User:Adrianlopez412/sandbox

The section you call "reviews" is closer to a synthesis, though it badly needs editing for the sentences to make sense and takes a less-than-professional tone (I'd prefer something closer to "reviews are generally positive but mixed, with positive reviews saying things like [your summary of everything they say] and criticism consisting of [your summary of negative reviews]"). The section you call "synthesis" is a straight-up annotated bibliography without the citation formatting. Jmdeane1 (talk) 18:30, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Synthesis
This book has gone through many reviews over the past few years, both professionally and unprofessionally. It has been recognized by many and has gotten plenty of complimentary comments. The small comments people have about this book does a great deal of positive impact. For a professional article about the book and what the book deals with then an article written by Dave Itzkoff from the New York Times should be pretty suitable. If you believe that this book has gotten too many positive reviews and you have started to think that everyone is over rating this book then the Destructive Criticism website should be an interesting review to read for they had the same skepticism. However if you are interested on a review/informative article from someone who enjoys and has written reviews on many science fiction readings then SciFi Readers would be a great place to look at.

Annotated Bibliography
The New York Times article has compared Old Man’s War to Star Stroopers, where in similarity, is that an ignorant man goes into space to join the army fighting against unknown species. However on one hand, Star Troopers, the protagonist was a young man while in Old Man’s War it is an old man that gets a genetically engineered body that is much younger and much more powerful. This article exposes how John Scalzi has changed his writing style throughout the trilogy. While mentioning that Old Man’s War helped win John Scalzi the World Science Fiction Society’s John W. Campbell Award for best new writer. Dave Itzkoff, writer of the article, hopes that the trilogy doesn’t age as poorly as Star Troopers did.

The Deconstructive Criticism website talks about how the book had gotten too many good reviews and hardly any bad ones. But also states how it is well deserved for this book. This article talks about the core elements of the book such as experiencing the horrors of interstellar war through John’s, the protagonists, eyes. The article brings up the perspective of an elderly man who thinks he has seen everything in life but in fact hasn’t and starts to wonder why he keeps going when he sees tragedy all around him. Although this page states it is a good read, it does state that there could have been a bigger and deeper story to go along the main character/narrator where his emotional side could have been better exploited. The site SciFi Readers expresses that the protagonist goes through a new and strange experience throughout the book which can better relate to the reader for they too are experiencing something new and strange. Ian, author of the review, states that the book also has a humorous vibe to it however it does a good job of balancing it out with serious danger and uncertainty of outer space and the inhabitants of it.

Macmillan gives you a summary of the book but do not provide their own review for it however they do provide a small section of quotes from companies such as Publishers Weekly, San Francisco Chronicles, Entertainment Weekly, and a few others, all of which are good comments towards the book.

Peter Flom, author for Yahoo review of Old Man’s War, starts by quickly highlighting the very first sentence of the book that helps grab the reader. He also proceeds to talk about a topic not many others have, which is accepting some disbeliefs that you may encounter during reading this novel. For example, the fact that people are somewhat eager to go join the army knowing that they can never go back to Earth since they are declared legally dead. Also that the technology used to transport people from Earth to the space station is so secretly kept for so many years. Whereas in history that almost never happens without someone finding out some type of information eventually.

Science Fiction and Fantasy Books Review webpage written by Thomas M. Wagner brings up that Scalzi does a good job of characterization, making his characters feel like people you and I would know. Wagner brings to light that all the new elderly recruits have the opportunity to go through the coming-of-age all over again after they receive their new bodies. He also shortly talks about the ability of predicting one characters fate to be way too easy, which was set by the level of stupidity that John Scalzi had made the character to have been. As with this review in similarity to just about every single other review out there for this book and for the trilogy it has been highly recommended to be read and has gotten positive feedback.

Synthesis Revised
Old Man's War has been compared to Star Troopers, where an ignorant man goes into space joining the army fighting against unknown species. The book helped Scalzi win the World Science Fiction Society’s John W. Campbell Award for best new writer. Dave Itzkoff from The New York Times hopes that the trilogy doesn't age as poorly as Star Troopers did.

The core elements is experiencing the horrors of interstellar war. Through the perspective of an elderly man who thinks he has seen everything in life but in fact hasn't and starts to wonder why he keeps going when he sees tragedy all around him. There could have been a bigger and deeper story to go along the protagonist where his emotional side could have been better exploited.

The protagonist goes through a new and strange experience throughout the book which can better relate to the reader for they too are experiencing something new and strange. It's also humorous however it does balance out with serious danger and uncertainty of outer space and the inhabitants of it.

Accepting some disbelief's you may encounter reading this novel should be easy to get used to. For example, people are somewhat eager to join the army knowing that they can never go back to Earth since they are declared legally dead. Also the technology used to transport people from Earth to the space station is completely kept secret for so many years.

Scalzi makes his characters feel like people you and I would know. All the new elderly recruits have the opportunity to go through the coming-of-age all over again after they receive their new bodies. Although the ability of predicting one characters fate was way too easy, which was set by the level of stupidity that John Scalzi had made the character to have been.