The Ghost Brigades: Old Man's War, Book 2

The first is just terrific. As anyone.The second volume sets up the conclusion(?) in volume 3. Aside from being a terrific story the second volume discusses a very individualistic point of view.The third volume neatly sets out a well articulated discussion of . . . many . . . Issues that press life in the real world as we know it.This is the real reason why we have created parables, historically, and Science Fiction, contemporarily.Known traditionally as the Deans of Science Fiction, Asimov, Clarke, & Heinlein are recognized as innovators in the ‘parable-ization’ of sci-fi — but this was true to a lesser degree in the works of earlier authors. I regard Mark Twain as the first author of a time-travel story. Political allegory is not singular to SF and has been used since the times of jesters, minstrels, and oral entertainments preceding typesetting.

I really enjoyed books 1 & 2. Very interesting and imaginative story line, like nothing I have ever read before. HOWEVER I am so disappointed the 'Bait & Switch' tactic is used where after getting the customer interested using Kindle Unlimited the rest of the eBOOKS in this series [4 more @ < $10 ea] is SO EXPENSIVE for a no paper, non printed, non hard cover book. I'm stopping at the end of book 2 and now looking for a different series to read using Kindle Unlimited. This time I will make sure either all books in the series are available through Kindle Unlimited or affordably priced to continue if buying ebooks becomes necessary.

This is an Interesting book and with a good plot. I would have liked a little more action. I recommended it. Well written.

In the past year I was fortunate enough to discover John Scalzi's writing. He has quickly become one of my favorite authors. The mix of action, humor, world building, and character development continues to amaze and entertain me. Highly recommend this book and I am excited to see where the series takes me.

This book was a good sequel to the first, but I feel like we've lost any sense of main character(s). As well, the first and second books don't have much plotline in common. Despite this, I'll continue reading this series.

Ghost BrigadesI’ve been reading a lot of John Scalzi lately. His short stories on sale on Amazon.com reflect the weird nature of his universe with good character-driven stories. His Muse of Fire short is especially funny and thoughtful as well as the silly I Dated An Alien While Proposing to My Wife nonsense. Overall, a funny guy.So I got reacquainted with Scalzi’s universe after loving his Old Man War novel. Why not the sequel?I highly recommend reading Old Man’s War first before reading the sequel, though a new reader could easily follow along anyway. I’m one to read all of an author’s universe when they write a series of novels so I can follow and keep up.The Ghost Brigades is a nickname given to clones of dead people (thus “ghost”) where the consciousness is transferred to new cloned bodies. Scalzi admits at the end of the novel of borrowing a few ideas here and there in his Old Man’s War series and this is no exception, reminding the reader of the similar transferring of consciousness in the film “Avatar.”Plots and Themes:The story centers around one scientist, Boutin, who is a traitor to Mankind. He has faked his own death and is plotting with the Obin (a race that has no art, no soul as they say) and two other races to wipe out the Colonial Union (the force that we met in the last novel, which wants as its purpose the protection of Man in his attempt to colonize the limited real estate in the Milky Way) and he would reap the benefits. Or so he thinks!In faking his death, he recorded his own consciousness and left it lying around for the Special Forces (another version of the Colonials, where consciousness is transferred into highly adaptable bodies) to pick up. It’s unusual in that the Boutin consciousness needs some booting up to become Jared Dirac.Jared is an unusual Special Forces (aka Ghost Brigades) clone. He develops normally throughout the tale and is run by Jane Sagan who we met in the Old Man’s War novel. The author’s humor comes through in this character development. For example, the Sherlock Holmes joke is lost on Jared. You’ll read it and see.Tension and Grossness! [Spoilers]Part of Special Forces is to break up the three-race alliance that is threatening to overwhelm the Colonial Union. To do this they invade the home world of a race that has a coronation of sorts happening. They threaten to kill an heir to the throne and actually proceed to do so! Yes it’s alien, but the killing of a child and the graphic violence was off-putting and didn’t help my sympathy for the Colonial Union. The immorality of the Special Forces was evident.Humor and Pathos:We find an over-dependence of the BrainPal™, that device the soldiers use to run their lives and integrate with each other. And how Boutin uses that to plan his destruction. Jared is smarter and at the end you find out that his individuality comes through.Conclusions:A few bumps and grinds, not as tightly written as Old Man’s War, but is an important chapter in understanding the Colonial Forces, why all the secrecy, and a new look at old traditions.I would like to read the next book now and find out about the mysterious Conclave (the book doesn’t get into it, an alliance of races, apparently) and its impact on Man’s reach for the stars.Recommended!

I’d give it four star as it’s a fun read, not as good as the first book but still entertaining.The problem is that after this book I went on to read book 3, which was a disaster, skipped book 4 due to the bad reviews and the fact it’s apparently a retelling of book 3 (which was bad), but read book 5 which is catastrophic.So if you’re like me and like to read series on, then do yourself a favour and don’t in this case. The first book was fun, ended on a high note. Best to leave this series there and not read on. I wish I had.

I read Old Man's War some time ago and am only just getting around to reading the rest. The premise is that Earth's elderly can sign up for a tour of duty as space soldiers in the Colonial Defence Force. They get a new, young, tough body with the advantage of a mature brain. The first book was John Perry. The second features Jared Dirac and Jane Sagan, a special forces intelligence officer who happens to be in a body cloned from John Perry's late wife (which doesn't have much bearing on this book until the end and then carries forward into Book 3). Jared Dirac has been created from renegade scientist, Charles Boutin's DNA in the hopes that he could extract information from Boutin's stored consciousness. He can't (at first) and is transferred into the Ghost Brigade, but ends up as a decanted consciousness in a warship (shades on Anne McCaffrey's 'The Ship Who sang' maybe?) Anyhow the plot is twisty. It's military SF concerning skirmishes and battles with a number of alien species, during which Jane Sagan, imbued with speed, strength and resilience beyond that of regular humans, plays an important part. The story is fast paced - a real page-turner. Though it's a sequel to Old Man's War, it doesn't feature John Perry but both Jane Sagan and Harry Wilson are strong secondary characters.

I'd bought Old Man's War on a recommendation from some friends as I'm a big sci-fi fan and enjoyed it a lot so getting the second book in the series, The Ghost Brigades was a no brainer. I actually enjoyed it slightly more than it's predecessor.Though set in the same universe the second book follows a completely different set of characters, Jane Sagan from the Ghost Brigades and a new recruit Jared Dirac. This isn't any standard recruit though. He is made from the DNA of a traitor who sold out humanity to hostile alien forces. His conciseness however was transferred over from a scan to this newly created body, this procedure has never been done before though and it doesn't seem to have taken. He is being watched carefully in case it does as they don't know if it's a friend or foe that will come out....I really liked the story and the development of Dirac and the extra universe building this book brought to the series. It goes in a slightly different direction to Old Man's War and I think it's better for it. There are some interesting philosophical moments of what makes a person who they are, but there is still plenty of action scenes involving the hostile aliens the first book set up though there are fewer races this time and each one gets a little more background development rather than just another hostile force.Much like the first book I like John Scalzi's writing style. It's easy to read, clear with good pacing. If you're a fan of Robert Heinlein or Joe Haldeman then this series is definitely for you. It's (so far) one of the better military sci-fi novels I've read in recent years.Recommended.+ Interesting story.+ Some interesting philosophical moments and great action scenes.+ Some more background in the universe John Scalzi created.+ Easy reading, with good pacing.

I’m reading this on holiday. The first book shot by. Enjoyable, but I wouldn’t say it was a sophisticated plot, even if some of the details were good.Book two continues with a couple of the characters but feels like a definite maturing of plot and complexity. There’s a definite “what is the nature of self” theme running through.I still have a few days of holiday so let’s see what developments book three has in store!

This is a high concept, high adrenaline military SF story, with a bit of intelligence sneaked in underneath the high tech weaponry and relentless action. It is the middle book of a trilogy that starts with Old Man's War and ends with the Last Colony.The concept of Old Man's War was that old people were put into young bodies on the condition that they would fight in humanity's wars against a universe crammed with hostile intelligences. Here things are even more extreme, with soldiers grown from the DNA of the dead, hence the title. As with any high concept novel, it needs to make the action move sufficiently rapidly to prevent the reader from having time to think through the ridiculousness of the core idea. Here, Scalzi pulls off the conjuring trick admirably.Scalzi is a writer who knows the genre in which he works intimately, explicitly referencing many other writers. On one level his work could be seen as sitting alongside the ultra violent "computer game" writers like Richard Morgan or Neal Ascherson, but the real feel is of something more old fashioned. The most obvious reference points are Heinlein's Starship Troopers and Haldeman's Forever War. He even treads onto the ground of Philip K Dick in examining what it is to be human.So what you get here is a mixture of pulp, shoot em up alien bashing, with a bit of cyberpunk style technology, and a cracking conspiracy thriller, with a very heavy nod in the direction of Mary Shelley.It's not great literature, but if you enjoy a high octane romp, it's a fine piece of entertainment.