The Ghost Brigades

by John Scalzi

English language

Published Feb. 28, 2007

ISBN:: 978-0-7653-5406-8

(173 reviews)

The Ghost Brigades is a science fiction novel by American writer John Scalzi, the second book set in his Old Man's War universe.

6 editions

G. Deyke reviewed The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi

Easily the best book in the series

3 stars

Possibly because it's the only one featuring an underdog, and actually - to an extent - addressing the incredibly White American Male viewpoint that pervades the series (as, in fact, it does a lot of Scalzi's writing). This book was interesting, but still ultimately centrist, and of course the premise of the series - which this book can't really help, being a sequal - is still kind of weird and nonsensical. I guess The Power of Colonialism is so great that it is an important goal in and of itself, not even because resources or population exploring or whatever else: all of these are explicitly mentioned as being unimportant. War for war's sake, colonialism for colonialism's sake. It's not even about expansion.

Again, though: this book was interesting and had a better perspective, so I can't complain all too much.

mahdi reviewed Brigády duchů by John Scalzi (Koloniální války, #2)

60%

3 stars

Jestli prvni dil nalakal, tak druhej me (aspon do pulky) moc nebavil. Poznam to, ze to proste tolik nehltam a ctu pomaleji. Diky twistu v druhe polovine a spouste otevreneych otazek nakonec tech 60%. Trojku jeste zkusim a pak se uvidi.

Jameson reviewed The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi

Review of 'The Ghost Brigades' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Very clever plotting, and some enjoyable interludes contemplating morality, philosophy, and the ethics behind cloning and creating/manipulating consciousness. It gets talky at times, but never dull, and the pace keeps moving. I’m impressed with the way Scalzi is expanding on this story.

mathiasrudolph reviewed The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi

Review of 'The Ghost Brigades' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

As a software engineer I reject the entire premise of the plot. Also, not a great ending.

satyajit reviewed The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi

Review of 'The Ghost Brigades' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

2021 reread

ManyRoads reviewed The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi

Review of 'The Ghost Brigades' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Another enjoyable space saga (space opera). I was surprised to find that this second in the series novel only loosely followed the first. By the very end, there were some ties made for subsequent novels. Nevertheless, this novel was a good read in its own right. There was an innovative plot. The characters were interesting, heroic, and even humorous. I'll get to the third novel, hopefully sometime before I forget. ;)

Ika Makimaki reviewed The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi

Review of 'The Ghost Brigades' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Second in the Old Man's War saga, this book isn't really a sequel. More like a next story in the same universe, with barely one overlapping character.
The tone, the stakes and the rhythm are very similar to Old Man's War though. And while it is an action packed, military action, war-in-space novel, it has time to get deep and thoughtful. The story asks questions about choice, free will, identity and self. These are, of course, hallmarks of science fiction, asking about the human condition by means of putting us out in space and surrounding humans with creatures that understand existence in a whole different way.
I personally enjoyed it more than Old Man's War. The book has time for humour and sweetness, while being gory and violent as well.
I would recommend checking it out if you are in for a fun and fast read and are not too …

Lord of Candy reviewed The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi

Review of 'The Ghost Brigades' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Wow. I was at first a little disappointed that we left our main narrator but quickly got over it as the universe setting and those in it were familiar and eventually contiguous to the first novel. What a story. The onion of the CU shivers and begins to show us the workings of those near to it.

Traitorous scientist, facsimiles of minds, the craziness of regional universe politics by gunpoint and a resolution that might make you shed a tear.

Fun and fast read. Onwards!

Yashima reviewed The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi

Review of 'The Ghost Brigades' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

It's been a while since I read [b:Old Man's War|51964|Old Man's War (Old Man's War, #1)|John Scalzi|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1402867788s/51964.jpg|50700], and I didn't quite remember all the details of the previous book in this series. But it turned out it didn't matter because we start with a mostly fresh cast of characters and view points. John Perry does not make an appearance in this book. Jane Sagan however does. Later.

This book begins with Colonial Union finding out that there's a war being planned against humans. A war that might eradicate humanity completely. But when the investigators follow the clues that lead to the cause behind that war, they soon hit a road block. Thus Jared Dirac is born. A soldier in the Special Forces, also known as the Ghost Brigades. This book deals with the Frankensteinian "monsters" humanity has created to fight the dirtiest of fights for them, to do what humans can't or won't do. Except, they aren't - monsters that is. And when you think it couldn't get any weirder, you get to meet the Obin.

This book has it all: military, space opera, strange aliens, and cool gadgets. Add the politics, intrigue, and philosophical issues, you're in for a great ride that you don't want to end. But end it does in a furious finale with interesting consquences that neatly set up the next book in the series. This is Scalzi at his finest.

Balise reviewed The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi

Review of 'The Ghost Brigades' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

The Ghost Brigades is the story of Jared Dirac, who's part of the aforementioned ghost brigades - an army special force, made of people-who-died-but-whose-DNA-has-been-grown-into-supersoldiers. And, of course, war is coming, and Dirac is (absolutely not by chance) the last hope of avoiding it. The ghost brigades were clearly an element that needed some more background in Old Man's War; Ghost Brigades addresses that. And it's pretty well done, it's believable (in the corresponding universe), it's well written and all of that - but it's a bit disappointing compared to Old Man's War. It may be a bit unfair to compare both books - maybe without the first book I'd have liked the second book better, we'll never know. It's still a pleasant read, but a bit disappointing.

betty reviewed The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi

Review of 'The Ghost Brigades' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Hilarity! Well, if you're me, and for very specific reasons. As a book, more of a psychological thriller.

Jared Dirac is a clone created to house the consciousness of escaped traitor, Charles Boutin. When the consciousness doesn't take, Dirac is shuffled off to the Ghost Brigades, to make himself useful as a soldier. Most of the drama comes from Dirac trying to discover what made Boutin a traitor, and if that potential lied within him as well. I tend to like the amnesiac protagonist, so I was fully on board.

Unfortunately, the protagonist was never quite fully real to me, and I'm not quite sure if that's partly because of his manufactured consciousness, or just a personal incompatibility. I didn't quite care what happened to him as much as I should have.

This is the sequel to [book:Old Man's War], and I found it moderately hilarious that Scalzi carefully answers all my objections to the first novel. I'm fairly certain (in the absence of any evidence) that he was carefully addressing the objections of reviewers, and to his credit, he does it fairly well:

Q: Why the song and dance procuring genetic samples? Why not just whip up a million from one sample?
A: A clone army would be extremely vulnerable to viral weapons.

Q: Why do the ghost brigade soldiers all have western first and last names?
A: The Colonial Defence Force is just ethnocentric like that.

Q: Why bother with the regular forces if the Ghost Brigades are such a fearsome fighting force?
A: Because the CDF fears the Ghost Brigade and wants them small enough to be kept in hand.

Q: Why are the soldiers all from the first world, and the colonists from less developed nations?
A: ...I didn't really understand his explanation here, and I've returned the library book, but he did try to address it!

A. Rivera reviewed The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi

Review of 'The ghost brigades' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

I borrowed this one from the public library. I have read Scalzi's Old Man's War as well. All I will say is this one was not as good. I will probably skip the third one.

See my blog post on the book:

[http://gypsylibrarian.blogspot.com/2007/03/booknote-ghost-brigades.html]