Old Man's War reading order

A plan for the whole series

7 volumes, 2,325 pages, about 45 hours. At 45 min a day that is about 8 weeks.

• From volume 2 on, the number of ratings falls most before volume 4, “Zoe's Tale” (by 41%). Plan your break after volume 3, before the series plans it for you.
• Readers scored volume 2, “The Ghost Brigades”, below its predecessor (8.1 after 8.3). If you slow down there, that is on the book, not on you.
• The series is still running; the last volume came out in 2025. You will wait for the next one anyway, so no need to rush.

Stages

3 stages, with 2 short books from outside the series between them. You finish around January 12, 2027, 19 days later than in one go.

1. 1
   Stage 118 habout 3 weeksby November 21, 2026

   • 1. Old Man's War2005 · 316 pages · 6 h
   • 2. The Ghost Brigades2006 · 320 pages · 6 h
   • 3. The Last Colony2007 · 320 pages · 6 h
2. BreakMaus · Art Spiegelman · 295 pp. · score 9.05 h, by December 1, 2026. A short book from another shelf, so you come back to the series hungry.
3. 2
   Stage 219 habout 4 weeksby December 26, 2026

   • 4. Zoe's Tale2008 · 320 pages · 6 h
   • 5. The Human Division2013 · 333 pages · 6 h
   • 6. The End of All Things2015 · 384 pages · 7 h
4. BreakBorn a Crime · Trevor Noah · 304 pp. · score 8.96 h, by January 4, 2027. A short book from another shelf, so you come back to the series hungry.
5. 3
   Stage 36 h8 daysby January 12, 2027

   • 7. The Shattering Peace2025 · ≈ 332 pages · 6 h
6. The end of the series

   January 12, 2027

We count 1.1 min per page, the pace of an average novel reader. Faster? Move the slider.

≈ next to a page count: a volume with no page count in our data is counted at this series’s average.

Does the series hold up

Shape of the series: best at the start. Readers scored the first volumes (8.2) above the last ones (7.9).

Best volume: Old Man's War (8.3, 1,827 ratings). Weakest: Zoe's Tale (7.5). From volume 2 on, the biggest drop in the number of ratings is between volume 3 and 4: 41%. The series is not finished; the last volume came out in 2025. The last volume (7.9) scores close to the series average or above it.