Nordling here.
I haven't read OLD MAN'S WAR by John Scalzi, but in reading the synopsis online I'm probably going to have to pick this up as soon as I can. The novel, nominated for a 2006 Hugo Award, is about John Perry, a writer who basically signs away his DNA for use by the Colonial Defense Forces, his wife having passed away some years before. When he turns 75 the Forces transfer his mind into a new body, genetically enhanced with his DNA with super strength and sense acuity, and joins the CDF as a kind of super-soldier. In this future the universe is highly populated and finding areas to colonize is becoming exceedingly difficult, so multiple battles erupt when humans and aliens try to spread their civilizations to other worlds.
During his deployment John comes across a woman who looks uncannily like his wife, but now younger and also with enhanced abilities. Turns out his wife also signed up for duty, but she has no memory of John or her past life, and John vows to get back with her no matter the cost. The synopsis reads as hard science fiction, fairly epic in scope, with battles, faster-than-light travel, and many alien races.
According to Deadline, Paramount has bought the rights to the novel, and has attached Wolfgang Petersen to direct, and David Self (THE ROAD TO PERDITION) to write the screenplay. I'll have to track this book down, along with the three other books in the series, which Paramount grabbed along with the first book. There's so many great science fiction novels out there that, with today's effects technology, could easily be adapted to screen, when in years before it would have been extremely difficult to do. Even Roland Emmerich is going after Asimov's FOUNDATION series and those books were considered unfilmable for years. I'm encouraged by this and I hope to see more great science fiction books scooped up as opposed to the deluge of teen novel adaptations we've been getting recently. The battles sound huge, and while the story spans a wide universe, I like that in the end it's about a man looking for his lost love. We'll likely be following this one closely.
Nordling, out.
