Cover of The Ghost Brigades

The Ghost Brigades

by John Scalzi
four stars
genreSci-Fi
seriesOld Man's War
reviewedjul 01 2012

As short as these books are—at least for the sci-fi genre—they pack a punch. The thing that Scalzi does well is create interesting aliens that are truly... alien. At least to us. He also spreads out his stories into separate books. What would be one massive tome if penned by Peter F. Hamilton is a few different books by Scalzi. This book doesn't necessarily require reading the first, as it focuses on mostly new characters, but it is a good follow-on.

publisher’s summary
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.For 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 most 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, whose brain is uniquely able to access Boutin's electronic memories. But when the memory transplant appears to fail, Jared is given over to the Ghost Brigades.

Jared begins as one of these perfect soldiers, but as memories begin to surface, he 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.

filed under ... sci-fi... old man's war...

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