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The Ghost Brigades

Author: John Scalzi
Publisher: Tor
Category: Book

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Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

6 reviews
Sales Rank: 120719

Media: Paperback
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.8 x 4.3 x 1

ISBN: 0330457101
EAN: 9780330457101
ASIN: 0330457101

Publication Date: February 1, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
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Also Available In:

•	Hardcover - The Ghost Brigades (Sci Fi Essential Books)
•	Hardcover - The Ghost Brigades
•	Mass Market Paperback - The Ghost Brigades

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Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

A superb follow up to Old Man's War August 11, 2008
The Colonial Defense Force his discovered a traitor to humanity, Charles Boutin, who faked his own death and is working with three other alien races to bring a war against the CDF. However, the project Boutin was working on, a way to transfer a consciousness into a blank clone, has left an interesting development - during his research he stored a copy of his own consciousness in a system.

Now that the CDF have found it they want to use it to get into the enemies mind and create a clone of Boutin. Although this is not a normal clone, they have used their advanced techniques to grow a body fit for the Ghost Brigades: the special forces of the CDF made up from the DNA of volunteers that died before starting duty. Fully grown and built for fighting the Ghost Brigades are a deadly force.

The attempt at transferring the memories of Boutin into the clone appears to fail and he is given a new identity: Jared Dirac. Dirac is sent off to train with his fellow soldiers and assigned to the squad of Jane Sagan who is ordered to watch him in case of any developments. And developments there are which turn into a race against time to find Boutin before war breaks out.

Following on from Old Man's War I doubted that The Ghost Brigades could live up to my expectations. After all, Old Man's War was a fantastic novel full of everything that is good about science fiction. Well, Ghost Brigades did live up to those expectations in a spectacular fashion, delivering more of what was good about OMW and expanding on it further.

This time around the narrative is no longer in the first person allowing plenty of freedom for Scalzi to fill us in on the little bits of information we missed out on in OMW. This one is definitely more descriptive, with a few examples of info dumping, but Scalzi keeps the story well paced with few diversions. Although the humour found in OMW isn't as prevalent in Ghost Brigades, the times it does appear it is wholly suited to the situation and will bring a smile to your face, if not make you laugh out loud.

This brings me to what I like about Scalzi's writing - it's down to Earth without all the usual in depth descriptions of other science fiction authors I read. These are books that you can pick up and enjoy at any point and will appeal to almost any science fiction fan.

Ghost Brigades is yet another example of science fiction at its finest. An action packed, straight to the point novel, it will keep you turning those pages - and not just to find out what happens next, you'll want to read more of writing like this. I'm fully signed up to John Scalzi now and he can count me in as a fan for life, his stuff truly is exceptional.

4 out of 5 stars

Great success for Scalzi March 4, 2008
Following on from Old Mans War this tale continues in the futuristic world dreamed up by John Scalzi. Whilst to many a sci-fi book relies upon the sheer strength of the science within, Scalzi likes to let his characters do the talking and with each protagonist allowing the sheer strength of character to push the tale futher along. That's his key strength to my mind, the way that he allows them to grow and decide their own destiny within the book. Well written, cracking characters and above all a story where the spirit of man demonstrates what it can truly accomplish when pushed to the limits.

4 out of 5 stars

Good but grim at times. January 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This is a worthy semi-sequel to Old Man's war. It is set in the same universe a few years on from the events of its predecessor, with some of its characters, such as Jane Sagan, reappearing. However the story is centred on the "Ghost Brigades", the human elite special forces. There are action sequences to please the die-hard fans, but there are also thoughtful and well woven into the story segments on what drives solders at the bleeding edge of combat. It also provides a better overview of the nature of its universe and hints at interesting developments in the third book. Overall the mood is a tad more sombre than the first work, but is still enjoyable.

5 out of 5 stars

A tasty treat July 7, 2007
13 out of 18 found this review helpful

Well, two of three is great. I am so relieved. So many times you read the first book in a series, and that is great, but the next one sucks, and the rest get worse. Yes Anne Macaffry i am talking about you, and everything you have written for twenty years, you hack.

I really liked "Old Mans War" and this one both builds upon its strengths, like good writting style and quality characters, and loses what i thought was its biggest flaw, its rushed ending. This book has a natural and balenced flow, it is full of intresting stuff and resolves itself at a decent pace at the end, which is why it gets 5 stars. I would say it is a more confident and better technical book than "OMW", and was left happy and wanting to see where the trilogy goes next.

Where next is probebly self evedent. But this book did not lead on conventionaly from the first, and that was the best thing about it. There is precedent for Scalzi doing some thing unexpected. By introducing new characters and a diffrent narrative point of view the series got richer, and our knowlage of its universe fuller. I do not mean just more detail, but more perspective, we see the familiar and the new, places and people, through new eyes and they gain complexity and reality from the diffrence.

I leave you with this last thought, i liked this enough to seriously consider getting the hardback of the next book. I have not done so though. Not yet anyhoo. enjoy

5 out of 5 stars

That does it, I am officially envious of Scalzi's talent June 5, 2007
13 out of 13 found this review helpful

John Scalzi won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Gee, I wonder why?

While not as fantastic as his debut, Old Man's War, Scalzi still sets the bar high with his followup novel, set in the same universe where mankind has ventured out into a hostile universe populated with hundreds of alien species, and responds with engineering, perserverance, and small feats of bio engineering like the Ghost Brigades.

The Ghost Brigades were introduced briefly in Old Man's War in the form of Jane Sagan, a nine year old with some of the DNA of the lead character's dead wife. The soldiers in the Ghost Brigade are grown, given "BrainPal" computers in their head, and then linked to their squad mates.

Jane Sagan plays a back-up role here. The main plot follows Jared Dirac, a Ghost Brigade soldier who is built to put a presumed dead traitor's consciousness inside his head. It doesn't take at first, so he becomes a member of the Ghost Brigades. It does take later, but to detail more would mean spoiling the story.

Scalzi continues to expand upon the universe of aliens he has created, and to explain the science the humans are using to combat them in clear, logical terms. (Science and fiction, get it?) The humans seem to be beset on all sides by agressive aliens, but which side is really the aggressor?

John gets into some excellent philosophical discussions about choice and right to choose, which is right in line with the "created for a purpose" ghost brigades.

An excellent story, a quick read, a new fav author. On to the third in the series.