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  • The Ghost Brigades

  • Old Man's War, Book 2
  • By: John Scalzi
  • Narrated by: William Dufris
  • Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (1,046 ratings)
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The Ghost Brigades cover art

The Ghost Brigades

By: John Scalzi
Narrated by: William Dufris
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Summary

The military SF sequel to his extraordinary Old Man's War, John Scalzi's The Ghost Brigades is the second in The Old Man's War series.

Who can you trust, if you can't trust yourself?

Three hostile alien races have united against humanity, determined to halt our expansion into space. The mastermind behind this lethal alliance is a traitor Charles Boutin. He was a Colonial Defence Force scientist, with access to their biggest military secrets. Now the CDF's only hope is to discover Boutin's plan. Trouble is, Boutin's dead.

As a super soldier created from Boutin's own DNA, Jared Dirac may have answers. However, when Dirac fails to access the scientist's memories, he's transferred to the Ghost Brigades for training. These elite troops are also cloned from the dead, so he might fit in. But will Dirac's memory return as the enemy plots the fate of humankind? And whose side is Dirac really on?

Continue the gripping space war series with The Last Colony.

©2008 Macmillan Audio (P)2017 Pan Macmillan Publishers Ltd

Critic reviews

"A mix of Starship Troopers and Universal Soldier, Ghost evokes awakening, betrayal, and combat in the best military sci-fi tradition." ( Entertainment Weekly)
"Scalzi's prose harkens back to the Golden Age of science fiction while still remaining fresh and vibrant ( Strange Horizons)
"Like Old Man's War, The Ghost Brigades is thinking fans' space opera.... The Ghost Brigades maintains Scalzi's standing as one of SF's most rewarding purveyors of thrilling, gut-wrenching, and thoughtful space opera." ( SF Reviews)
"If anyone stands at the core of the American science fiction tradition at the moment, it is Scalzi." ( The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction)

What listeners say about The Ghost Brigades

Average customer ratings
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  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Terribly bland

Just military "special forces" porn and the question "what is a soul" over and over again.
After having read the first book I knew everything about the ghost brigade and the tech they use. But this book just started from scratch and explained everything to me again and added almost nothing new.
For being a sci-fi, it had very little imagination when I came to gadgets and such. They constantly talk about the ghost brigades as being "so advanced they aren't human" but the only real difference is that they are faster.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Awful performance conversations

I'm rating this before I've finished listening because of the performance: conversations are "'...' he said. '...' she said. '...' he said. '...' she said." It's incredibly annoying that the performances of the characters is not enough to eliminate the need for the qualification of the phrase "they said".

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

It was fine

... But nothing like the first book so maybe expectations were too high. Great author in general.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

An ok sequel....

I SAID she SAID he SAID I SAID he SAID they SAID I SAID he SAID they SAID and ....
.....THEY ALL SAID TOGETHER ...
Gets really annoying frk. the narrator but the story is good and not too complicated...

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

another great addition to the series

follows on from the previous book in a way that's not obvious from the outset.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • MG
  • 15-09-18

Excellent

Ghost Brigades, is not as good as Old Mans War. It is still an excellent book, occasionally let down by a few moments of heavy exposition (subjects that were already touched on in the previous book). Over all its a very good story, and the narration is once again, awesome

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great

Always a pleasure listening and residing scalzi work 5 stars are not enough for this series

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Disappointed

The first book was seriously amazing so I had high hopes for this one.
It was very hard to get into and by the end I was so disappointed that I won’t be carrying on the series

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

book 2 of Old mans war

it got me interested in this series from the 1st book. but unfortunately it wasn't as good as the first. was quite boring if i give you the short version.

it had a lot of repeated info from the first book, like how a solider gets used to his new body.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

different view

it was good to see things from a different perspective. Not sure we're they will go from here

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2 people found this helpful