I went into this expecting it to be like Kaiju Preservation Society based on someone telling me that Scalzi's work all "read the same" and that person was wrong. Where Kaiju was lighthearted popcorn fun, Old Man's War has some quips, but mostly, it's about someone thinking they understood the trade they were making and getting seriously fucked up over the gravity of the situation they underestimated.

I loved the world building here, and the focus on the different alien societies. Every group felt different and unique. It didn't fall into the tropes that galaxy-hopping scifi can sometimes with "aliens are blue humans." The endings were oddly poetic at times despite the underlying horror. I am eager to continue the series.