The Ghost Brigades

I was surprised when I picked up this book and found that it followed a completely different character than the first book in the series. In fact, the protagonist of Old Man's War is only mentioned in passing at the very end of the book. There are plenty of other minor characters from the first book who also appear in this one, but the main character is someone completely new.

This book follows the clone of a traitor. Initially he remembers nothing of his previous life, but his commanding officers are hoping that his memory will return and provide some insight into what the traitor did and why. In the meantime, we get to learn more about the special forces and the larger threats to the human race start to take shape. Where the first book just threw the humans against a whole bunch of different alien species, this one introduces alliances and plans among the aliens. This allows for more of a plot rather than a montage of battles, and it helps make the mystery at the heart of the series more intriguing.

Of course, it also means that there's a lot more exposition than there was in the first book, and I occasionally found myself a bit bored. But I was ultimately intrigued by the political machinations of both the aliens and the various human factions. I finished the book not knowing quite who to believe about what, but excited to learn more. Scalzi has successfully hooked me for the rest of this series, and possibly the rest of his book.

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