A Review of "The Ghost Brigades"

The Ghost Brigades is the second book in a series of four science fiction novels written by John Scalzi. The Ghost Brigades is a follow up work to Old Man's War. The Ghost Brigades is not a direct a sequel to Old Man's War since does not follow the escapades of the main protagonist in Old Man's War. It is set in the same science fiction universe as the first novel. Since I read the first book in the series, and liked it; I decided to give the second book a try.

This second series book does not directly follow the life of John Perry, the main character in Old Man's War, but features more of Jane Sagan who is a member of the Colonial Defense Special Forces. It also follows Harry Wilson, who was an acquaintance of John during their initial training. A new character, Jared Dirac is introduced who obtains the conscience of a traitor to the humans, Charles Boutin. In addition, Jared is a clone of Charles Boutin, and as the story progresses more of Boutin's conscience moves to the forefront.

In my previous review of Old Man's War, I suggested that any fan of fiction would enjoy the novel since it had decent dialogue and a good story. I will not quite make the same recommendation for The Ghost Brigades. I would recommend Ghost Brigades only if you are fan of science fiction. Ghost Brigades lacked a little bit of the spontaneity in dialogue that was present in Old Man's War. There were a few bright and witty exchanges, and sequences make you ponder our own humanity, it just was not as widespread as the sequences found in Old Man's War. Jared had a more serious personality than John Perry, so there was not as much joking around and snide remarks which kept the dialogue alive in Old Man's War.

What makes this book interesting is that Scalzi delves into the inner world of the Colonial Defense Special Forces, which he briefly touched on in Old Man's War. In addition, he spends more time describing the overall political trends within the universe. This works to great effect if you go on the read the third book in the series, The Last Colony.

If you liked Old Man's War, do not expect the same type of novel with Ghost Brigades. For Scalzi, this is a good thing, because he expanded the breadth of his writing style, by creating a totally different novel with this follow up work. There are good things to come with his next works, The Last Colony and Zoe's Tale.