Books : The Ghost Brigades

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Author name: John Scalzi

: The Ghost Brigades
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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN num: 9780765354068
ISBN number: 0765354063
Label: Tor Science Fiction
Manufacturer: Tor Science Fiction
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 384
Printing Date: May 01, 2007
Publishing house: Tor Science Fiction
Sale Popularity Level: 1978
Studio: Tor Science Fiction



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Product Description:
The Ghost Brigades are the Special Forces of the Colonial Defense Forces, elite troops created from the DNA of the dead and turned into the perfect soldiers for the CDF's toughest operations. They’re young, they’re fast and strong, and they’re totally without normal human qualms.

The universe is a dangerous place for humanity—and it's about to become far more dangerous. Three races that humans have clashed with before have allied to halt our expansion into space. Their linchpin: the turncoat military scientist Charles Boutin, who knows the CDF’s biggest military secrets. To prevail, the CDF must find out why Boutin did what he did.
 
Jared Dirac is the only human who can provide answers -- a superhuman hybrid, created from Boutin's DNA, Jared’s brain should be able to acess Boutin's electronic memories. But when the memory transplant appears to fail, Jared is given to the Ghost Brigades.
 
At first, Jared is a perfect soldier, but as Boutin’s memories slowly surface, Jared begins to intuit the reason’s for Boutin’s betrayal. As Jared desperately hunts for his 'father,' he must also come to grips with his own choices. Time is running out: The alliance is preparing its offensive, and some of them plan worse things than humanity’s mere military defeat…




Customer Reviews
User popularity level: out of 5 stars

Rated by buyers 3 out of 5 stars - Fun, but a little sequel fatigue.
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.


Rated by buyers 4 out of 5 stars - The Ghost Brigades
An excellent follow-on to Old Man's War, although one wouldn't need to read the very first book to enjoy this one. I enjoyed Ghost Brigades immensely and am currently waiting for The Last Colony to arrive in the post. John Scalzi is an exceelnt author in my view and I can't wait for future works.


Rated by buyers 3 out of 5 stars - Not as good as Old Man's War
Other than names, no specifics (i.e., spoilers) are given in this review. Incidentally, I do not consider 3 stars to be a "bad" review--the book is okay. It is fine as a bridge between Old Man's War (O.M.W.) and the Last Colony [anyone else find that title to be a bit of a spoiler?].

Make sure you read OMW first. It comes very first sequentially, but is also a much better book. While Ghost Brigades uses the same recipe as the very first book, it uses inferior ingredients in cooking up a similar piece of fiction.

The protagonist from OMW (John Perry) is missing from this book. The other characters from OMW that DO appear in the sequel are flat. Jane Sagan, who should have a great deal more depth and empathy than anyone else in the Special Forces, is completely superfluous to the story [anyone could have replaced her as the SF commander]. She is not developed one iota from the very first book, and appears to have actually flattened in the interim.
Harry Wilson returns in what could have been a great supporting role, but is made completely unnecessary by a scientist called Cainen.

The "mystery" inherent to the story suffers from at least one major plot-hole: no one ever reads the suspect's personnel file. The characters involved ALL have the highest level of clearances, including two generals, one colonel, and a military intelligence officer (Sagan), among others. They live in a world in which the internet more-or-less exists inside everyone's head. Files can be downloaded and read almost instantaneously. While trying to deduce the villain's motivations, it simply never occurs to them to acess his file.
The mystery also suffers from other common problems: part I of the big reveal is obvious to everyone but the characters in the book, and part II is based on facts not given to the reader at any point in the story.

But all is not lost: the protagonist's (Jared Dirac's) development is fairly engaging. The concept for the story which drives the action is excellent (but only mediocre execution). The action sequences, though sparse, are generally well-written and exciting. If you are a reader anxious to revisit OMW's universe [but not its characters], you will get your wish. This book gives quite a lot of secondary information to understanding past and current events of the Colonial Union, as well as some technological explanations for the science-minded. [I'm not saying they are good explanations--I'm no scientist--but they are there.]


Rated by buyers 5 out of 5 stars - Special Forces, Clones, War and Betrayal
This book returns to the same universe as the excellent OLD MAN'S WAR. We follow the adventures of Special Forces (aka the Ghost Brigades) soldier, Jared Dirac who was created as a clone of Charles Boutin, a scientist and traitor to mankind. Boutin has gone over to one of the Colonial Defense Forces many enemies with enough information to cause no end of trouble. To try and find out what he's doing and why, the CDF tries the long-shot of creating his clone and downloading Boutin's brain-scans. Clones can be legally created from the deceased, and Boutin, having faked his death by killing a clone he'd created, is legally dead. Such clones are meant to be enhanced Special Forces, who are awakened as full adults, aided by the computers (Brain-Pals) in their heads. Unfortunately, Jared shows no sign of Boutin's memories, so he's assigned to combat. But there's always the chance that those memories will arise, and those who know about Jared fear that they may have just created another traitor.

The previous book followed the training and missions of a "normal" trooper with the CDF. This book reveals more about the strange Ghost Brigades who were introduced in the very first book, and also features the return of Jane Sagan, the Special Forces officer who was John Perry's interest in the very first book. Reading the very first book is not strictly necessary but is recommended to fill in the background of this universe (plus the fact that it's well worth the read).

Boutin's plot to help the Colonial Union's alien enemies band together, and to probably plan some sort of major sabotage he's capable of as a key scientist working with the CDF, is suspenseful. The CU and CDF were already constantly in a state of war, but this combination is guaranteed to be ugly. Seeing life through Jared Dirac's eyes as a clone that needs to function from day one and goes through training in two weeks is also fascinating. His situation, as a clone who might, totally unknown to him, turn into a mirror of Boutin and betray his comrades and humankind, is also intriguing.

I have no hesitation in recommending this book to SF readers and fans of military SF. I'll look forward to reading Scalzi's subsequent books.



Rated by buyers 3 out of 5 stars - It was a'right
The Ghost Brigade is a cyborg-like troupe of super-soldiers created to protect mankind. After Earth discovers one of their top scientists is a traitor, they fight back by restoring a backup of his mind to the host body of a soldier in an effort to thwart his evil plans. Enter Jared Dirac. After the transfer proves unsuccessful, Dirac is sent to train as a soldier, but eventually the memories of his past life re-surface causing people to doubt his loyalty. Will Dirac free himself from his inner demons or is he destined to become like his progenitor, a traitor to Earth?

I was intrigued by elements of ghost brigade. Jirac was a fun character and I found his situations compelling. I found myself less interested, though, in his protracted struggle to understand his scientist progenitor and his identity crisis afterward. I felt the confrontation at the ending and the ending itself was rather limp.

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