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Just finished Old Man's War by John Scalzi. It used the space opera and military adventure model to explore the theme of what it means to be human. The regular soldiers were old men and women, each of whose consciousness was uploaded to a new, improved green body with enhanced abilities. The Special Forces were different: enhanced clones were born of volunteers who had died prior to becoming soldiers. Their minds were encoded from birth with information that allowed them to survive on the battlefield, but with no idea of who they were. Last names were assigned to them and their first names were chosen by them. A most fascinating concept, once I set aside the absurdity of battling extraterrestrials for territory. (The odds that any alien races we may one day encounter would be so evenly matched with our own technology as to make for a somewhat even military contest is most unlikely.)
Now it's on to A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, November's MobileRead Book Club selection. I really wasn't thinking when I read Old Man's War about the genre this month being science-fiction. I hate to read two books in succession of the same type. Oh, well.
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