1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,000 Hey everyone, welcome to my apartment, I guess. 2 00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:06,000 I think it's more of a condo. 3 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:09,000 I'm not sure. I haven't gotten a clear answer on it. 4 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:12,000 I'm renting, so I don't own it. I don't have to know the details. 5 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:16,000 Welcome. It's a little messier than usual. 6 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:19,000 And by that I mean more cluttered. I don't leave trash on the floor. 7 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:21,000 It's been a busy week. 8 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:25,000 On Saturday Austin and I spent 15 hours together 9 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:29,000 recording a bunch of material for PrideRise Podcast 10 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:33,000 and it was a lot. 11 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:37,000 We got to know each other, maybe too well. 12 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:40,000 You know, sometimes it's better to... 13 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:43,000 the less time you spend with someone. 14 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:45,000 I'm just kidding. Fuck it, Austin. You're great. 15 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:47,000 That was a lot of fun. I forgot you listened to these. 16 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:50,000 So welcome to Wednesday Night Book Club. 17 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:55,000 Yeah, it's where once a week we get together, we talk about some books. 18 00:00:55,000 --> 00:01:02,000 This week we're talking about Old Man's War by John Scalzi. 19 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:04,000 One of my absolute favorite books. 20 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:06,000 Sorry if I sound a little bit tired today. 21 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:16,000 This is day two of me running the comedy improv theater portion 22 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:21,000 of the theater summer camp that the city I live in puts on each year. 23 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:26,000 So this is a citywide, well, multiple citywide summer camp. 24 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:27,000 And these kids come in. 25 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:33,000 There's I think 60 kids that were here this year yesterday. 26 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:35,000 And they do a bunch of camps. 27 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:37,000 There's like football, basketball, soccer, a bunch of stuff. 28 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:41,000 And I just... 29 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:45,000 I'm very fortunate enough to have been asked to run the comedy improv portion, 30 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:48,000 which the kids are doing great at. 31 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:52,000 It's high school aged kids. I'll tell you this though, man. 32 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:55,000 It's a four hour session. 33 00:01:55,000 --> 00:02:01,000 And after four grueling, I mean, we're talking long grueling hours 34 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:05,000 of teaching these kids improv, really hammering down like the fundamentals, 35 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:09,000 I looked up at the clock and realized 20 minutes had passed. 36 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:11,000 It's going to be a long day today. 37 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:14,000 Anyway, it's Wednesday Night Book Club. 38 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:19,000 The book is Old Man's War 2005 by John Scalzi. 39 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:22,000 So I'm going to try not to spoil this one. 40 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:23,000 I'm not going to do a breakdown. 41 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:27,000 This is going to be fairly quick because I just I really want you all to read this book. 42 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:28,000 I think it's phenomenal. 43 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:30,000 It's a science fiction book. 44 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:33,000 Space, you know, that kind of stuff. 45 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:37,000 The opening line, I'm just going to read you the opening line because this, 46 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:42,000 I was at a Barnes and Noble and I picked this up because I thought the title was interesting. 47 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:45,000 It was Old Man's War and I saw space. 48 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:49,000 So I was like, oh, like an old space, you know, captain or something maybe. 49 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:53,000 And I read the first line and here it is. 50 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:57,000 I did two things on my 75th birthday. 51 00:02:57,000 --> 00:02:59,000 I visited my wife's grave. 52 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:02,000 Then I joined the army. 53 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:11,000 When I read those two or three sentences, I should say, I was hooked and I kept reading. 54 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:19,000 I'm so glad that I did because it's one of those books that just it's light hearted, but grip. 55 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:22,000 It's funny and sad. 56 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:24,000 It's exciting. 57 00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:28,000 Oh, there's really no counterpoint that it's exciting pretty much the whole way through. 58 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:35,000 So I'm going to give you just a sort of maybe the first 20 percent of the book so that to kind of get you hooked. 59 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:41,000 So what in this world, in this earth, you have John Perry, who's the main character. 60 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:46,000 His wife, Kathy, had passed away a little bit earlier. 61 00:03:46,000 --> 00:04:00,000 But on this earth, a company had a while ago, I don't remember how long, but created this technology that that builds an elevator to space, 62 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:03,000 which I don't know if that's theoretically possible or not. 63 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:06,000 I've seen other people talk about it outside of this. 64 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:16,000 And I mean, technically it would work right like the position of top, I feel like would never stay in a fixed place like you can. 65 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:19,000 But you could just build a space station at the top of it right. 66 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:23,000 And it would just rotate with the earth, I'm assuming. 67 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:27,000 You'd have to make the elevator like probably flexible. 68 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:29,000 I don't know. I have no idea. 69 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:36,000 But anyway, it exists in this world and no one on earth is allowed to go up to space. 70 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:42,000 It's it's locked unless you join the company that made it. 71 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:47,000 I for the life of me, I can't remember what it's what the name of the company is called. 72 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:51,000 Oh, yeah, it's the it's not a company. It's the Colonial Defense Force. 73 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:55,000 Yeah. So they that's the thing you have to see. 74 00:04:55,000 --> 00:05:03,000 So if you when they when they first opened it up, they gave like third world countries that have like overpopulation. 75 00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:11,000 They put a bunch. They grabbed a bunch of them, brought them up for free and then use them as colonists for different planets that they were colonizing. 76 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:13,000 You know, like settlers and pioneers. 77 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:21,000 So because Earth is becoming inhabitable, especially in like, you know, countries like India or China, you know, or it's like there's a ton of people. 78 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:26,000 So I'm not not China. Sorry, that's not a third world country, but you know, like or either is India. 79 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:29,000 But you don't talk about just like those those countries that have overpopulation. 80 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:44,000 That's what the CDF threw up there. Now, for the first world countries, the people that aren't, you know, living in in squalor or whatever, they in order to join the CDF in order to go to space, you have to join me. 81 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:48,000 You have to join the colonial defense forces and join their army. 82 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:53,000 The catch is you can only join the army at 65 years old. 83 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:58,000 That's when you can enlist, but you can only go up when you're 75 years old. 84 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:02,000 So you have to wait 10 years after enlisting at 65. 85 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:14,000 Now, this sounds strange because why would an army want a bunch of 75 year old, you know, retired, can barely move people for their army force? 86 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:28,000 And that's what a lot of people on on Earth are asking themselves as well, including John Perry and his wife, Kathy, when they both sign up at the age of 65, they both sign up and they're like, well, why not? 87 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:35,000 It's shrouded in mystery as to what happens when you go up there and they are deciding to roll the dice. 88 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:40,000 They've lived their lives. You know, why not try living, you know, having a cool final chapter? 89 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:54,000 So the CDF does promise that you'll be able to fulfill your commitment as a soldier and you'll be rewarded after with something, you know, like something cool, like you'll be able to it'll extend your life. 90 00:06:54,000 --> 00:07:00,000 And so they sign up in between 65 and 75. 91 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:02,000 Kathy, unfortunately, passes away. 92 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:07,000 I think she has an aneurysm in the just in the kitchen. 93 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:11,000 And it's sad. So John now kind of lives alone. 94 00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:19,000 And because of that, he's I think a little bit more resolved to just doing the CDF thing because he doesn't really have any any reason to stay at home. 95 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:24,000 And so at 75 years old, he visited, he visits his wife's grave. 96 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:28,000 He says goodbye. He goes to the recruiting office. 97 00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:32,000 He talks to the young lady there. She gets him on an elevator. 98 00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:35,000 He meets a few other old people that are also going up into space. 99 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:41,000 A couple of them are dicks, you know, but one of them's dick, but he makes a few friends. 100 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:46,000 They call themselves the old farts and they go up. 101 00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:58,000 And so when they get up to the CDF, they are put into green cloned bodies. 102 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:05,000 They're all like perfect 20 something year old bodies or like 30 something year old bodies are like like in perfect shape. 103 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:15,000 Even if you weren't in shape in your regular previous life, you are now in like a ripped body, like just a shredded body that's super strong and fast. 104 00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:19,000 And you're green because that's just the cloning procedure. 105 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:25,000 I think they just want to be able to tell them like what they're there, who their troops are, whatever. 106 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:32,000 They've got artificial blood that's nanobot, nanobot enhanced, like their eyesight. 107 00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:38,000 They have a brain computer in their head called a brain pal, which can let them seamlessly interact with each other. 108 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:41,000 So this was the whole thing. This was you join. 109 00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:48,000 Once you get up there, you get put into this really, really slick, genetically engineered, enhanced body. 110 00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:57,000 And then you're told to fight for the CDF and you're told they're told very quickly that the survival rate is very, very, very low. 111 00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:00,000 And the chances of making it through very slim. 112 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:13,000 But if you do make it through, they're going to give you a regular, non enhanced cloned body, just a regular human one of yourself at like age 25 or whatever. 113 00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:25,000 And put you on a planet and let you live out another life, basically, but just as a healthy, ripped, well, until you do otherwise, probably. 114 00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:37,000 Like body. So one of the cool things about these clones is that they keep the physical aesthetic of your like face. 115 00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:43,000 So you're basically you. You're just probably like the hottest version of you. 116 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:49,000 I mean, maybe maybe I'm talking to some people that right now are extremely ripped and are the best looking. 117 00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:53,000 You know what? Everyone who's listening, you're the best looking version of yourself. 118 00:09:53,000 --> 00:09:56,000 And don't let anyone say anything different. 119 00:09:56,000 --> 00:10:11,000 That being said, I thought about this, about what it would be like to live in a world where having clones are available as like an option, you know, and I love it. 120 00:10:11,000 --> 00:10:17,000 I'm totally for like the island situation, a movie. 121 00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:30,000 And what's great is I can look down at my current body and just know instantly that I'm not being kept as a harvest as like someone to harvest my organs. 122 00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:44,000 Like, if anything, I'm definitely a recipient of some like hot shredded clone in some factory being, you know, ripped open to give me like healthy, healthy stuff that because I'm looking down at me like who? 123 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:54,000 I don't even think if I were to die that like the donor card on on the back, like the donor on the back of my ID would I think people would reject it. 124 00:10:54,000 --> 00:11:04,000 I don't know if you can. I don't know if like they come through and like they look at me and they're like, I'm I don't need a new heart that badly. 125 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:11,000 I don't need my I guess I'm cool with the liver. I've got dialysis. 126 00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:14,000 Just just move them along, bring them to the next guy. 127 00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:21,000 I mean, imagine how many times my corpse would be passed around before anyone decided to harvest my organs. 128 00:11:21,000 --> 00:11:29,000 That's not fun to think about. So anyway, John, he makes his friends with the old parts. 129 00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:32,000 Everything's going great. Well, not great. 130 00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:43,000 They're they go into war and shit and war is hell and John Scalzi does not pull away from that. And he definitely tries to show that there's different. 131 00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:47,000 There's always two sides. There's multiple sides, a hundred sides to every story. 132 00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:54,000 You know what I mean? And John Perry starts questioning kind of the narrative of the CDF a little bit. 133 00:11:54,000 --> 00:12:00,000 You know, just he he's just he's smart and he's not going to just fall, you know, toe the company line. 134 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:03,000 Although he is a great soldier and he does do great, but he's quick. 135 00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:07,000 He's quick thinking and he and he helps people like he does. 136 00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:13,000 He's independently minded, so he helps and ends up surviving. 137 00:12:13,000 --> 00:12:23,000 But then something dramatic happens and that dramatic thing, which is the last part I'm going to end on for plot wise 138 00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:33,000 before just giving my general impressions is he runs into a he sees like a group of soldiers and he asks, like, oh, who are they? 139 00:12:33,000 --> 00:12:39,000 They say, well, those are the special forces, the Ghost Brigades, and they're like a whole they're all quiet. 140 00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:41,000 They don't talk. They're they're bad ass. 141 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:48,000 They're like way cooler, stronger, they have better technology and shit than the regular soldiers. 142 00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:53,000 And he sees one of them and it is a clone hot version. 143 00:12:53,000 --> 00:12:58,000 Well, I mean, you know, like rip version of his wife, the one that passed away. 144 00:12:58,000 --> 00:13:06,000 And that means that they used her to create a special soldier. 145 00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:12,000 And maybe that's why they're called the Ghost Brigades, because it's based off of people. 146 00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:16,000 I mean, that is the reason, but that's kind of I'm trying to leave it a little bit mysterious. 147 00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:25,000 But so anyway, he runs into her and I'm not going to go any further because that is a critical like, I mean, that's one of the most important parts. 148 00:13:25,000 --> 00:13:33,000 And it sort of fuels the rest of the book and the rest and definitely the rest of the series, because this is a series. 149 00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:38,000 There are let's see how many books are there. 150 00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:43,000 You have Old Man's War Questions for a Soldier. I don't know what that is. 151 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:52,000 I didn't read that. Looks like a little side book. But then Ghost Brigade, The Ghost Brigades, The Last Colony, which is my I think my maybe my favorite of the three, 152 00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:56,000 which was surprising because I really love Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades. 153 00:13:56,000 --> 00:14:01,000 But then I read Last Colony, I was like, holy shit, that's great. Zoe's Tale, which is important. 154 00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:06,000 The Human Division and then The End of All Things. And they are all phenomenal. 155 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:21,000 John Scalzi is wonderful. He has written some of my favorite books. He wrote Red Shirts, which is a perfect, absolutely perfect Star Trek parody that isn't 156 00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:31,000 like not like a over. It's not like a scary movie parody or a national lampoon parody. It's a very 157 00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:37,000 it's love letter. It's it's it's almost. Yeah, no, it's just a love letter to Star Trek. 158 00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:45,000 And if you like Star Trek, it's one of the it's one of the best out there. He did the. 159 00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:55,000 Oh, and then most recently, I read the Kaiju. Yeah, the Kaiju Preservation Society, which is like very good. 160 00:14:55,000 --> 00:15:01,000 It's maybe I didn't know that it was meant for young adults. What the fuck? 161 00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:12,000 Let's see. It says it was named the winner of one of 10 books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults age 12 through 18. 162 00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:17,000 I didn't get that, but I thought it was like a legit for adults book. 163 00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:21,000 But anyway, the Kaiju Preservation Society was great. 164 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:27,000 Overall, Old Man's War is one of my favorite sci fi. 165 00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:33,000 None, I guess, non hard sci fi sci fi books series. 166 00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:44,000 It's easy enough to read without having to think about all the science behind every, you know, like a Star Wars doesn't make you question 167 00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:49,000 how a lightsaber works. This doesn't make you question skip drive technology or anything like that. 168 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:52,000 It just lets it be. You live and breathe. 169 00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:55,000 You know, it's like this world that he creates. 170 00:15:55,000 --> 00:16:03,000 And I love it. I was I've been hooked probably since I found it in Barnes and Noble, maybe 2006, 2007. 171 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:08,000 I've been I absolutely love it. I've been reading these over and over again for years. 172 00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:12,000 Probably read them three or four times. The whole series. I absolutely love it. 173 00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:18,000 So highly recommended. It gets my top marks as far as these go. 174 00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:23,000 So I'm going to say it's going to get five. 175 00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:31,000 Well, because I really want you to read Red Shirts, five red shirts, five red shirts, even though it has nothing to do with the book. 176 00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:35,000 Yeah. So if you're looking for a great sci fi book, I highly recommend this. 177 00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:38,000 And if side note, because I can't get this out of my head. 178 00:16:38,000 --> 00:16:50,000 I if you're looking for a fun fantasy science fiction sort of modern day computer stuff book, 179 00:16:50,000 --> 00:17:02,000 I read a series called Magic 2.0 and I know it sounds silly, but it's a guy who finds a way to he's like a hacker 180 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:14,000 and he eventually finds the code for the universe and when he puts in enough like parameters to find his own code in this like like his own part of the code, 181 00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:26,000 he's able to like a change the universe to his will, almost like if he was living in the Matrix and then had a hack kit for the Matrix that he was living in. 182 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:33,000 And he does what all people would do if you want to disguise yourself as somebody with a you know, 183 00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:37,000 or like live a life where you're allowed to have a lot of power and a lot of people wouldn't question that. 184 00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:41,000 And it would be be a wizard back in old timey England. 185 00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:49,000 Well, guess what? That's where all the other hackers who have discovered the code of the universe have also thought would be a fun idea. 186 00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:54,000 And so he meets other people. It's hilarious. It's a whole series. I highly recommend it. 187 00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:58,000 I don't normally do recommendations inside my own book club. 188 00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:04,000 But anyway, go read Old Man's War, John Scalzi, go read Red Shirts by him as well. 189 00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:10,000 I highly recommend the Magic 2.0 series. Any you know, so just go read anything. 190 00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:16,000 I'm glad that you all join me today. Again, sorry for the clutter. 191 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:23,000 It'll be cleaner next week when you all come over and hopefully next week it's going to be running the light with Sam Town. 192 00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:29,000 I think I said that last time. I'm so sorry. It's just I really want Austin and Sean if possible to be a part of that. 193 00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:33,000 I don't want to review it on my own because I want to have some other comedians point of views. 194 00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:39,000 So hope you all have a wonderful rest of your Wednesday evening, which I'm sure you only listen to these on. 195 00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:53,000 You know, it has to be very specific. Listen to this on a Wednesday and again, thank you. Have a wonderful night.