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Loading... The Ghost Brigades (Old Man's War) (edition 2007)by John Scalzi (Author)
Work InformationThe Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. 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). 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. 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. no reviews | add a review
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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. No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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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. ( )