By John Scalzi
Interestingly, it’s not a direct sequel, but is set in the same universe, dealing with The Ghost Brigades, soldiers that readers of the last book will know, are fighting squads that have been artificially created from the genetic material of deceased soldiers. Having known nothing but a military life since inception, and devoid of the natural mental barriers of ‘Real Born’ soldiers, they are an almost perfect fighting force, able to push themselves faster and further and fighting harder and with more discipline than their counterparts in the Colonial Defence Force.
Into this force is birthed one Jared Dirac, but Jared is unique. His mind has been created from the stored brain patterns of a scientist, Charles Boutin, a known traitor and a man sworn to bring down, not just the CDF, but all of humankind in a tripartite alliance with two of their greatest enemies. Unfortunately the brain implant doesn’t work as hoped and so Jared is farmed out to join the rest of his squad. The question is, given time, will he be able to get into Boutin’s memories, learn of his plans and help the CDF to defeat him or will he somehow ‘become’ Boutin, empathising with his cause and turning against his masters?
Scalzi’s sophomore outing is a much richer and more complex novel than its predecessor, but nevertheless, is still a terrific read. All of the trademark touches are there, the story unfolds at good pace, the action scenes are tense and gripping, the humour is well placed and his conversational writing style makes the whole very accessible. As before the comparisons to Robert Heinlein are obvious and easy to make but Scalzi is developing his own voice and that can only be a good thing in a book that deals, as this does, with philosophical questions about the sense of self and about personal choice and moral and ethical questions on cloning and ‘human’ rights.
This is science fiction at its glorious best, nicely crafted with great characterisation and a strong plot that asks just enough questions without getting bogged down in humdrum exposition or drab polemic. As a novel it stands alone so you don’t have to have read his last book to enjoy this one and as such it well deserves a place on your reading list.
The Ghost Brigades is published by Tor through Pan Macmillan and is available from Amazon