Am I missing something about Old Man's War? Everbody seems to think it's a great piece of contemporary SF, but to me it read like it was written for people who read Heinlein as teenagers in the 50s, and whose worldview pretty much hasn't developed since.

The science parts are handwavey plot conveniences, the books drop their main interesting bit of looking into the psychology of soldiers with 70 or zero years of life experience by treating the characters as generic clever 20-year olds, and the bleak xenophobic backdrop mixed with the juvenile war adventure plots makes the whole thing feel like a weird, unironic war propaganda piece.

I like the "Old Man's War" series about as much as I do Weber's and Ringo's books - they are interesting stories but the science is seriously hand-wavey. Unlike Heinlien who had military and politics in serious science fiction, these authors produce primarily military and political stories with science-fictiony backdrops.

I recently really enjoyed the Revelation Space series by Alistair Reynolds.

Also, Greg Bear's books about The Way (Legacy, Eon, etc) make a great series.

I somewhat enjoyed Greg Bear's Blood Music book, but not enough to buy another from him. I'll definitely give him another change and check out the ones you recommend though, thanks.

Yeah, Blood Music was alright... not one of my favorites either.

If you read The Way books, do it in the order they were written (Eon, Eternity, Legacy). Legacy is a prequel, so some are tempted to read it first, but it would basically ruin all the mystery of the other two if you did so.