John Scalzi - Ghost Brigades

Where "Old Man's War" was a smorgasbord of philosophical and technological ideas, "Ghost Brigades" was much more focused. "Ghost Brigades" is a novel about the nature of consciousness. What is a consciousness? Is it separable from intelligence? Is it separable from experiences? How does it change over time? How does it relate to choice? These are some of the questions that the book goes into. I happen to disagree with most of the opinions that the book espouses on the subject, but it's an interesting read nonetheless.

As an actual story, "Ghost Brigades" departs from John Perry's story and turns over to one about Jared Dirac, a newly minted special forces soldier. The action is interesting as always, and the special forces combat and psyche was similarly fun.