Booklog 25/2021: John Scalzi: The Ghost Brigades – Old Man's War #2

[jacey]

I read Old Man's War some time ago and am only just getting around to reading the rest. The premise is that Earth's elderly can sign up for a tour of duty as space soldiers in the Colonial Defence Force. They get a new, young, tough body with the advantage of a mature brain. The first book was John Perry. The second features Jared Dirac and Jane Sagan, a special forces intelligence officer who happens to be in a body cloned from John Perry's late wife (which doesn't have much bearing on this book until the end and then carries forward into Book 3). Jared Dirac has been created from renegade scientist, Charles Boutin's DNA in the hopes that he could extract information from Boutin's stored consciousness. He can't (at first) and is transferred into the Ghost Brigade, but ends up as a decanted consciousness in a warship (shades on Anne McCaffrey's 'The Ship Who sang' maybe?) Anyhow the plot is twisty. It's military SF concerning skirmishes and battles with a number of alien species, during which Jane Sagan, imbued with speed, strength and resilience beyond that of regular humans, plays an important part. The story is fast paced – a real page-turner. Though it's a sequel to Old Man's War, it doesn't feature John Perry but both Jane Sagan and Harry Wilson are strong secondary characters.