Everything that’s happened in Old Man’s War so far
Before you get into The Shattering Peace, the much anticipated new book in John Scalzi's gripping military science fiction series, here's a quick recap on the story so far, direct from Scalzi himself.
2025 is a big year for the Old Man’s War series, for two reasons – first, it’s the twentieth anniversary of the release of Old Man’s War, the novel that began it all, and two, it marks the release of The Shattering Peace, the seventh book in the series. That’s pretty exciting news in both cases.
But if you’re someone picking The Shattering Peace off the bookshelves, it might also be a little daunting. Do you need to read all six previous books to know what’s going on in this new one? And if you’ve already read them all, how much do you need to remember?
As the author of all of these books, I can say that one of the things I try to do with all of them is to make them readable on their own – yes, they exist in a series, but I know as a reader I want any book I read to be a complete experience in itself. So, I write the books to be enjoyable on their own, and any information you need about the universe that’s important to the book, I put in there early enough to keep new readers from getting lost.
Even so, it doesn’t hurt to have a quick and dirty recap of the series so far, before the seventh book is out in the world. So, here’s a speedrun through everything you need to know about the Old Man’s War universe, its characters and all the previous books.
Warning! There will be spoilers! I mean, obviously.
(If you're new to the series and want to avoid spoilers, take a look at our guide to John Scalzi's books in order to find out where to start.)
The universe of the Old Man's War series
- Good news! Humans are out in the stars! They live on planets that are part of the Colonial Union.
- Bad news! The stars are filled with alien races, most of which seem to hate humans and want their real estate!
- Ambiguous news! The humans fight back through the Colonial Defense Forces, whose members are recruited from the ranks of the elderly, who are given enhanced new bodies and weapons – and they will need them because the Colonial Union is pretty much constantly at war.
- And what is the planet Earth doing in the middle of all of this? Well, it’s being farmed by the Colonial Union, for both colonists and soldiers; colonists tend to come from less-advantaged countries on Earth, and the soldiers from the more-advantaged countries.
That’s the lay of the land as the first of the books begins.
Book one: Old Man's War
Old Man's War
by John Scalzi
The story follows John Perry, from Ohio (in the USA), who on his seventy-fifth birthday visits the grave of his beloved wife, and the recruiting office of the Colonial Defense Forces, to confirm his enlistment and his exit from Earth out to the stars. Once there he and his new friends are given new bodies and are trained for war, and told the grim reality: in a few short years seventy-five percent of them will be dead, not from old age (that’s no longer a problem) but from combat.
As he and his compatriots meet alien species, fight them, and very often die, war begins to make Perryquestion his own humanity, and what it is he’s fighting for. Then, after a particularly disastrous battle, he meets Jane Sagan, an officer in the secretive Ghost Brigades, and finds a reason to live and fight. The book culminates in the Battle of Coral, where the fate of humanity rests on the two of them recovering technology created by the super-advanced aliens known as the Consu. Remember the name of the Consu, they will turn up again!
Book two: The Ghost Brigades
The Ghost Brigades
by John Scalzi
The series turns to follow Jared Dirac, a newly-decanted Ghost Brigades soldier. These soldiers are created in part from the DNA of dead individuals, and the unknowing donor of Dirac’s DNA is a scientist named Charles Boutin, who is suspected of being a traitor to humanity, conspiring with three alien species to bring about the downfall of the Colonial Union. When the plan to implant Boutin’s recorded consciousness in Dirac’s brain apparently fails, Dirac joins the same battle group that includes Jane Sagan, and their earliest battles include a sneak attack on one of the alien species colluding against the Colonial Union.
And then: Surprise! That consciousness implanted after all! Or enough of it that Dirac and the Colonial Union learn that Charles Boutin isn’t dead, but is alive on a world controlled by the Obin, a particularly vicious alien species. Boutin plans to incapacitate the entire Colonial Defense Force, and will do it too, unless Dirac and his team find a way to stop him. But when the team’s assault goes wrong, Dirac is captured, comes face to face with his progenitor, and has to make some hard choices to save humanity.
The next two books, The Last Colony and Zoe’s Tale, take place in simultaneous time with very little overlap in actual scenes, so you can read either one before the other, it’ll be fine.
Book three: The Last Colony
The Last Colony
by John Scalzi
Remember how all those aliens were out there fighting the Colonial Union for real estate?Well they’re not fighting anymore! They’ve all joined together in a federation known as The Conclave, the point of which is to have all the member species agree to share their worlds and live in peace. One catch for anyone not in the Conclave: if you try to colonize any more worlds, they will assemble a fleet of hundreds of space ships and literally wipe you off the face of the planet.
This doesn’t sit well with the Colonial Union, which creates a new colony, Roanoke, to lure the Conclave and its fleet in order to destroy both the ships, and the new alien union’s political stability. Who leads this sacrificial colony? Why, John Perry and Jane Sagan, both of whom have mustered out of the Colonial Defense Forces, got married, and settled down on the colony planet of Huckleberry. Neither Perry nor Sagan nor any of the other colonists know their new settlement is meant as bait in an interplanetary struggle that could get them all killed. When they find out, they take it personally. How this is resolved may involve rebellion and a flame-thrower or two.
Book four: Zoe's Tale
Zoe's Tale
by John Scalzi
John Sagan and Jane Perry have a teenage adopted daughter: Zoe Boutin-Perry, who was the daughter of Charles Boutin, traitor to humanity. But don’t worry, all that got sorted and the Obin, who were going to destroy humanity, are now allied with the Colonial Union and have dispatched a pair of their own to be Zoe’s companions and bodyguards. Turns out Zoe – and her relationship with the Obin - is an actual treaty point in the alliance between the humans and these aliens.
Why does this matter? Well, because when Zoe, with her parents, heads to their new colony of Roanoke, Zoe’s status as something of an icon to the Obin will come in handy when Roanoke is threatened with extinction, and Zoe must leverage her relationship with the Obin to secure an audience with the super-advanced alien species known as the Consu – see? I told you they would show up again! – in a bid to save her family, and friends, and her colony as a whole. Plus! Teen romance and snark! And werewolves! Well, sort of werewolves.
(Pay attention to the character of Gretchen in this book! She’ll be back.)
Book five: The Human Division
The Human Division
by John Scalzi
Wait, what is this 'human division' the book title is talking about? Most directly, the people of Earth found out that the Colonial Union was intentionally keeping them isolated and controlled to have a ready supply of both colonists and soldiers (John Perry told them!), and well, the humans of Earth did not like that at all. So now Earth has told the Colonial Union to take a hike, and is very seriously considering whether allying with the Conclave might not be in their best interests. Less directly, the colony worlds of the Colonial Union are also beginning to chafe at their own government.
This book covers all of that from a multitude of characters and perspectives, none more prominent than that of Harry Wilson – a friend of John Perry’s who is still in the Colonial Defense Forces, and finds himself attached to a diplomatic mission that is thrown into assignmentsincreasingly important to the well-being of the Colonial Union. Will diplomacy help the humans of the Colonial Union deal with both the Earth and the Conclave? Is there someone behind the increasing unrest in the human parts of the universe? And can Harry Wilson save the day, not once but multiple times? Also, what’s going on with that space station in Earth orbit?
Book six: The End of All Things
The End of All Things
by John Scalzi
So, it turns out there is a group behind all the unrest in this part of the galaxy: It’s called The Equilibrium, and it’s dedicated to taking the status quo back to a time before the founding of the Conclave, i.e., when everyone was fighting everyone else and no one species was able to get too far ahead of any others. Mutual assured destruction, basically. Which is great if you like millions of sentient beings dying needlessly in an eternal war for which there can be no true winner! Otherwise, not so much.
In this book, humans and aliens alike, including Harry Wilson (once again!) do what they can to keep human and alien civilization from sliding back into conflict and hatred. Pulling it off means setting aside centuries of distrust, and grievances old and new, in order to imagine a future that’s better for everyone. Will it happen? (Spoiler: Kinda, yeah, but nothing’s perfect, now, is it?)
Book seven: The Shattering Peace
The Shattering Peace
by John Scalzi
This is the new book! And I’m not going to spoil it for you! What I will say is that Gretchen Trujillo, Zoe’s best friend in Zoe’s Tale, is the protagonist in this one, and that once again, the peace of this part of the universe is threatened – and the Consu, those super-advanced aliens, may, just may, be involved in some way. How? And how will Gretchen save the day, if at all?? Well, you’ll have to read the book to find out. (Seriously, please read the book, I think it’s really good.)
There, now you’re all caught up!
