I really liked Old Man’s War, so I was naturally predisposed to like the sequel… except that The Ghost Brigades (or just TGB) isn’t really a sequel. It’s set in the same universe as OMW, but it focuses instead on the Colonial Union’s special forces, a race of human-derived troops who are essentially created to serve as a warrior caste. After Charles Boutin, a prominent scientist, turns traitor and disappears, the Union creates a clone of Boutin and attempts to imprint the traitor’s consciousness on it– but the result isn’t what they expect, and neither are the consequences. The clone, Jared Dirac, has his own consciousness and ends up doing some things which neither Boutin nor Jared’s bosses in Special Forces expect (including a terrific twist of an ending that, in retrospect, might have been predictable but wasn’t.)
Scalzi’s writing is still crisp and tight, which makes this a faster read than I expected. I started regularly reading his blog after reading OMW, and I definitely noticed some of the same stylings in both– not a bad thing at all. If I were going to complain about this book, I’d have to say it was too short (not a criticism I often levy). I’m already looking forward to the third, and probably final, installment in this series. Highly recommended.
Update: If I’d known that Scalzi was going to see my review I would’ve, y’know, fawned a bit more over the book. Really.
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