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The Ghost Brigades (Old Man's War) by John…
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The Ghost Brigades (Old Man's War) (edition 2007)

by John Scalzi (Author)

Series: Old Man's War (2)

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4,5851592,462 (3.95)193
Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML:

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 humanityâ??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 â?? 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
… (more)

Member:JHPatrick
Title:The Ghost Brigades (Old Man's War)
Authors:John Scalzi (Author)
Info:Tor Science Fiction (2007), 384 pages
Collections:Your library
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The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi

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» See also 193 mentions

English (154)  Spanish (1)  Italian (1)  Hungarian (1)  French (1)  Swedish (1)  All languages (159)
Showing 1-5 of 154 (next | show all)
I like John Scalzi but this book didn't do much for me.

The first half is a whole lot of slow moving setup. The second half is much better as it is filled with fighting, ethical debates and intergalactic politics. Still, not enough to compensate for the boring first half.

My other issue is that I think Scalzi has great ideas and raises lots of fascinating things to discuss but his writing is just too blunt for me. He has no finesse. Or he didn't in 2006 anyway.

I still like the Universe of Old Man's War & Ghost Brigades so odds are good that I will continue reading the series but my expectations will be lower. ( )
  hmonkeyreads | Jan 25, 2024 |
Second book in the series aboutof the Colonial Defense Forces and ever present and ever dangerous alien species surrounding the colonies of the Mother Earth.

If you are worried because this is not first book in the series don't worry, Ghost Brigades is a standalone novel set in the same universe. Some of the characters you might recognize from the first book but it is not must for understanding the story itself (but if you have read the first book you will understand more about the events in the book).

Focus in this novel is on Ghost Brigades, cloned soldiers raised from "scratch" using DNA from all CDF soldiers that have died during their service term. They are raised with a sole purpose in mind - be quicker, tougher and deadlier than your average CDF soldier. Although fully grown in a few months they still are blanks and have no life experiences. Author very nicely portraits the challenges set before these soldiers - grown for the single purpose to protect the very populace that looks at them with suspicion because they are not "natural".

Against the standard heroic story of a single man fighting human and alien malice that threaten everything he holds dear [and being more than ready to sacrifice his life to achieve that] author paints very interesting picture on the possible ways humanity may evolve and adapt to life in the vast intergalactic space. Because even CDF with their cloned bodies and individuals is nothing more than further step in evolution of Humanity.

Second theme in the novel is what makes us - us? If someone is cloned does it mean he [or she] is destined to become same person as the one they originated from? Is it possible that non-corporeal elements of the human being are dictated by corporeal elements, or are we more then sum of our parts?

I agree, none of the above can be considered original and all of these questions have been raised before - and not only through fiction - but this book manages to combine these themes with the excellent and very visual and vivid action scenes.

Very interesting book with great characters, utterly alien aliens and lots of action.

Highly recommended to all fans of SF (and military SF in particular). ( )
  Zare | Jan 23, 2024 |
The Ghost Brigades returns to the universe of Scalzi's novel Old Man's War, a novel which I absolutely loved.

In the first book, Scalzi introduced readers to John Perry and Earth's rejuvenated soldiers, the Colonial Defense Forces. This time around, he takes us into the world of The Ghost Brigades, the special forces of the CDF. Jane Sagan, a character from Old Man's War, must track down a traitor named Charles Boutin, who knows the CDF's biggest secrets, and what better way to find a traitor than to copy his consciousness into a freshly-baked Ghost Brigade soldier? But the transfer doesn't work ... at least, not right away. Then, as Boutin's memories slowly surface, Jared begins to intuit the reasons for Boutin's betrayal. Themes of counciousness, choice, free-will, and identity are explored. This is thinking man's sci-fi that also happens to include humor, and kick ass military/sci-fi action.

Though labeled a sequel to Old Man's War, The Ghost Brigades is very much a stand-alone adventure. While it expands upon ideas introduced in the earlier novel, John Scalzi doesn't require you to have read it to become fully absorbed in this one. So feel free to jump in. ( )
  ryantlaferney87 | Dec 8, 2023 |
Fantastic read, though I did gripe ALOT until the last 2 chapters until all became clear. I almost shed a tear because it was very touching. Hats off for a spectacular wonderful read. I would rate a 4.5, but rounding up because I think it's worth it. ( )
  jdesjardins | Oct 9, 2023 |
The only reason to allow someone to have this much fun writing a book is so that we can have almost as much fun reading it. I'm sure Mr. Scalzi would disabuse me of the notion that writing a 300 page novel, and doing it with such skill, should be described using a word usually reserved for leisure and entertainment. But I kind of think he would also agree that creating a world where you can successfully sky dive from space in a unitard and immolate mosquitoes just by thinking about it does fit the definition of fun.

If you like your science fiction filled with mysteries, space ships, nanobots, alien worlds populated by actual aliens, mind transfers, and clones, all populated by intelligent and likable characters, you will like this book. There are a few spots where I caught the characters or narrator doing a science, politics, or philosophy info-dump. But these go by fairly quickly and aren't overly distracting from the actual storytelling. ( )
  zot79 | Aug 20, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 154 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors (9 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
John Scalziprimary authorall editionscalculated
Chong, VincentCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Dufris, WilliamNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Harris,JohnCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Dedication
To Shara Zoll, for friendship and everything else. To Kristine and Athena, for their patience and love.
First words
No one noticed the rock.
Quotations
Fear isn't the desire to avoid death or pain. Fear is rooted in the knowledge that what you recognize as yourself can cease to exist. Fear is existential.
Harvey lived for this sort of shit.
His chief worry as they approached the science station was that Lieutenant Sagan would do one of her patented thoughtful, methodical approaches; something sneaky that would require him to tiptoe around like a goddamn spy or something. He hated that crap. Harvey knew what he was and what he was best at: He was a noisy son of a bitch and he was good at making things fall down and go boom. In his few introspective moments, Harvey wondered if his progie, the guy he was mostly made from, hadn’t been something really antisocial, like a pyromaniac or a professional wrestler, or maybe had done time for assault. Whoever or whatever he was, Harvey would have been happy to give him a nice big smack on the lips. Harvey was absolutely at peace with his inner nature, in the sort of way that Zen Buddhist monks could only dream about. And so when Sagan told him his job was to draw attention to himself so she and Seaborg could do their jobs, Harvey did a little dance on the inside. He could definitely draw attention to himself. The question was how.
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Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML:

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 humanityâ??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 â?? 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

No library descriptions found.

Book description
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.

For 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 most 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, whose brain is uniquely able to access Boutin's electronic memories. But when the memory transplant appears to fail, Jared is given over to the Ghost Brigades.

Jared begins as one of these perfect soldiers, but as memories begin to surface, he 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.

©2006 John Scalzi; (P)2008 Macmillan Audio
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