“Old Woman’s War” is how I characterized Whiskey and Warfare by E.M. Hamill when someone asked me what I was reading for SPSFC4. While I found John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War sort of meh, this book feels like a more mature, more heartfelt exploration of similar ground. Given the opportunity would someone of middle age want to dive into a life of a mercenary soldier for hire? What would that look and feel like?
Maryn, a fifty-something retired mercenary soldier has lost her spouse, an alien exobiologist, and her job as a professor is mired in academic politics. Luckily for Maryn, her gang of mostly ex-military besties are there to rescue her from middle age.
Where they go from there is a story that provides plenty of room for Hamill to sketch her aging characters with honesty, humor, and humanity (whether they’re technically human or not). Where John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War provides his elders with a new and improved body to take with them on their adventures, Hamill’s cast must face their warfare with no such physical enhancements. Her characters go to war with flawed eyesight, creaking joints, unreliable bladders, and in one case, with the tragic onset of dementia.
The result is a story that far exceeded my expectations. It’s a story I prefer over Scalzi’s glib and glossy tale that treats old age as a disease to be cured. Hamill’s characters have to deal with their age-related foibles, their shared trauma, and their losses without the deus ex machina or rejuvenation. Their biggest strength is their friendship as a team of underestimated grannies.
I found this story to be equal parts heart-warming and heart-breaking, full of real human depth, and a thoughtful exploration of aging, loss, and the healing power of friendships.
I’m giving this book five out of five stars.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Whiskey and War\fare: The Team Huntress Flights, Book One
E.M. Hamill
Publication Date: September 15, 2024
Publisher: StarBard Books
The cover
I don’t feel like the cover is doing Whiskey and Warfare any favors. The 3D characters look like stiff mannequins while the characters they represent are full realized.