Humanity is competing for space in our local section of the galaxy with hundreds of other alien races. A scientist has turned his back on humanity and allied with some of the aliens. The solution? Drop a backup of the scientist’s mind into a super soldier, Jared Dirac, and see what happens from there.

The Ghost Brigades is the sequel to John Scalzi’s [b:Old Man's War|51964|Old Man's War (Old Man's War, #1)|John Scalzi|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1386925509s/51964.jpg|50700]. It focuses on the eponymous special forces that were a smaller part of the previous book. Instead of transferring the minds of old people into genetically improved bodies, the soldiers of the ghost brigade are a mental blank slate inside a body that’s a melange of the best genetic material the military can find – fallen soldiers, aliens, etc. I read this series out of order. I started with [b:Zoe's Tale|2102600|Zoe's Tale (Old Man's War, #4)|John Scalzi|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1301108028s/2102600.jpg|18280032] (my review) and followed that up with Old Man’s War. Both were read a few years ago, so I pretty much read this entry as a stand alone novel. It works that way, but it also had the neat affect that as Jared Dirac remembered things I found myself remembering bits of the storyline as well.

There’s a foundation of humor in Scalzi’s writing. This is a serious book about identity, choice, loyalty, love, war and genocide, but it’s a delight to read, even at it’s baby killing darkest moments because you’re never more than a page away from a laugh. Explicit laughs from bad joke telling. Laughs because of the audacity of the sci-fi eyeball kicks. Laughs at the innocence of super soldiers protecting children 3 times older than them.

I like how Scalzi writes aliens, particularly in the opening where the aliens are us. I like the tone, as I’ve mentioned. It’s as action packed and fun as any other Scalzi I’ve read, but the reason I’d suggest this to people at the moment is the questions it raises near the end when we find out why someone would betray humanity. Have Snowden and/or Assange done more harm or more good? Neither are as clearly sociopathic as the traitor Scalzi writes, but government secrets provide a jumping off point for discussion. And there’s the question that all good military science fiction from [b:Starship Troopers|17214|Starship Troopers|Robert A. Heinlein|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1371782363s/17214.jpg|2534973] on asks. What should the relationship be between the military and the civilian population be? Lots to chew on here, but plenty to enjoy even if I’m making it sound to heavy.

If you read and enjoy The Ghost Brigades, I’d recommend reading [b:Blindsight|48484|Blindsight|Peter Watts|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1386924412s/48484.jpg|47428] by Peter Watts for more on intelligence versus consciousness. In the acknowledgements Scalzi calls out as “influences” [b:Edenborn|216353|Edenborn (Idlewild, #2)|Nick Sagan|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1309210905s/216353.jpg|1904783] by Nick Sagan, [b:The Risen Empire|267022|The Risen Empire (Succession, #1)|Scott Westerfeld|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388530600s/267022.jpg|1641114] and [b:The Killing of Worlds|24772|The Killing of Worlds (Succession, #2)|Scott Westerfeld|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1312028488s/24772.jpg|25578] by Scott Westerfeld, and David Brin’s Uplift books. You could read the rest of the Old Man’s War books ([b:The Last Colony|88071|The Last Colony (Old Man's War, #3)|John Scalzi|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388776675s/88071.jpg|18279847], [b:The Sagan Diary|61664|The Sagan Diary (Old Man's War, #2.5)|John Scalzi|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388321306s/61664.jpg|15558795] and [b:The Human Division|15698479|The Human Division (Old Man's War, #5)|John Scalzi|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1341582413s/15698479.jpg|21356077] in addition to the ones already mentioned) or pretty much anything else by Scalzi. For more on consciousness transference, I’d point you at Greg Egan’s [b:Axiomatic|156783|Axiomatic|Greg Egan|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1287341765s/156783.jpg|1270534] and Richard Morgan’s Takeshi Kovacs novels [b:Altered Carbon|40445|Altered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs, #1)|Richard K. Morgan|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1387128955s/40445.jpg|2095852], [b:Broken Angels|279561|Broken Angels (Takeshi Kovacs, #2)|Richard K. Morgan|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1386921114s/279561.jpg|1775843] and [b:Woken Furies|29397|Woken Furies (Takeshi Kovacs, #3)|Richard K. Morgan|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388198991s/29397.jpg|1745528]. What novels and stories do you associate with the Old Man’s war books?

Review originally published in a slightly different form on my blog: Review: The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi

The publisher sent me these to review, and I've rarely been more delightfully surprised.

This kid friendly trilogy of space adventure AWESOME is fun and inspiring and I'd recommend to any parent either trying to get their kid to read or trying to satiate a kid that can't stop reading. It's dense with cool aliens, tense situations and a narrative driven by friendship and loyalty. I really can't say enough good about these books. You 30, 40, etc year old kids will enjoy this as well.

Still pulling thoughts together for a longer post which will find a home on my blog.

Considering how closely the Amazon pilot for Bosch tracked with the courtroom portion of Concrete Blonde, I'm particularly interested in seeing the rest of the series. It'll be interesting to see what they feel the need to change as they move the story into a more contemporary setting. Hope it gets produced.

I like how this story fills in more of Bosch's back story by way of the civil case. He's being sued for wrongfully killing the serial killer labeled the Dollmaker. That's the case that got Bosch demoted to the Hollywood Department which is where we picked up his story Black Echo, the first novel.

As the trial starts, it starts to look like the dollmaker killings didn't end with the suspect Bosch killed. The trial progresses while in parallel a new investigation starts up. Bosch is also balancing a long term relationship now and character development happens.

Still my favorite part of reading Connelly is the life he breathes into Los Angeles and the mundane police work of multiple decades past.

My copy of this is a reprint paperback in it's 43 printing. I can see why it's sold so well. This is the first of the Lucas Davenport novels and he's quite a character - a cop that's independently wealthy from a second job as a game designer, he plays outside of the normal command structure and has no qualms about breaking the law to bring down the bad guy. I think that would be "unlawful good" but I'm not up on my D&D. In any case he definitely treats his cases like a game and it makes for a great narrative.

I don't particularly like the playboy aspect of his character. He's a guy sleeping with multiple women that he seems to care about, but using another woman as a pawn, targeting his games solely to 15 year old computer geeks via female as object mechanisms and choosing the winners and losers in his media manipulation with comments like "@#$% radio." He's violent, even with victims. It all adds up to a character almost as repellent as the monster he's tracking. In spite of all of that I like the way his mind works and he's written very sympathetic.

I enjoyed seeing the story unfold from both the killer and the detective's frame of reference, but the omniscient 3rd person felt sloppy. It makes for quick reading. As much as we followed the killer, it felt like we should know him more. The ending was a let down.

There were some high points for me which will bring me back to read the other John Sanford titles on my shelf. I liked the civil war game played over the course of the novel with a bunch of adults that break the traditional gamer mold. I liked the random bits of police work (like the strip club bust) that establish Davenport's methods without bothering to tie too directly to the plot. Both of these added life that was a bit lacking in the main narrative.