The Ghost Brigades

Executive Summary: A fun sci-fi space opera. You won't get deep plot, just a fast-paced military story...IN SPACE!Audio book: This is the second book I've listened to by William Dufris. He's pretty good. He speaks clearly and with good inflections. You can tell the characters apart. He did seem to use the same voices as from [b:Cryptonomicon 816 Cryptonomicon (Cryptonomicon, #1) Neal Stephenson https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327931476s/816.jpg 1166797], so I kept thinking of characters from that book. Overall though, I enjoy him as a narrator. Full ReviewSomehow I hadn't heard of [a:John Scalzi 4763 John Scalzi https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1236228326p2/4763.jpg] before last year. I remedied that by reading 4 of his books, starting with [b:Old Man's War 51964 Old Man's War (Old Man's War, #1) John Scalzi https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1391208186s/51964.jpg 50700] with my book club.He's not the kind of author to appeal to everyone. From what I've read he mostly writes popcorn fiction. The sort of stuff that would make for a good summer action movie. This book is no different. There isn't some deep plot with twists and turns or a lot of complex characters involved in complex schemes. What you do get is enough plot to keep you interested while the characters go about cracking wise and blowing stuff up. This isn't so much a sequel to [b:Old Man's War 51964 Old Man's War (Old Man's War, #1) John Scalzi https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1391208186s/51964.jpg 50700] as it a stand alone novel that takes place in the same universe after the events of that book. There are references back to it, but almost no character overlap or important plot details to remember.In a way this feels almost like book 1 again because you have the protagonist Jared Dirac going through the training of the Ghost Brigades. That said, there are things you are assumed to know about the universe Mr. Scalzi built in the first book, so it's not like you should skip that book.We learn a lot more about the universe in this book, especially the Ghost Brigades of course. You're also treated to same humor as the rest of his books, which I always enjoy.Overall I enjoyed it and plan to continue on with [b:The Last Colony 88071 The Last Colony (Old Man's War, #3) John Scalzi https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388776675s/88071.jpg 18279847] soon.