The Ghost Brigades (Old Man's War, 2)

The Ghost Brigades (2006) is the second novel in the Old Man's War series, following Old Man's War. In the previous volume, John Perry became an official CDF hero and made barnstorming tours around the colonies. Jane Sagan went back to work in the Special Forces, AKA the Ghost Brigades. In this novel, Jane leads a raid on an Obin colony world. The Special Forces take one Rraey prisoner from the Eneshan facility. After a slight biological adjustment of his body, Jane convinces the Rraey to cooperate. The prisoner Cainen tells of a concerted effort by the Rraey, Eneshan and Obin to conquer the Terran colonies. This alliance has resulted from the defection of one human -- Charles Boutin -- who had been a senior scientist in Military Research. The Colonial Defense Forces were greatly surprised at this news, since Boutin was already dead and buried. When Harry Wilson finds a recording of Boutin's consciousness among his effects, the CDF decides to create another version of the man. The standard Special Forces processing is used to produce a modified body from Boutin's DNA. Then the recorded consciousness is downloaded into it. Everything goes according to plan, except that the resulting mind seems to be a tabula rasa. In this story, the new body is named Jared Dirac and integrated into a Special Forces training squad. After his training, Jared is assigned to a Special Forces ship under Lieutenant Jane Sagan. He serves in the Special Forces for almost a year before something brings back one of Boutin's memories. Jared is reassigned to Military Research to try to stimulate more memories. Cainen and Harry Wilson work with him on the project. He is gradually gaining more memories and his mind displays are looking more like Boutin's every day. Then they send him to Boutin's former home station in hopes that the familiar surroundings will bring further progress. Since the station is now in Obin hands, Jared has to sneak into the habitat and the aliens detect his presence. This story provides more information on the CDF, the Colonial Union, and their relationships with the nearby aliens. It also mentions weapons of mass destruction: nuclear weapons and biological warfare. The nukes are used as shipkillers and one passage implies that they have been used against alien colonies. The Obin have also used a virus to destroy an army of alien clones. This tale also introduces a new type of WMD: cybernetic weapons. Computer viruses and other hostile softwares have appeared prominently in many SF stories. Now, however, the author has created a possibility of mass destruction through such a virus. This sequel builds upon, but differs greatly from, the first novel. Some continuity is provided by characters and institutions, but the plot is nothing like the first story. A difficult effect, but well done. Enjoy! Highly recommended for Scalzi fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of military operations, transferred consciousness, and

The Ghost Brigades, by John Scalzi, is the follow-up novel to Old Man's War. It's not a direct sequel, though subsequent events will show that it actually is, in a sense. Instead, it features the love of John Perry's life, Jane Sagan, Special Forces ("Ghost Brigades") officer. This book is a lot grittier than the Old Man's War, and the point of view choices are much different. It's just as effective, though, with fewer of the faults of the previous book. In the future, humans have gone to the stars, but they aren't allowed to go back. Humans have colonized planets, but they have run up against a number of alien races that don't want them there, and war inevitably develops. Jane Sagan, a lieutenant in the Ghost Brigades (the Colonial Defense Forces "Special Forces"), captures an alien scientist with information about a triple alliance of races who don't seem very likely to ally. They also discover that the instigator of this plot to start a war with the CDF is a human traitor, a genius named Charles Boutin. Before he left, he downloaded his consciousness into a computer, so the CDF decide to clone his body and try to install his consciousness into it, to see if they can figure out Boutin's plan and motivations. It doesn't seem to work, so they give the resulting "person", Jared Dirac, to the Ghost Brigades for their training and use. But as time goes on, the other consciousness begins to emerge, and Jane will ultimately have to determine whether Jared is with them, or that he must be killed. The Ghost Brigades is an awesome continuation of Scalzi's series, taken in a whole new direction so that it doesn't go stale. He doesn't continue the adventures of John Perry, as that could get boring. He's just a soldier in a never-ending war, and Scalzi would have to come up with something really creative to make that interesting. Instead, he shows us the Ghost Brigades, something that he gave us a part of in the previous book, only hinting at the potential. Also, this book has much more of a point than before. While Sagan plays a vital role in the book, it's not really about her, and thus it's not just "tales of the Special Forces." Everything is geared to Boutin and his ultimate plan, and the story centers on Jared because of this. We see his integration into the Ghost Brigades, we see his training. But it's not the seemingly aimless training that Perry went through, a means to an end to illustrate the galaxy Scalzi has created while introducing us to the concepts. It shapes Jared, highlighting just how integrated all Ghost units are (by using their brain-implanted computers, called Brainpals). While the story is much more focused, the points of view aren't. We get Sagan's and Jared's, but we also see some of the officers (both Ghosts and regular CDF), illustrating what life is like in the officer's corps. It also gives us a big-picture view of what is really going on, and the stakes that are at risk if Boutin's plan comes to frui

"Ghost Brigades" follows "Old Man's War" but is less a sequel than simply the next chapter in the history of this fictive universe. The basic premise of both books is that in the future, humanity has colonized many planets, and discovered other intelligent species in the galaxy. Sadly, everyone is into the colonizing thing, creating competition, also called "war". Humanity's answer is the Colonial Union (CU) and it's military arm, the Colonial Defense Forces (CDF). Where do they get recruits for the CDF? Well, Earth is overcrowded. But, the CDF doesn't want inexperienced recruits, nor those who have grown up in poverty. The answer: at age 65, people can sign up for the CDF and then they can enlist at 75. What does a military force want with 75-year-old recruits? The recruits don't know, but assume that the CDF will somehow rejuvenate them. You see, the CU and the CDF started on Earth, but have separated themselves from Earth, have bought, borrowed, or taken technology from many other species, and have moved way beyond Earth technologically. But, there is a subset of the people who sign up at 65, but die before they reach enlistment age. What happens to them? The CDF takes the DNA samples of these people, creates clones, enhances them genetically and technologically even more than the standard CDF soldiers, and calls them "Special Forces." Everyone else calls them the "Ghost Brigades." These soldiers are "awakened" with no memories of the lives their "progies" (their deceased DNA donors) led. Special Forces are given the toughest jobs, and are known for their ruthless efficiency, as they are not hindered by any ideas that might interfere with their success as soldiers. Jane Sagan is a Special Forces lieutenant, and was the love interest of the main character, John Perry, in "Old Man's War." Jane is one of two main characters in "Ghost Brigades," with the other being Jared Dirac. Who is Jared Dirac? That turns out to be a tough question to answer. Charles Boutin was a civilian scientist who worked for the C.U. helping them advance their consciousness transfer process, until he sold out to the enemy, spilled secrets, and committed suicide. But, did he? It turns out that Dr. Boutin was quite devious, and might not be so dead, after all. The CDF then clones his body, enhances it into a supersoldier, transfers Dr. Boutin's stored personality/consciousness pattern into the clone, and you get . . . Jared Dirac. But, Jared cannot remember anything of Charles Boutin, including why he turned traitor. So, what do they do? They send Jared and Jane Sagan off to find Charles Boutin, if he really is still alive. Do they find him? What else do they find along the way? Many people seem to think that "Ghost Brigades" is good, but not quite as good as "Old Man's War." I disagree. While much of the novelty of the concepts found in "Old Man's War" is not here, there are new ideas introduced, a lot of action scenes, new characters, and a very

I just finished The Ghost Brigades, I am one of those that for my favorite authors I sit down and read the book as soon as I get my hands on it. It fulfilled the promise of his first, Old Man's War, and more. At first I found the secondary issue of Boutin's consciousness as an irritant to the general story line, but I believed that he would eventually become important and of course it did. The climax of the story when the villain explained his reasons for his villainy was pretty poignant. I think that it is an excellent example of how people who only have part of the reasons why government does things can be so sure that they have a better way and then go to extremes that they would heartily denounce in others to try and implement their own world view. Yes, I am tip toeing around the facts to give my impressions without giving away the story, but it comes down to this an excellent novel.

Like Old Man's War, this new novel is somewhere between a fanboy's homage and a real work of art- but it's a lot closer to the latter than the former. The alliance of three hostile species alluded to in the blurbs adds more than enough tension to keep the atmosphere sizzling, and the habits of some of the species encountered bring horror to the table as well. The surprises keep coming as we learn more about the CDF's Special Forces, and Jane Sagan (from OMW) plays a large part in the story. It's been a long time since I sat down with a new book and read it from beginning to end, probably since Rosenberg's 'Paladins.' Thanks very much, Mr. Scalzi.