Old Man's War series Puns

I read them all in my late teens early 20’s. A foundational read for me personally. Should I read them again as an adult?

The second book is interesting enough, but it is missing for me what made the first book interesting. The first person POV exploring a completely unknown universe. The newness of every thing.

Does it get that back at all?

Already read LOTR, Earthsea, Narnia. But looking for something with a young man on a journey of wonder and magic with adventure, fantasy beasts, far off locales. Need good characters, good story. Heart. Really appreciate any help.

So the plot goes smthg like this-

There's this poor kid who lives w his mom (and maybe grandparents?) near a port. He is told his dad died in a war. He has a golden voice and is the main choir kid. He's frnds w an old man who lives in an old train compartment who claims to know who his dad was b4 dad died (they explain how he became frnds w him). so basically his school teachers see his potential to be in a really good boarding school (thats over a hill?) and so w the help of the very wise old man and intensive studying he passes the entrance exam and his mom drops him there. Also the school has mostly rich kids he is not rich. So he is kinda embarrassed he takes time to learn "basic manners and etiquette". Makes frnds w 2 guys. For some reason visits one of their houses during summer where he meets the younger sister (he later tries to marry her but i think they realized they were closely related later). At some point of time he gets accused of stealing a chocolate while in school maybe. At the end he maybe boards a ship to america using a false name and gets caught when they land there.

I read it some time back (about 1-2 yrs ago) but i cannot remember the title

>When the ancients were about to go, they frolicked in the realm of old age, sickness, and death; among them, Dongshan is unusual.

>Once he manifested a slight illness, everyone came to look in on him. One monk asked, "You are ill, teacher, but is there anyone who does not get ill?" This monk had an echo in his words; he was presenting his capability in his statement, and he also wanted to see if the sick man had eyes. Dongshan said, "There is." Scratch the itch and the sickness fully remits. The monk said, "Does the one who is not ill look after you?" He carries out this order in reverse, wanting people to know it isn't so. Dongshan said, "I have the opportunity to look after him."

>If you figure it by conventional feelings, the one who isn't sick should look after the one who's sick; Dongshan says, on the other hand, "I have the opportunity to watch over him." --is this the principle of inquiring after someone's health in the human sense?

This one's short...short enough that I'm worried no one will even pretend to have read it.

>When the ancients were about to go, they frolicked in the realm of old age, sickness, and death; among them, Dongshan is unusual.

"Ancients" is of course Zen Masters.

It's not like anyone else is frolicking hand-in-hand with Dongshan. With "unusual" I think we're only getting one half of the coin (thx Wansong), Zen Masters harp on about how enlightenment is not seperate from your ordinary affairs, how conceiving of Buddha as a transcendent savior is bunk...going by the numbers this is unusual behavior, sure. But if you're a man-eating tiger, is seeing a fellow man-eating tiger get front page on a newspaper (WRITTEN BY HUMANS) remarkable?

>Once he manifested a slight illness, everyone came to look in on him.

In the west, barring some weirdo cultleader-guru situations, people typically talk about how illnesses are suffered, brought on, or transmitted. Here we have Wansong talking about Dongshan getting he sniffles and how monks are grabbing their popcorn to see what happens next. Ridiculous.

>One monk asked, "You are ill, teacher, but is there anyone who does not get ill?"

This comes up quite a bit in Zen texts; namely, addressing the fact that people get sick with stuff like the plague, covid, brain injuries, and a broken knee and then there are also people who repeat that they are "sick" but cannot identify what they are sick with or what it means to be sick in the first place so they call

I’ve been thinking of reading the old man’s war series. I’ve read other John Scalzi book, is this series any good?

Got done with The Ghost Brigades and really liked it, but a part that stood out to me was the orgy scene. It was unexpected and unpleasant to read for me. There were also scenes like this in the first book.

Do these continue in the series? Because I really dont like reading about sexual intercourse. Especially group sex.

>師云。撫州疏山光仁禪師。參洞山問。未有之言。

>請師示誨。山曰。不諾。無人肯。

>疏云。還可切也無。

>山曰。闍梨即今還切得麼。

>疏云。切不得即無諱處。

>Wansong related that once there was a Zen Master in Fu Prefecture, Shu Mountain Temple, a certain Guangren who asked Dongshan, *"Master, please instruct me in the word that has never been spoken."

>Dongshan stated, "If you don't assent, no one will agree."^1

>Guangren said, Does this correspond^2 to it or not?"

>Dongshan said, "Zen Masters have yet to correspond with it."

>Guangren said, In not corresponding with it, they are in [redacted] territory."^3

^1 In distinction to to Pang Cong's remark that the testimony of three make for a tiger in the market...how do you agree with Dongshan?

^2 反切 ^[wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanqie#:~:text=Fanqie%20(Chinese%3A%20%E5%8F%8D%E5%88%87%3B%20pinyin,the%20syllable%20(the%20final) 'correspondence' is a method devised to communicate the pronunciation of a Chinese character by means of other 'familiar' Chinese characters. In Zen, the correspondence isn't one of using a fixed set of words to explain the teaching. This is what is meant by 'not based on the written word.'

^3 諱 is both the term that describes something that is taboo and a word used in place of other words that are taboo, similar to [redacted]. What is the taboo that Zen Masters observe?

I love good military sci fi books in the same vein as Starship Troopers, Enders Game or Old Man's War. I also enjoy good character development also in books. Whats some other good ones that are highly recommended? Can ether be a single book or a series.

>Gautama is Sanskrit, and it means 'Supreme on Earth,' because he was the greatest of people on earth. Right now it is the second millennium after his death; the age of that sage is distant, and many people are lazy--how can you avoid falling behind? Tear open past and present.

Here's where the religious approach on the question of what 'Buddha' means in Buddhism clash with what Wansong directs you to; I propose that the following taxonomy sums up pretty much the varieties of Buddhists that are likely to crop up on here. W/o fanfare:

1. The 'historical traditionalist' approach: by uncovering the oldest stupa inscriptions that talk about this Gautama guy or by relying on the oldest (and thereby authoritative) sutras we may scientifically understand the true, authoritative Law of Buddha.

2. The 'introspective cultivation' approach: by chanting magic spells, meditating, ingesting various substances we are able to experience what Buddha experienced.

3. The 'transcendental messiah' approach: by believing hard enough in the power of Buddha to save us, we will ourselves be saved by Buddha.

Buddhism doesn't offer anything more than this: wastepaper, hallucinations, and lead-laden lifejacket thrown to you on dry land. Anyone dispute this?

As for Wansong, he simply directs you to tear open past and present in order to avoid falling behind the G.O.A.T.

I'm currently reading "The End of All Things" and I've got to know, why did Scalzi seemingly abandon John Perry as a main character? I've done some googling and haven't found anything about it.

Wansong quoting rando-of-the-day Haosheng Qingju's remarks on one of a set of ox-herding ^1 illustrations, states:

>"The hidden mysterious path is far beyond discrimination; as for the absolute word, attempt to discuss it and you fail."

>>^1 Note that I haven't come across any sources containing the set of 'ox-herding' pictures Qingju was remarking upon.

This tradition of Zen Masters commenting on pictures is not compatible with mumbo-jumbo misappropriation of 'ox-herding pictures' by religions unfamiliar with their context who are desperate for a set of iconography to foist on their illiterate followers as equivalent to that Zen tradition.

Two more warnings:

1. Worshipping a meditation-cushion is not the treading the mysterious path.

2. If you dwell in silence and call that 'the absolute word'--you fail.

Here's the reading list.

I recently finished the first book in the series, so I went back in the store, found the list for the books in the series, and got confused as I scrolled down.

This series of 6 books and 1 midquel has two audiobooks for each of the first three books.The three pairs all share the same auther, nerrator, and almost the same length.

The only key differences seems to be the cover art, release date and number of reviews.And so this leaves the question: why?

Listening to the samples, I can't tell any difference. Why are there different versions, and which ones should I pick?

The link to the series in question:

https://www.audible.com/series/Old-Mans-War-Audiobooks/B0073XG3JE

* edit: fixed link
Also, seems the link only works if you are logged in.

I've completed the game maybe twice before, obviously loved it but this time round I'm hitting a loading screen trying to start the above quest and the music is playing, the little symbol on the bottom right is showing/moving appropriately and that's it, it won't progress further.

I've reset the game but not uninstalled yet in case there's an easy fix as it'll take a few hours to reinstall which would be a minor inconvenience and potentially not solve the issue.

I couldn't find anything quite as relevant searching google.

Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

“I’ll help you but stab me in the back this reaper will bring you down with him”

RC-Species- Android (or cyborg if the mods don’t cyborg if allow it)

Appearance: he looks like a Caucasian male, insanely pale (flashbang as he’s been called) he has blue lines on his face evenly spread out on his face, the location of the lines are in places of prominent parts of the human skull (jawline, cheekbone ETC, his height is measured roughly to 6’8 (no I’m not compensating for my height shut up >:[ ) he has an led on his right temple (yes like Detroit become human) blue is calm yellow is uncomfortable unnerved ETC and red is agitated or afraid ETC no light means he’s deactivated, his pupils emit a blow glow

Faction- (formerly) enclave/ umbrella corp

Personality- he’s seen as cold and robotic but is described by many as attempting to be caring and compassionate he’s also quick on his feet with impersonation and tries to use it for when he thinks their important he only has parts of a personality with chips but he remembers the enclave and his friends disappearance so his all his negative chips are on everyday at all hours

Gear: a powered combat suit customized to fit his position in the umbrella corporation a combat knife modified with corruption damage and a plasma prototype lightning hawk upgraded by the dark alleyway offer with corruption, aAR15 style rifle modified with corruption damage (both the knife and rifle upgraded by this wonderful person and there dark alleyway offer that can take any caliper and is customized to his liking, assortment of grenades and a stinger rocket launcher with an assortment of different types of warheads tho his supply is limited so he uses it VERY RARELY the launcher had been upgraded by the same person who made the rifle better it now does corruption damage, he has a a SMG nicknamed “the reapers scythe” it is a gift from a friend the SMG looks like TMP, he has a [AMR](https://residente

SO, I recently finished the "old man's war" series by John Scalzi and it absolutely blew my mind. It is an absolute masterpiece and I loved (almost) every sentence of it. It not only theorizes about what would/could happen if humanity colonised various planets and encounters other intelligence species, it also talks about the implications of cloning people and manipulate their DNA and how those clones would feel about that.

I *REALLY* loved it and Scalzis writing style really appealed to me.

HOWEVER, the actual last sentence of the last book is: "I'm pregnant."

Said by the badass Special-elite soldier, who was the main protagonist of the second book. I loved that character, but that last fucking sentence just left me with so much disappointment.

Why, WHY, for the love of god did she needed to get pregnant?! It literally adds nothing to the story. Why couldn't they live a happy life on their newly colonized planet they helped to protect from the "evil" aliens? They dind't even need her to get pregnant, because they already have an adopted daughter (who was the bio child from the main antagonist of the second book). They already have a family, for fucks sake!

Already read LOTR, Earthsea, Narnia.

But looking for something with a young man on a journey of wonder and magic with adventure, fantasy beasts, far off locales. Need good characters, good story. Heart.

Really appreciate any help.