Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi
Introduction
Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi is the second book in the Old Man’s War series. The Colonial Defense Forces created Jared Dirac for a specific purpose. He is a member of the Ghost Brigades who are the elite troops of the CDF. Jared is a clone of the mad evil scientist Charles Boutin and was made because Boutin has betrayed humanity enabling three alien civilizations to ally against humanity. The CDF wants to understand Boutin’s motivations by studying Jared and defeating Boutin and the aliens. Will Jared help the CDF when Boutin’s memories become his own memories?
Summary
Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi starts with Lieutenant Sagan interviewing a captive alien. The alien gives its view on humanity. He sees three kinds of humans. There are the unmodified humans that colonize unclaimed planets. The main members of the Colonial Defense Forces are older unmodified humans who have their minds transferred to young clone bodies. The CDF creates the third human from human DNA. They are the Ghost Brigades of the CDF. They make Jared Dirac from Boutin’s DNA. When he gains consciousness he doesn’t have any of Boutin’s memories. The CDF trains him in the Ghost Brigades and sends him out on missions. On his missions, his memories are triggered, and he has memories of being Boutin. He must understand why Boutin did what he did and Jared must forge his own path to save humanity.
Recommendation
This novel is a great sequel to Old Man’s War. Old Man’s War was about the second humans, the members of the CDF. Adding the Ghost Brigades ratcheted up the tension in the sequel. Jared Dirac was a great character to show the reader the methods of the Ghost Brigades. Charles Boutin seems like a mad scientist from an old school space opera but he is more than that. I appreciate that the author took an old trope and made it new. The author sets up the next novel in the series at the end of this novel. I am looking forward to reading book three of the series, The Last Colony.
Links
This is the link to the Goodreads page of Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/239399.The_Ghost_Brigades
Old Man’s War is the first novel in the Old Man’s War series. This is the link to my review.
In Redshirts by John Scalzi, they assign Ensign Andrew Dahl to the starship Intrepid. Crew members on away missions die at an alarming rate, but not the officers. Dahl must discover the unbelievable truth, or he will die like the other Redshirts. This is the link to my review.