I really liked John Scalzi's Old Man's War. As a piece of genre fiction it had many enjoyable features. The soldier's in the book were, for the most part, intelligent, likable, people who tried to survive as best they could in a horrible situation. Unlike Heinlein, Scalzi doesn't write all-wise father figures or attempt to teach political lessons to the reader.
Scalzi also didn't spend a lot of ink showing off his technical knowledge to the reader. I probably like technical speculation more than the average SF reader does, but it can get in the way of telling a good story. I did think the green soldiers were a bit silly, but I don't know if would bother most people.
I could have wished for more interesting aliens. The bit about eating humans got old after a while, but the mysterious Consu were genuinely frightening.
All in all, Old Man's War, isn't mind blowing but entertains without visibly showing off or insulting the reader's intelligence.
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