Scalzi Gon’ Scalzi: Funny, Thought-Provoking, Occasionally Profound

In last year’s CBR I reviewed Old Man’s War, the first book in an NYT best-selling sci-fi series by John Scalzi. The gist of the first book was that when you reached a certain AARP-like age on Earth, you could enlist in the space marines to protect humanity from…something. You’d take an elevator up to space, and then you weren’t quite sure what came next. You were legally dead on Earth. That’s kind of all you as a space marine cadet knew. Without spoiling the first book, a lot of cool stuff happens for the AARP members once they make it into orbit. Or not cool things. It’s about perspective. I gave that book five stars and believe it could stand alone as a sci-fi classic. However, Scalzi kept going.

I was a little nervous about continuing on in the series because I didn’t want to ruin my enjoyment of the first book. The Ghost Brigades is only tangentially related to the first book, although a working knowledge of the universe gained by reading book one sure would help the reader. I recommend googling the plot of Old Man’s War prior to reading this one if it’s been awhile since you read the first book.

This book explores ideas like what makes a person a person and free will. It also has some cool space battles, thought-provoking tech, some bummers, and some laugh out loud parts. If you liked the first, I would recommend this one, as well. I didn’t taint my enjoyment of the first one at all. On the contrary, it expands the world you already love. My favorite funny part, to provide a taste of Scalzi for the uninitiated:

You know what the vast majority of people are thinking the vast majority of the time? They’re thinking, I’m hungry. Or, I need to take a dump. Or, I want to fuck that guy. And then it’s back to I’m hungry. And then they repeat the sequence until they die.

4.5/5