The Ghost Brigades by

5 December 2015


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Part of my 2016 Sci-Fi Experience

Book 2 of the Old Man’s War series.

In the first book of this series the reader is introduced to the idea of old people signing up to join the military, the Colonial Defense Force, get new bodies, and fight the aliens on behalf of humanity. The reader is also made aware of the “super soldiers” that also exist. This book is a closer look at these “Ghost Brigades” and how the men and women who are created to be soldiers live.

The Ghost Brigades (Old Man's War, #2)It is military science fiction done properly. That is, it has the action and the adventure, but it also makes you question what makes a person an individual. Do memories make the person or is it all down to the genes? Nature v nurture in genetically modified peoples. Plus, you know meeting aliens and thinking about colonising worlds and all the issues that might raise.

It is a story that keeps you reading, okay, maybe I skimmed from time to time, but that was just to get back to the meat of the story. I would highly recommend this to you if you have any interest at all in sci-fi, plus Scalzi seems like he thinks about the wider world. There’s an interesting discussion about the names of Ghost Brigade soldiers, where the fact that they all have “white” dude names despite the fact that they come from all races and none, and are in fact green…

Overall I really enjoy Scalzi’s books. I don’t *love* them, I actually prefer his blog writing in some ways, but I do have a whole heap of books to get through, and I do really like the way he is building and expanding his universe in the Old Man’s War series. This is only book two but already there are all sorts of hints about wider implications and other interests than what has been revealed so far.

I foresee lots of goodness ahead.

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