Old Man’s War and The Ghost Brigades, Scalzi. Yes. Scalzi has some genuinely big ideas here, and has written stories that are nearly worthy of them. To be fair, it would take many, many volumes to explore even a fraction of the central idea, and Scalzi does eventually at least nod to some of the larger implications, so I don’t hold that against the works. I do hold against them their lack of mechanical and editorial perfection, but editing and mechanics are no worse than I have come to expect from Tor.