The Ghost Brigades

John Scalzi

Apr 2007 · Old Man's War Book 2 · Sold by Tor Books

About this ebook

The Ghost Brigades are the Special Forces of the Colonial Defense Forces, elite troops created from the DNA of the dead and turned into the perfect soldiers for the CDF's toughest operations. They're young, they're fast and strong, and they're totally without normal human qualms.

The universe is a dangerous place for humanity—and it's about to become far more dangerous. Three races that humans have clashed with before have allied to halt our expansion into space. Their linchpin: the turncoat military scientist Charles Boutin, who knows the CDF's biggest military secrets. To prevail, the CDF must find out why Boutin did what he did.

Jared Dirac is the only human who can provide answers -- a superhuman hybrid, created from Boutin's DNA, Jared's brain should be able to access Boutin's electronic memories. But when the memory transplant appears to fail, Jared is given to the Ghost Brigades.

At first, Jared is a perfect soldier, but as Boutin's memories slowly surface, Jared begins to intuit the reason's for Boutin's betrayal. As Jared desperately hunts for his "father," he must also come to grips with his own choices. Time is running out: The alliance is preparing its offensive, and some of them plan worse things than humanity's mere military defeat...

Old Man's War Series
#1 Old Man’s War
#2 The Ghost Brigades
#3 The Last Colony
#4 Zoe’s Tale
#5 The Human Division
#6 The End of All Things
Short fiction: “After the Coup”

Other Tor Books
The Android’s Dream
Agent to the Stars
Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded
Fuzzy Nation
Redshirts
Lock In
The Collapsing Empire (forthcoming)

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Ratings and reviews

I actually read this book in one sitting; it was literally (pardon the pun) that good. I would recommend this to any fan of military science fiction, as it is a great follow up to the universe developed in Old Man's War. With most of the fleshing out done in the previous novel, this one focuses on more fast-paced action sequences than its predecessor, but still retains enough of an introduction to the milieu that it can be read out of order. Also introduced are some interesting philosophical issues that are truly fun to sink one's mental teeth into. While it's not that big on the massive scale-- say David Weber or Frank Herbert-- it has a great amount of small-scale development (mostly squad-level) and really brings an interestingly new perspective to the table. Most certainly worth a read on a day when you're longing for an action movie experience.

This is the inevitable sequel to "Old Man's War", and Scalzi matches the high bar he set in that first novel. Other than being in the same universe, and picking up the story with a secondary character from the first book, there is little direct connection between the two. Nevertheless, the first two together are a superb setup for the third. I WILL get it.

Read Old Man's War first, but you will not be let down by this sequel. The first book might, in my opinion, having just finished the second, be be slightly better, but it would be just by a tiny margin. It is definitely worth purchasing.

About the author

John Scalzi won the 2006 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and his debut novel Old Man's War was a finalist for science fiction's Hugo Award. His other books include The Android's Dream and The Last Colony. He has won the Hugo Award, the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award for science-fiction, the Seiun, The Kurd Lasswitz and the Geffen awards. His weblog, Whatever, is one of the most widely-read web sites in modern SF. Born and raised in California, Scalzi studied at the University of Chicago. He lives in southern Ohio with his wife and daughter.