The Ghost Brigades is a sequel to Old Man’s War, however it has something of a loose connection and can easily be read as a stand alone novel. Most of the background covered in Old Man’s War is touched upon in The Ghost Brigades.

In the future, an overcrowded and resource stripped Earth begins colonizing the galaxy, thanks to the advent of the skip drive (allowing faster than light travel). As it turns out, the galaxy is filled with many aggressive star traveling species, competing for the choicest planets to colonize. The Earth colonies are protected by the Colonial Defense Force (CDF). The CDF is composed of elderly Earth residents who, facing death, volunteer for military service in exchange for a new lease on life, literally. At the age of 65, volunteers are enrolled and DNA samples taken. A clone is developed and at age 75, the consciousness of the volunteer is transferred to his new, genetically and technologically enhanced (think Six Million Dollar Man) clone body.

As it turns out, some volunteers die between the ages of 65 and 75. Seems a waste to just throw away a perfectly good clone body, thus The Ghost Brigades are born, CDF special forces with no previous life experiences. This novel tracks the experiences of such a brigade and one member in particular, Jared Dirac, who is just a little different than the other brigade members.

If you liked Old Man’s War or any military themed hard science fiction, you’ll certainly like The Ghost Brigades. In fact, I can say that I felt The Ghost Brigades was marginally better than its predecessor. The science is good, the characters are engaging and the action maintains a good pace throughout the work. ( )

This didn't feel like a sequel--it could easily stand on its own, but having read The Old Man's War, the story is even more compelling.

This was a very fast read and a true page turner. The character arc for Jared Dirac keeps you deeply connected to the story. ( )

Good story. Good characters. But not as satisfying as the first in this series. ( )

A sequel to "Old Man's War", the story continues following Jane Sagan, an important character from the previous book, but it can stand alone very well which gets in an extra 1/2 star. If you've read the previous book, you can guess that this story follows the special forces & a lot of questions about them get answered.

I can't put my finger on it, but I wasn't quite as taken with this book as the previous one. It still receives high marks & was quite well done. The plot was basically a mystery, but done in a neat way that kept me guessing throughout. There was plenty of action, but also some interesting philosophy & exploration of humanity - what makes us people or humans? While asking such heavy questions, the book never bogged down, which is quite a trick.

I'm definitely reading more by this author & getting his books for one of my kids. I highly recommend him to anyone who liked Heinlein's early books, Joe Haldeman's "The Forever War" or "All My Sins Remembered" or Steakly's "Armor". ( )

As with Old Man's war, this sequel was a pageturner. Scalzi's greatest strength as a writer is definitely his humor. Even though his characterization of Jared is compelling, I have to admit I do miss old John Perry. As in the prequel, Jane Sagan (Perry's "ghosted" wife) is one of the main characters, which allows for further exploration of the Scalzi's universe. ( )

Charles Boutin’s defection to the other side is a serious blow to the Colonial Defense Forces. As a top military scientist, he had access to many of their secrets. As a genius, he’s capable of equipping the enemy with more sophisticated technology than humans, even the genetically modified humans in the forces, can handle. Luckily (or unluckily depending on your perspective) Boutin managed to preserve his consciousness on a computer, something that had never before been accomplished. And so Jared Dirac is created from Charles Boutin’s DNA, a clone which they hope will provide them with answers. When Jared wakes up, he is a newborn like every other newborn Ghost Brigades soldier, but as his experiences in war add up, he finds Boutin’s emotions, memories, and personality emerging, making him both dangerous and essential in the war effort.

Does anyone remember how I said I didn’t like science fiction? John Scalzi has blown holes in that theory. I read this in three hours on a train and the time simply flew by. I often comment on characters in my reviews because I think great, well-developed characters are more or less essential to my enjoyment of a book. I don’t like exclusively plot-driven works. Thus, this book, in which discoveries that relate to the plot are made only when the main character changes enough to trigger his memories, worked perfectly for me. Jared was fantastic. I loved reading about his development from essentially nothing, into this relatively submissive guy called Jared, and then into someone much closer to Charles Boutin. There is plenty of plot here, but there are also great characters and great human emotions that, to me, made this book. There is also a tie-in character from Old Man’s War which very quickly enabled me to build on that book with this one.

There is something else I like about this series that others may not. Scalzi is a little bit merciless with the killing of characters. I may be weird but I love this. I like the unpredictability of it, especially in fantasy or, apparently, science fiction. It makes the world real for me. I can grieve over characters I’ve become attached to but the unpredictability often makes the book that much more exciting for me and elicits more reaction from me. There are no guarantees here. I read enough fiction where endings are assured and I like those in their place, but sometimes I just want something I’m not expecting. Scalzi delivers just that.

Even more amazing for me and science fiction, I like the world he’s created. It’s strong and well-developed. I know which aliens are which and what they’re good at. I understand the technological advancements that have been made. For the most part, we’re acquainted with all these details in Old Man’s War, but with the focus on the Special Forces/Ghost Brigades in this novel, we become more familiar with the oddities of the new developments in body technology. This isn’t at all overwhelming, though. I was astonished by this personally, but I was actually interested in how the science was going. I want to know where it’s going next!

I love this series. I can’t wait to read The Last Colony and Zoe’s Tale. If you are in general cool with the concept of alternate worlds, I highly recommend this series.

http://chikune.com/blog/?p=1022 ( )

Pretty decent read. But lacking the fun discovery of the premise of the series in the first book, this one is a bit more ordinary. If you liked the first novel (Old Man's War), I would definitely read this one and The Last Colony, which is the follow on to this book. ( )

I was a bit wary about tackling a sequel to the fantastic Old Man's War, but I have to say that I think Ghost Brigades did an excellent job!

This book is a ton of action-and-character-packed fun, and because of that, it's easy to miss that it's also something else - an interesting study about identity, nature vs nuture, culture, consciousness, intelligence, and a host of other things.

The opening scene is just fantastic, a fast way of reminding you that this world is not like ours, and expectations and assumptions should be set aside.

The main character, Jared Dirac, is truly a member of the Ghost Brigades - more so than any of his other special forces platoonmates. He's a clone created to receive the consciousness of a man who's decided to turn traitor against the human race - but it doesn't quite take properly, and Jared's left to form his own personality. No one really knows whether the imprinted consciousness will ever kick in - or what will happen once it does. ( )

Some really intriguing characters... most of whom die. You really don't want to be a Scalzi character. Can't wait for the next one, we'll see if I weaken and buy it instead of using the library. ( )

Interesting take on how to make pseudo-humans without a childhood. There wasn't much of the "ghost" aspect: I was expecting more stories about the original owners of the DNA.

http://tpi-reads.blogspot.com/2009/04... ( )

Link to a review on my personal website. ( )

http://yet.org/2009/03/les_brigades_f... ( )

http://tinyurl.com/ages2m

Hmm, I didn't like this as much. I'm not sure why. Perhaps because it felt like there was more exposition on dense scientific subjects, not interspersed enough with conversation and action. But if I look back, there was almost the same amount of that in Old Man's War.

I'm guessing the newness of the created universe made the first book in the trilogy a revelation. In the second, you know the universe, and you're just irritated that he has moved on to other characters, and concentrated on the Special Forces soldiers to boot. Yes, I'm probably the only person ever to read this book that was not as interested in the Special Forces as in the regular CDF soldier. But, really, they're a lot more freaky. At least I can identify with someone who was real-born to begin with.

Not by any stretch is this a bad book. Just overwritten in places, and a bit dull in others. Naturally, I'm going to go ahead and read the third book, since his style is pleasing and more than gets the job done. Onwards. ( )

Yes, the book contains a little too much exposition at times, which then affects the pacing, but this is only a really minor niggle, Scalzi continues to ‘build’ an interesting and complex world, that hints at future storylines, some of which will be told and some of which won’t be, (this is a good thing as it’s good to know the world does exist outside of the 300 or so odd pages of the book.)

But the book’s real strong point once again, is the characters, and the narrative. All of the main characters (new and old) are all interesting to get to know further – as are many of the more minor characters, and much of the ever present humour in the series comes from their interactions and banter.

Which leads to the story’s central strength which is the journey of Jared Dirac from, ‘new born’, to a member of the Ghost Brigades, while also learning is also partly the traitor Charles Boutin, through the person he is at the end. (And no, I’m not going to say, who or what that is, you’ll have to read the book to find that out!)

Another fun and thoroughly entertaining read.

Read and comment on my full review at:
http://www.bartsbookshelf.co.uk/2009/... ( )

I don't enjoy the idea of a single villain bent on world domination, Charles Boutin in this case.

A few things didn't add up. I think that building something like BrainPal would require a full understanding of the brain and consciousness. And the fact that nobody knew why Special Forces soldiers absorbed information so fast doesn't make sense, there would have been research into it.

It was an entertaining read overall though. ( )

Not as good as the first one in the series, but solid. ( )

Good read; interesting extension of first story. ( )

A near-interesting introduction, followed closely by over-detailed discussion of ridonculous science embedded in endless pages of masturbatory world-building, which then devolves into an imperialist black-ops wargasm that so barely conceals its political and moral themes that it feels more than a little bit like being spoon fed. Old Man's War at least had the excuse that it was an homage to Heinlein; Ghost Brigades misses an opportunity to break the mould more thoroughly. It's not that it's unreadable--indeed it's quite entertaining and easily digested--it's just that's not particularly poignant, challenging or memorable. ( )

Just finished. A very nice follow up to Old Mans War. I really like his style and the world is pretty interesting. ( )

If you have the mind of a traitor but not the body and want to know what he, Charles Boutin, knows what do you do? If you’re the Colonial Defence Forces (CDF) you make a body for the job. And the good news is if the mind doesn’t take you have a genetically enhanced new solider. It’s a win/win situation or so you’d think.

The opening description has got to be one of the best and most misleading openings to novel ever. If it’s designed to drag you in then well it did it for me.

It’s misleading as it uses a level of poetic and flowery language that doesn’t appear from then on in, which is actually a good thing. It shows that Scalzi can write but also shows that he’s using it for effect. The rest of the novel is told more functional but no less effective prose.

I tend to think of military sci-fi as grand and sweeping but the battle in The Ghost Brigades is more internal as Jared Dirac, the solider created from the seemingly failed attempt to join mind and body, has memories that aren’t his start to surface, that changes everything.

There are so many good things about this novel. The world building and the alien races. The hidden conspiracy. The evolution of Jared Dirac. The relationships between Jared and everyone around him. The technology. I could go on.

Suffice to say The Ghost Brigades is amongst the best sci-fi novels I’ve read in ages and Scalzi deserves a lot of success.

*This review doesn’t have a rating. I’m putting ratings on hold as I’m going to try to let the review speak for itself and you can decide whether you should read it or not. ( )

In the follow-up to Old Man's War, Scalzi takes us into the life of the Ghost Brigade, soldiers created from earthlings who have died, rather than aged. He introduced this idea at the end of Old Man's War, and in this sequel he fleshes it out a bit.

I didn't enjoy this novel nearly as much as I did Old Man's War. The pace was repeatedly slowed down by extended expositin and explanation, a good bit of it unnecessary for those who have read the previous volume. Scalzi throws in an interesting twist by having a ghost brigade member into whom the consciousness of a traitorous scientist has been introduced.

In Old Man's War, Scalzi introduced the ghost brigades late in the book, providing an obvious topic for a sequel. In The Ghost Brigades, he introduces the Conclave and Counter-Conclave quite late in the book, leading us to expect them to play major roles in the next installment.

None of the characters in The Ghost Brigades really grabbed me or was easy to identify with. I hope Scalzi's next effort will include a stronger focus on characters rather than on all the things one can do with SmartBlood. ( )

This is the second book in the Old Man's War saga. It shifts focus from Perry, the main character of OMW, to Jane Sagan and Jared Dirac. Dirac is a man, a Special Forces man, created for the purpose of housing the consciousness of a traitor. It doesn't take at first, but gradually his memories surface and Dirac must use them to find the traitor before it's too late. I always enjoy Scalzi's characterizations of alien races, they are very realistic, I feel, despite the difficulty in writing a truly alien race. Great. ( )

I enjoyed reading The Ghost Brigades - but I have a hard time describing why. The story is pretty convoluted, and felt like three different stories in a season-of-a-choppy-television-series way. While Old Man’s War was very Heinleinian to me, this book felt more like an Asimov Robot mystery - lots of classic goodness, fun ways of using some new ideas and repackaging many older ones.
I was entertained, but did find myself wondering when he would get to the meat of the story a number of times. The comings and goings of key characters is very ‘serial drama’ feeling, somehow different enough from other fiction to be a little confusing at times.
Mr. Scalzi is a wiz at repackaging the ideas of others - and doing them justice (admittedly and with flair). Having fun with other people’s special effects may be wearing a little on me though because I didn’t enjoy this installment as much as OMW.
I think I’d rather see it on screen - on television (as it doesn’t strike me as a strong or long enough story for a feature length film). It feels like a Sci-Fi channel screenplay to me.
Too little detail is given about the aliens though they are a main feature in the book - we aren’t entirely made aware of how they look or behave.
During the course of this book I was annoyed with the author referring to ‘taking a dump’ 4 times. I don’t think ‘taking a dump’ rates a mention every 65 pages or so, at least not using the same niche characterization language each time (from different characters).
Glad to have a lot of Jane Sagen in this book.
All in all - it was a book I was happy to have read, but not one I will probably return to in the future like I will with OMW. Looking forward to reading the progression of the characters of this world in the books that follow. ( )

Jared Dirac is a clone of a traitor, possibly implanted with that traitor's memories so that the Colonial Union can discover his plot. Jared needs to determine whether he is more than the sum of his memories - and save the human race in the process. Although not as smooth a plot as Scalzi's previous novel, this does come to grips with what it means to be human. ( )