The Ghost Brigades
by John Scalzi
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Book Reviews of The Ghost Brigades
Book Review: 4 1/2! Out with the Old, on with the New...literally
Summary: 4 Stars
"The Ghost Brigades" by John Scalzi
The CDF (Colonial Defense Forces) have found another use for their Frankenstein like body building. Not only do they apply this technology to the elderly, they apply it to the dead as well. Many jobs required of the CDF are considered too dark for those with human morals and decency built over years of life in society. These jobs are handed over the Ghost Brigades, the special forces of the CDF, built from the DNA of recruits who signed up but expired prior to their body being switched. The difference between the Ghost Brigades and regular enlisted CDF (aside from the considerable physical up grades) is that the old memories are not transferred and because of this the ideas and morals of the recruits can be built from the ground up by the CDF. It is a good thing that the CDF has a special forces because they are gong to need them. Recently three separate alien races have allied against them with a former CDF scientist turned traitor handing over some of the CDF's biggest secrets in the middle of it all. The Ghost brigades are going to be busy so a new unique recruit should help...
"The Ghost Brigades" is a solid follow up sequel to Old Man's War Though not quite its predecessor's equal it still delivers.
The Good: As with all of Scalzi's work, his easy going prose combined with well drawn characters and interesting plot development equal a solid story. Scalzi also seems well versed in applying military thinking into his stories and his characters are always improvising and coming up with clever ways of overcoming obstacles.
The Bad: Nothing memorable.
Overall: If you enjoyed "Old Man's War" the pick up "The Ghost Brigades" and you won't be disappointed.
Book Review: continuation of the story from "Old Man's War"
Summary: 4 Stars
I couldn't exactly call "The Ghost Brigades" a sequel to "Old Man's War". It's set in the same universe, and there's a little bit of overlap in the characters (although the protagonist of "Old Man's War" is nowhere to be found in here, other than a small nod to him in the rising action to the novel's climax), and it's obviously set after "Old Man's War". I think you could pick up "The Ghost Brigades" without having read "Old Man's War". Both are good books, so I'd read them both, but I don't think you'd lose anything if you read them out of order.
The ghost brigades of the title are a genetically-engineered army of superhumans designed to fight in a harsh universe. The concept of ghost brigades had been introduced in "Old Man's War" and is thoroughly explored here: how they came into being, how they are able to fight, and how they continue to be engineered to better fight humanity's enemies. The story centres around what happens when the chief researcher responsible for the ghost brigade program goes rogue.
Charles Boutin does what is thought to be impossible, and manages to store his own consciousness. Then he turns against humanity and joins up with three other races who are trying to eradicate humanity from the universe. Upon discovering this, the best chance to stop him is to try to resurrect his consciousness into a new body. This seems unsuccessful, so we see this new person named Jared and sent to fight with the rest of the ghost brigades. But the consciousness did take, and finally Jared has access to Charles' memories and, more importantly, motivations. Jared manages to retain his own sense of self, and helps bring about the end of a bloody battle between humanity and those set against it.
Book Review: a deeper and better sequel to Old Man's War
Summary: 4 Stars
"Old Man's War" felt like a familiar story with a few interesting twists: "The Ghost Brigades" feels like a more original novel. I've read quite a few books about the military experience, and the prototype has almost always been the sudden transformation of a more or less ordinary (young) person into something else entirely by battle. Mailer's "The Naked and the Dead," O'Brien's "The Things They Carried," Heinlein's "Starship Troopers," Haldeman's "The Forever War," and Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front" -- excellent books all telling of a similar character arc. "The Ghost Brigades" differs in telling the story from a special forces-type of soldier with no previous life experience growing and forming through active battle. Scalzi offers this different perspective in the space-war setting set up by "Old Man's War." The protagonist exerts his free will exactly once in his entire life, but the novel moves efficiently and compellingly.
I don't see why fans of "Old Man's War" would be disappointed here. This novel is clearly better, and shows that Scalzi is improving his series as well as extending it. Four well-earned stars for "The Ghost Brigades."
It's interesting to compare this book and its predecessor with the first two books of Orson Scott Card's "Ender" series. I thought "Speaker for the Dead" was a massive disappointment after the superb "Ender's Game." Card told the youth-pressed-into-saving-the-world story first ("Ender's Game"), and then told the mature savior of the universe story second. Scalzi chose to write about a mature character in "Old Man's War" first and the youth-pressed-into-saving-the-world story second. There's no beating "Ender's Game," but the two novels by Scalzi are more satisfying as a pair than the two by Card (I quit on Card after "Xenocide").
Book Review: Fun, but a little sequel fatigue.
Summary: 3 Stars
I enjoyed reading The Ghost Brigades - but I have a hard time describing why. The story is pretty convoluted, and felt like three different stories in a season-of-a-choppy-television-series way. While Old Man's War was very Heinleinian to me, this book felt more like an Asimov Robot mystery - lots of classic goodness, fun ways of using some new ideas and repackaging many older ones.
I was entertained, but did find myself wondering when he would get to the meat of the story a number of times. The comings and goings of key characters is very `serial drama' feeling, somehow different enough from other fiction to be a little confusing at times.
Mr. Scalzi is a wiz at repackaging the ideas of others - and doing them justice (admittedly and with flair). Having fun with other people's special effects may be wearing a little on me though because I didn't enjoy this installment as much as OMW.
I think I'd rather see it on screen - on television (as it doesn't strike me as a strong or long enough story for a feature length film). It feels like a Sci-Fi channel screenplay to me.
Too little detail is given about the aliens though they are a main feature in the book - we aren't entirely made aware of how they look or behave.
During the course of this book I was annoyed with the author referring to `taking a dump' 4 times. I don't think `taking a dump' rates a mention every 65 pages or so, at least not using the same niche characterization language each time (from different characters).
Glad to have a lot of Jane Sagen in this book.
All in all - it was a book I was happy to have read, but not one I will probably return to in the future like I will with OMW. Looking forward to reading the progression of the characters of this world in the books that follow.
Book Review: Quality Character-Based Sci Fi
Summary: 4 Stars
The Ghost Brigades is a sequel to Scalzi's excellent debut novel, Old Man's War. Several centuries from now, humans are aggressively pushing outward into space, establishing colonies and holding them by force against any number of alien races. The Colonial Defense Force (CDF) is made up of human minds transplanted into new bodies genetically engineered for combat. The most elite branch of the CDF are the shadowy Ghost Brigades.
The story follows an atypical member of the Ghost Brigades, Jared Dirac. Jared's body is a clone designed to reintegrate the mind and memories of a traitor, Charles Boutin, who is helping an alliance of races plan a war against the CDF. The mind transferal doesn't work, so Jared enters the service as himself. However, a series of events begin to trigger memories, which eventually leads to a mission to extract Boutin and uncover his secrets.
What I like best about Scalzi are his characters. Every person in the book has a well-developed, unique, believable personality. Even better, their personalities are not static, but change and mature with events. This is true of every character, but especially so for Jared. As a newly created being, Jared struggles to understand the world and his place in it. In an interesting scene, Jared reads Shelly's Frankenstein to find parallels to his own situation. Is he truly human? Does he control his own destiny? You come to like and care about Jared, which is good, because the book is more about his journey than it is about military operations or galactic politics.
As much as I liked the book, I can't quite give it five stars. The overall plot and action sequences were not as satisfying as Old Man's War. Still, it is a top-notch sci fi tale. I give it 4½ stars.