Story from an old man's war

I spent a few days last summer on a one-day trip to one of our many lovely FOBs in Iraq. The plan was for one day, but a dust storm wasn't part of the plan. That trip ended with an hours-long wait on a wooden bench in an outdoor "passenger lounge" - something to which any future travel delays I might experience will ever be compared. Fortunately I had a book in my pocket to pass the time - one I'd picked up at an MWR tent in another garden spot somewhere else in Iraq. That book was there because it's author makes sure his books are available (free of charge) to troops in Iraq. That author is John Scalzi, and the book was The Ghost Brigades, second in a series he began with the novel Old Man's War

Once safely back in Baghdad I left a comment over at Scalzi's blog, telling my little story and thanking him (ain't technology wonderful?) for providing a tale that actually had me hoping the helo wouldn't show up too soon. We swapped a couple of emails, amd later when he made an e-version of his book The Android's Dream available to troops I got one of those, too.

Old Man's War I bought for myself, and after getting back to the good ol' USA I ordered the third book in the series, The Last Colony.

This Fall there will be a fourth book in the series, and once again Scalzi is coming through for the troops:

I have recently completed my newest book, Zoe’s Tale, and am offering a special pre-publication bound manuscript version of the novel to auction to benefit the Disabled American Veterans Charitable Service Trust. This is an exclusive and extremely rare version of this novel (only four other copies of this edition exist) and will be the only way for a member of the general public to read the novel prior to its official publication in August 2008. All money raised by this auction, minus eBay and PayPal fees, will go to the Disabled American Veterans Charitable Service Trust. The auction is currently taking place on eBay and will end on Feb-25-08 09:10:29 PST. Opening bid is $50.

Auction page here. The bidding is a bit out of my price range (though certainly not as high as it should be yet), but in addition to the reasons above for buying a few of Scalzi's books I can add one more: they are damn fine reads.