Johnsenclan

Book thirteen in 52 books in 52 weeks

This is the sequel to the excellent book I read last week by John Scalzi, Old Man’s War. And like that, this one was so good I was immediately ready to read anything else by him. This first book followed senior citizens that were transported off Earth to become a part of the Colonial Defense Force in charge of defending human colonies in space. This book takes place in the same universe, slightly after the first book, but follows the Special Forces (Ghost Brigades) from the Defense Force.

These Special Forces soldiers are created from scratch using dna from dead humans. They’re raised together from the beginning to become soldiers, and the book examines issues about identity and the soul.

The military puts a copy of a traitor’s brain into a new Special Forces body to try and figure out what he will do when helping the enemy of humans. When it doesn’t look like he’s going to work, they send him to work alongside the other members of the Special Forces. Like the first book, it weaves the experiences of these soldiers going into various battles with the growth and learning that they feel as they figure out their new bodies.

The story is much darker than the first, but has the the same excellent dialogue and character development that the first one had. It doesn’t have the main character from the first book, the the new characters and supporting characters we already know are fleshed out and become much more interesting. It’s more great sci-fi, and I’m looking forward to reading more of his books.

Rating B+

More of my reviews here.

More people participating in the 52 week book in 52 weeks

• Jamie reviews The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
• Heliologue reviews Eragon by Christopher Paolini and The Assault on Reason by Al Gore
• Natasha reviews Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy, Parvanas Journey by Debora Ellis, and Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata