In October I shared with you my thoughts about John Scalzi’s Campbell Award-winning debut novel Old Man’s War. I come to you not quite two months later to report that he has done it again. With the sequel, The Ghost Brigades, Scalzi has once again proven just how enthralling and entertaining good science fiction can be. Actually, what John Scalzi has proven is how enthralling and entertaining good fiction can be.

The Ghost Brigades isn’t so much a sequel to Old Man’s War as it is the second chapter in the story of the future universe that Scalzi has created. John Perry, the hero of the last book, is only present in spirit in this tale. The Ghost Brigades follows Jane Sagan, a character introduced in Old Man’s War, and concentrates on both her and newly “born” Special Forces soldier Jason Dirac. It seems that a human scientist, Charles Boutin, has turned traitor against the Colonial Defense Forces and has allied himself with three races bent on the destruction of humanity. In an effort to track down Boutin and prevent his planned war, newly cloned Special Forces soldier Jason Dirac is awakened with Boutin’s memories imprinted on his brain. Initially the experiment is deemed a failure and Dirac is trained as another in a long line of SF soldiers. However, events occur which begin to draw out Boutin’s latent consciousness and the Colonial Defense Forces must decide whether Jason Dirac can be trusted to continue with his mission to protect humanity or if he will follow in the path of his traitorous progenitor.

John Scalzi has been described as “…addictively readable; and his breakneck pacing and surprisingly deep character development make his novels practically impossible to put down.” I would agree wholeheartedly. Scalzi took the time to explain and develop the universe of humanity’s future in Old Man’s War and that development pays off well in The Ghost Brigades as Scalzi has the luxury of taking the reader straight into the action. The reader knows the world and is very familiar with the Colonial Defense Forces, etc. By continuing on with the character of Jane Sagan (who the reader has a connection with by the end of Old Man’s War) and introducing an interesting new character in Jason Dirac, Scalzi is able to craft a story that both functions as a sequel and yet has all the positive features of a stand-alone story.

After reading these novels it does not surprise me that John Scalzi won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer at this year’s Hugo awards. Scalzi’s novels are a blend of hard science fiction, military sci-fi, and space opera and his skill with language makes these novels accessible to both hard core science fiction fans and reader’s who like the kind of stories featured in the various Star Trek incarnations. John Scalzi brings to light issues of identity, humanity, free will, ethical concerns with ever advancing technology, and does so through excellent characterization and suspenseful storytelling that keep the pages turning. John Scalzi is equally proficient at making you laugh, at bringing you to the edge of your seat, and in bringing a tear to your eye. These are fun and entertaining books that I highly recommend. And even though I am not in any way wishing the time away I am excited to see that a third novel is coming out in April 2007:

Once again featuring fantastic cover art by John Harris, this third book may possibly be the final one in the series. As much as I am enjoying these stories though I am not sure I am ready for it to end. Here’s hoping that The Last Colony will be published on time!
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I am substituting this book, which as been on my reading stack, for The Stolen Child: A Novel by Keith Donohue because I want to save that book for the fairy tale/fantasy challenge in March. Four down (Grayson, Return of the King, The Looking Glass Wars, and this one)!!!