The Ghost Brigades

John Scalzi’s sequel to Old Man’s War is out in hardcover.

If you didn’t read the first one, go read it: it’s a Heinleinian novel about old folks from Earth given a second chance on life by having their brains uploaded into the bodies of supersoldiers and going off to fight what appears to be a near-endless war against aliens. A ton of fun, and poignant too.

Now The Ghost Brigades is out. Only one character from the previous book returns, but we get to learn more about the mysterious Special Forces soldiers, who aren’t copies from someone else, but are instead force-grown. Scalzi puts us inside one guy’s head, and watching him learn human customs is a huge part of the charm of the book. There’s also, of course, interstellar war, a bunch of weirdo aliens, and soldiers shaped like asteroids. Quite fun.