However, I’ve read three (?) of the sequels and while I have some memory of enjoying them, they are completely forgettable. They read like contractual obligation income-generating books. Not a bad thing if you like the universe, but not treading any new challenging ground.
He is engaging enough as a writer for me to try a couple of the other recommendations in this thread though.
Read “Redshirts”, found it amusing but was not motivated to pick up any of his other works.
I’ve read only Redshirts and Agent to the Stars. No real interest in the milsf books and haven’t got around to reading the others (or applying them directly to the forehead.) I mainly enjoy the baconing of cats and the pummeling of Vox Day.
I’ve only read “Redshirts”, but “Old Man’s War” is on my to-read list, if I can ever find a copy of it at the local library.
Interestingly, I just finished Joe Haldeman’s “Forever War” and Scalzi wrote the introduction to the edition I read. Even though he hadn’t read “Forever War” before he wrote “Old Man’s War”, apparently he got accused fairly often of stealing from it. (And then accused of lying when he insisted he hadn’t read it. :))
The irony is that back when Joe Haldeman wrote The Forever War a lot of people accused him of ripping the idea off from Starship Troopers.
The reality is it’s a pretty obvious idea: a military novel that follows the protagonist through his recruitment and training and then into his first experience with combat.