Read: Old Man's War

The first in the series by John Scalzi comprising the previously mentioned Last Colony. Basically a good military-in-space book. First part seems like almost a take on the standard recruit-to-soldier arc in war movies and books...but this one involves transfer of the recruit's consciousness into a new, bio-engineered body! Interesting. Another interesting twist to these books is that the recruits come from the aged sector of humanity. They join up in their 70s, and though they get new bodies, they have a whole previous life's experience. So there is some good pathos in the leaving of each recruit's past..and in some cases, the finding of one's past unexpectedly showing up in the present!

In their characterizations of alien races, these books are reminding me a bit of James White's Sector General novels. I suspect it might be fun to read these series back to back.