The Ghost Brigades is the sequel to John Scalzi's Old Man's War.  Scalzi has immediately become one of my favorite authors.  I read Old Man's War very quickly and really loved it.  No surprise that I immediatly picked up this one.  What is a surprise is that I actually pre-ordered it.  I've never done that before.  And at the expense of getting ahead of myself, I am going to pre-order The Last Colony coming out next year.  I may even pre-order The Android's Dream, which is not an OMW series novel, but comes out next month.

The Ghost Brigades is not quite a sequel in the traditional sense, where the protaganist from the original book goes on to new things, but a continuation of the universe featuring some of the supporting characters.  The central plot follows Jared Dirac, the cloned body and mind of traitorous Charles Boutin who is on of the CDF's top scientists, in his mission to discover why Boutin betrayed mankind.  Tension is built through control of Dirac and questioning whether he too will defect.  Our OMW Hero's interest, Jane Sagan from the first book is key to Diracs control and we are treated to a glimpse of the Special Forces perspectives as wholly cloned, without childhood, killing machines through her experiences.  The Ghost Brigades reveals more of the OMW universe in a much more detailed and darker way as is fitting moving from a newbie infantry perspective in the first book to a more "informed" viewpoint of the professional having known nothing else.

Again, Scalzi rocks!  I did not enjoy this one quite as much as the first, although I would say this was a better read and a more matured rendering.  I think I really liked the first one more because I was not expecting to be blown away, where I was with the second.  If you fashion yourself a Sci-Fi fan, this is a must read.

Note:  I finished this book a while ago.  Due to blogging difficulties, I am trying to catch up with the highlights from the past.  Expect more soon.