Review: The Ghost Brigades

The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Not exactly a sequel in the traditional sense, but a second story set following the first, but with mostly different characters, the Ghost Brigade follows the exploits of a special forces unit as they try to unravel the how and why of reports that a famous scientist has turned traitor and rallied alien forces against the CU.

I like this a lot, and appreciated the additional world-building that Scalzi does here. Some of the characters aren't as engaging as those from OMW, but, overall, I found the look at what special forces and MI are doing pretty interesting.

I there are some people who didn't like two aspects: the opening chapter, in which Scalzi plays a little sleight of hand by playing with our narrative expectations, and the third act secret weapon's reliance on a back door.

Neither of these things bothered me. In the first instance, I think that the whole point is to show "we're not as different as we seem." The first book sets up the foundations and shows us that the galaxy is at war. We're told that humanity faces hostile forces all throughout the known universe and we're shown some of the various ways that the aliens are completely different from us. Much of this book is designed to show us that maybe that's not completely true, and that maybe we have more in common with other species than we've been led to believe. The opening chapter, and several other interactions throughout the book demonstrate that, while there are obviously some cultural differences, there are also some major similarities. It also serves to show the reader that the CU isn't the Federation of Planets, and that maybe the problem isn't completely that the universe is a hostile place, but that humans and their governments might have a bit of the blame, too.

As far as the back door goes; perhaps it's because I'm not a computer engineer or programmer, but it didn't even occur to me that this was a problem or plot hole.

I'm very much looking forward to reading the third book, now. The developments in Ghost Brigade hint at much larger political developments and I'm quite interested to see where Scalzi is headed with his world building.



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