Old Man's War

Oh dear, I am trying to fathom out three things:

1. Why did I bother finishing this book, in fact why did I ever carry on beyond the first 15 pages?

2. How did John Scalzi get through school without learning that conversations can be described in more ways than “he said, she said”?

3. What on earth are the many readers who love this book getting from it that completely passed me by?