The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Ghost Brigades
Book Review: Better take a day off!
Summary: 5 Stars
If you are going to read this book you should plan on taking a day off! The book hooks you and I had a hard time putting it down.
A traitor scientist's consciousness has been left behind and in order for the CU to discover why he sold out they create another person and inject the scientist consciousness into the other person. Things don't work out as planned.
The book deals with issues surrounding people and if they are free to choose. I don't want to write to much more. Do yourself a favor and buy this book!
Book Review: Born to be bad?
Summary: 4 Stars
A sequel to Old Man's War, The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi offers fans of the former book a chance to go back to an interesting yet dangerous reality. In Scalzi's semi-far future (a few centuries hence), mankind has expanded beyond Earth, with colonies throughout the Galactic neighborhood. The skip drive allows people to go light years in an instant, avoiding all the problems of the long distances. Unfortunately, there are lots of other intelligent races out there, and many are in competition for the same planets; for this reason, the Colonial Defense Force exists, using high-tech weapons and specially conditioned soldiers to protect human interests.
If Old Man's War owes a lot to Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers, The Ghost Brigades owes at least a small bit to Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, with its tale of children and war. Jared Dirac is no ordinary child, however: from the moment of his "birth", he is physically an adult and mentally close to it as well; what he lacks are true experiences, but he will get them soon enough. He is a member of the CDF's Special Forces, a.k.a. the Ghost Brigades, humans developed for the sole purpose of fighting.
Jared is even more special. While the other Special Forcers are created from the genetic material of dead people (hence their nickname), Jared is created from a living man and further, given this man's consciousness. Although he has his own personality, he also is affected by the man he was based on. This man, Charles Boutin, is a traitor to humanity who has joined an alien coalition with a secret plan to stop the CDF; Jared was created to help unearth what that plan is.
The story follows Jared's development as a soldier and the first battles he fights prior to learning of his origins. At that point, an identity crisis is inevitable: will Jared be able to help the CDF, or will he try to betray them like Boutin. The final answer will involve finding Boutin himself.
For fans of Old Man's War, The Ghost Brigades is initially dissatisfying. John Perry, the hero of the first book is never present, as are few of the other characters. Even the one exception, Jane Sagan, is absent for much of the first half of the book. In addition, Jared takes a long time to appear: he isn't "born" until page 65 of this 314 page story. Fortunately, Scalzi is a good writer, so even if it takes a while for the plot to really kick in, it's worth the wait. The Ghost Brigades not only offers a good story, but it more fully fleshes out Scalzi's fictional universe and hints at more stories to come. It may not be as good as its predecessor, but it is pretty close.
Book Review: Come on get involved til the mystery is solved
Summary: 3 Stars
This doesn't really follow Old Man's war as a sequel. It's written third person throughout, the dialog is cheesier than ever, and the jokes stink. The technology reminds me of Robert J Sawyer, and the fact that this is supposed to be well into the future is not very convincing because of all the 20/21st century influence. I also noticed that the BrainPal concept doesn't fit in quite as well with the ghost brigade, who are more hardcore and less likely to use cheesy marketing names than the main character of OMW. The combat scenarios are actually better than OMW, but even those lack detail and are not convincing. There was also a division of the Ghost Brigades that was just...a really goofy human adaptation, but I don't want to blow it. Things like this make me question how seriously I'm supposed to take the story. One thing this story does do is explain loopholes (like how SmartBlood prevents STDs and why all of the Scientist surnames taken are of European decent), of course you have to wait until the end, but it does eventually answer questions the observant reader will ask. Not a bad read, but not essential either. Several convenient character saves for this story make it more dull than its predecessor.Book Review: Decide for yourself...
Summary: 5 Stars
As soon as I finished "The Old Man's War" I came straight to Amazon and started looking for more books in the series. After reading a couple negative reviews of "The Ghost Brigades" I was almost afraid to purchase it. I hate to read work by authors that I love, and be dissappointed in the work.
This is not one of those books. While this is a continuation of the world presented in "The Old Man's War," it's not really a sequal. Scalzi has created a very vivid, expansive universe. In "The Ghost Brigades" the reader is exposed to another level of that universe.
If you're expecting another adventure of the plucky hero, John Perry, this isn't it. If you enjoy the work of John Scalzi give this title the consideration it deserves.
Book Review: Disappointing 2nd book
Summary: 2 Stars
It was disappointing to read this after the excellent Old Man's War.
Character development is sketchy.
Plot is slow to develop, and lacks the highlights and reveals of his first book.
Much potential here which the right editor can develop.