The Ghost Brigades review
Mar. 23rd, 2009 09:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearThe Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi is the sequel to Old Man's War, following on in the same universe but with almost entirely different characters. The focus in this one is, unsurprisingly, the Special Forces of Colonial Defence, known to the other soldiers as The Ghost Brigades, because they are developed from the genes of those volunteers who died before they could join up.
The central character is a very interesting one - a soldier made from the genes of a traitorous scientist, and injected with his consciousness in the hopes that he will be able to shed light on the traitor's motives and actions. But Jared Dirac develops his own personality, and the book follows him through his first year of life as a Special Forces operative, trying to save humanity from invasion by aliens.
It's a very well-written book - not exactly deep, but fast-paced and filled with very likeable characters. It's quite violent in places and very sad in others (sometimes both at the same time), but that didn't detract from my overall enjoyment, and the other two books in the series are going straight onto my wishlist.
The central character is a very interesting one - a soldier made from the genes of a traitorous scientist, and injected with his consciousness in the hopes that he will be able to shed light on the traitor's motives and actions. But Jared Dirac develops his own personality, and the book follows him through his first year of life as a Special Forces operative, trying to save humanity from invasion by aliens.
It's a very well-written book - not exactly deep, but fast-paced and filled with very likeable characters. It's quite violent in places and very sad in others (sometimes both at the same time), but that didn't detract from my overall enjoyment, and the other two books in the series are going straight onto my wishlist.
