The Ghost Brigades
by John Scalzi
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Book Reviews of The Ghost Brigades
Book Review: an excellent sequel that frustrated me
Summary: 4 Stars
I red John Scalzi's first book, Old Man's War, and immediately ordered the Ghost Brigades. If you haven't done so already, it will be helpful for you to read the first book in the series before reading Ghost. The main character of this book is a member of the Special Forces -- super-soldiers created with the DNA from the dead and given "consciousness" -- specially-bred super warriors. the main character is given the "consciousness" of a Special Forces soldier who has betrayed humanity to aliens bent on destroying humanity. As with his first book in the series, Scalzi realizes his universe of super-soldiers and unfriendly aliens very well. His descriptions are superb and the action is nicely leavened with interesting philosophical discussions. His writing is very reminiscent of Robert Heinlein a la Starship Troopers. The one thing that frustrates me about Scalzi's writing is his dialogues; Scalzi seems to be unable to write good, flowing conversations. Here's an example of his style: "Hi," said John. "Hi," said Jane. "Nice weather we're having," JOhn said. "Yes, although it may rain tomorrow," Jane said. "You're right," he said. "Guess we'll need to bring umbrellas," she said. Note to author: enough with the "he said" "she said!!" Conversations between characters should flow naturally; the ability to write good, free-flowing, natural dialog while still letting the reader keep straight who is speaking is the mark of a good author. Sadly, whether it's lack of attention to craft or bad editing, Scalzi has not mastered this important part of writing. Ironically, when describing characters or battles or concepts in this interesting universe, Scalzi is excellent, even brilliant. If he could just learn to write dialog!Book Review: Worthy Sequel to Old Man's War
Summary: 4 Stars
The Ghost Brigades is a sequel to Old Man's War, however it has something of a loose connection and can easily be read as a stand alone novel. Most of the background covered in Old Man's War is touched upon in The Ghost Brigades.
In the future, an overcrowded and resource stripped Earth begins colonizing the galaxy, thanks to the advent of the skip drive (allowing faster than light travel). As it turns out, the galaxy is filled with many aggressive star traveling species, competing for the choicest planets to colonize. The Earth colonies are protected by the Colonial Defense Force (CDF). The CDF is composed of elderly Earth residents who, facing death, volunteer for military service in exchange for a new lease on life, literally. At the age of 65, volunteers are enrolled and DNA samples taken. A clone is developed and at age 75, the consciousness of the volunteer is transferred to his new, genetically and technologically enhanced (think Six Million Dollar Man) clone body.
As it turns out, some volunteers die between the ages of 65 and 75. Seems a waste to just throw away a perfectly good clone body, thus The Ghost Brigades are born, CDF special forces with no previous life experiences. This novel tracks the experiences of such a brigade and one member in particular, Jared Dirac, who is just a little different than the other brigade members.
If you liked Old Man's War or any military themed hard science fiction, you'll certainly like The Ghost Brigades. In fact, I can say that I felt The Ghost Brigades was marginally better than its predecessor. The science is good, the characters are engaging and the action maintains a good pace throughout the work.
Book Review: Excellent follow-up to Old Man's War
Summary: 5 Stars
The Ghost Brigades returns to the universe of Scalzi's novel Old Man's War. In the first book, Scalzi introduced readers to John Perry and Earth's rejuvenated soldiers, the Colonial Defense Forces. This time around, he takes us into the world of The Ghost Brigades, the special forces of the CDF. Jane Sagan must track down a traitor, and what better way to find a traitor than to copy his consciousness into a freshly-baked Ghost Brigade soldier? But the transfer doesn't work ... at least, not right away.
I enjoyed the first book, but I thought this one was even stronger. As with the first book, we follow a new recruit (Jared Dirac, the altered clone of traitor Charles Boutin) through his indoctrination in the Ghost Brigades. Once again, there plenty of shiny "Wow!" moments as we learn about these supersoldiers. The pace never flagged, and the conflicts kept me engaged throughout. The external battles meshed quite well with Jared's internal struggle to discover and maintain his own identity.
Scalzi explores the universe he's created in a bit more depth this time around. We see the next phase of CDF modifications, and we actually meet a member from one of the hostile races -- the captured alien scientist was one of my favorite characters. Scalzi also touches on some of the diplomatic issues, hinting at larger conflicts which will hopefully be explored in book three.
I'll definitely be picking up The Last Colony the next time I place an order.
Book Review: Never Hits Its Potential
Summary: 3 Stars
Living as a healthy adult from your first moment of consciousness would be difficult enough; what Jared Dirac has to deal with - being templated with the mind of a scientist (Charles Boutin) turned traitor - seems like piling on. The Ghost Brigades is John Scalzi's followup to Old Man's War, but rather than follow John Perry (that novel's main character) it follows Dirac, as he is "born", integrates with the Special Forces (adults from birth, like him), and begins to remember things from Boutin's mind. How Dirac deals with all this - how human is he, and how human are the other Special Forces he works with - is the main conceit of the novel.
Which is good, because it's the novels strongest point. While Scalzi doesn't explore it as well as I was hoping after Old Man's War - perhaps because of the absence of John Perry and his complicated relationship with Jane Sagan (who does return, as the commander of Dirac's unit) - Dirac is an interesting character. What's problematic, however, is that Scalzi is frequently more interested in writing a fun ride than fleshing out his ideas, and Dirac's development feels somewhat wasted. It's hard to pinpoint where things specifically go wrong, but Scalzi's prose, while solid and with some nice passages, never manages to grab hold of the ideas and potential before everything sort of slips away. The action is capable but never all that exciting.
The book is still a page-turner, however, and I read fairly quickly to the end. The Ghost Brigades is a good book, and an improvement on the second half of Old Man's War, but only rarely rises above the level of fun distraction.
Book Review: Okay Second Book
Summary: 3 Stars
Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi
This book is the second in the universe Scalzi introduced readers to in Old Man's War. While not really a sequel, readers are able to reconnect with major characters from Old Man's War like Sagan and Wilson, albeit in minor ways. Ghost Brigades follows the life of Jared Dirac, a Special Forces soldier in the CDF. The gist of the novel is: Three alien species unite with the help of a traitorous human scientist to destroy the CDF. Dirac, implanted with the memories of the scientist, is created to help thwart the plan but, as usual, there are some problems and he may not have the information in his store of the scientist's memories to save the CDF.
While this was a good story, it was nowhere near as engaging as Old Man's War. Yes, I am aware that they are two different stories about two different things, but the comparison is inevitable. I found the character development very well done, and the reader is given occasional glimpses of the wit that made Old Man's War such a charmer, but in the end it falls short of being a crowd-pleaser on par with its predecessor.
Scalzi uses this book as an opportunity to tell more about the workings of CDF technology, particularly the Brain Pal, which was okay but there was not enough of anything new in this book to keep curiosity and interest piqued. Dirac, while a likeable enough character, did not have the deep character interaction and conflicts needed to incite reader emotions.
Overall, this is a good book and, if you like the universe from the first book, I would recommend reading this one.