The Ghost Brigades

Old Man's War, Book 2

By: John Scalzi

Narrated by: William Dufris

Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

John Scalzi's eagerly anticipated sequel to the extraordinary Old Man's War

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 access 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…

©2006 John Scalzi (P)2008 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"Solid....[Scalzi] sidesteps most of the cliches of military science fiction, delivers fast-paced scenes of combat and pays attention to the science underpinning his premise." (San Francisco Chronicle)

nice sequel to the original story!

really enjoyed the narration and the story expanded the universe from the first book. looking forward to seeing where the rest of the series goes...

Loved it

Any additional comments?

The best review I can give this is that I just finished it and I'm starting on the next one in the series today.

Absolutely hooked on this series

If you want scifi that's not same old same old, this is it.

Voice acting is excellent

fun, enjoyable

perfect plane book
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Fun listen with a few pitfalls

Cinematic in terms of scope (ie, something you see early in the book becomes important later). Great vision and fascinating universe. Secrets are revealed. The original writing is occasionally weak (drastic and distracting overuse of the word 'said') but is often funny and also heart felt. Performance is fine, weak distinction between characters but otherwise well done.

Excellent

Well done, I am looking forward to the author’s next series of books. Brevity in the use of language is better.

Great book

I particularly like the ending where they said they were going to live together as a family.

If you liked...

If you liked OMW, then you'll like The Ghost Brigades. It's fast paced sci-fi military action with a mystery element. The protagonist is compelling & sympathetic. Some characters from OMW also play an important part.

Good story and reader

Be sure to listen to the first book in the series (Old Man's War) before this one, otherwise you'll be a little lost. I liked the first book a little better - but this one had some good twists and kept things interesting. Also liked the story line with the alien prisoner.

What a great second book

Any additional comments?

Is it possible that the story line could get better? At first, I missed the main character from the first book, but soon I was really invested in this new guy. Of course there were many character ties to the first... there would have to be... but for the most part this book could stand on its own and still be great.