John Scalzi’s Mini-biography from Wikipedia:

John Michael Scalzi II (born May 10, 1969) is an author and online writer, best known for his Hugo Award-nominated science fiction novel Old Man’s War, released by Tor Books in January 2005, and for his blog Whatever, at which he has written daily on a number of topics since 1998. He has also written a number of non-fiction books.

I’m a new reader to John Scalzi, and haven’t read any sci-fi since I was a kid. Not that I have anything wrong with the genre, just been absorbed by others. So the three books in question here are Old Man’s War, The Ghost Brigades, and The Last Colony. I’ll start at the top.

Old Man’s War

I really liked this book. The story starts out with John Perry as he’s leaving earth for a chance at a new life fighting for the Colony Defence Force (CDF). Not much is told to the recruits on how the CDF gives them a new life, but they soon find out. I won’t wreck the surprise, but it’s an interesting one to someone who’s never read much Sci-Fi before. Anyway the recruits ’skip’ around the galaxy fighting wars against aliens and protecting the human colonies. John Perry of course doesn’t stay at schmuck level in the CDF and ends up making a name for himself during his adventures. I doubt it’s be much of a story if it followed a peon and his gun. Was this book the best thing since sliced bread? No…but it’s imaginative and well written. It kept me entertained enough to finish it in a few nights.
Old Man’s War:

The Ghost Brigades

This story was a bit of a let down for me. I was hoping to read more about John Perry, but Scalzi decided to introduce some new characters. So this story is based around an elite group of soldiers that are built for war. I’d say they were human robots but that might be taking it too far. Anyway the main character of the book is a Ghost Brigade soldier implanted with the thoughts from this traitor Boutin. A traitor to the human race who went to the dark side and is going to wipe out the Human Race. So now the CDF has to save humanity. Although well written this book didn’t grab me like Old Man’s War. It left me feeling like Scalzi road the success of his first in the series. The redheaded-stepchild child of the trilogy really.
The Ghost Brigades:

The Last Colony

The final in the series picks up where Perry and Jane ended up. On some colony as farmers. Of course what sci-fi story would be about some farmers? The CDF drops down, pitches them some story about needing them to lead some new colony (re: tricks them into thinking this is a good idea), and drops the two of them and their daughter with a few hundred colonists on some new planet. Of course things aren’t as easy as they were supposed to be and they end up fighting werewolves (stupid!), and other aliens who say they aren’t allowed to be there. It’s a decent book with some flaws that are easy to read past.
The Last Colony:

Summary

So when it comes down to this geek’s review, I’d say that John Scalzi is a fantastic writer with some very creative ideas. Do yourself a favor and read the first book for sure, but don’t feel like you have to read the other two.

Trilogy Overall Rating: