This was an easy read, I liked the way the story flowed and the humor.

This is not a serious book about war or soldiers.
Making the aliens man eating monsters and/or religious nut cases you can't reason with doesn't leave much space for questions about why we have to fight and die. And hell, man eating aliens? Really? They are really going to be able to metabolize humans? It's as bad as sex with aliens and vampire aliens.
I was also not at all convinced that the characters were over 75 years old.

There was much talk about the reasons for choosing old soldiers, but it didn't seem to play out in the actual performance of the troops.
If I was not told that these are old soldiers I would never have guessed.

However it is actually just the jesting and youthful socializing that make this book fun to read.

It's a bit weird to read about this Zero Sum universe where war seems inevitable and is very hard to question, with man eating alien enemies to boot.
Right after reading [b:A Deepness in the Sky|226004|A Deepness in the Sky|Vernor Vinge|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1316729499s/226004.jpg|1270006] and the Qeng Ho's efforts to use trade in place of 0 sum resource hogging, war and enslavement.