Cloning

Review: The Ghost Brigades

/ rtrube54 / 2 Comments

Ghost BrigadesJohn Scalzi’s first science fiction novel Old Man’s War was widely acclaimed. He created an interesting world where 75 year olds volunteer to fight for the Colonial Defense Force (CDF), defending colonists on other planets. They go thinking their bodies will be rejuvenated, only to find that what actually will happen is the transfer of consciousness into a robotically and genetically enhanced clone of themselves. We also learn of this shadowy group of Special Forces known as the “Ghost Brigades” because they are clones of volunteers who never made it to 75, trained from birth to fight. One of these was a clone of the wife of John Perry, the central character in Old Man’s War, named Jane Sagan. She plays a key role in this second novel, where The Ghost Brigades play a central role.

Sagan appear in the opening scene, capturing a Rraey by the name of Cainen working on an Eneshan base and through him the CDF learns of a triple alliance of Eneshan, Rraey, and Obin against the CDF. The news gets worse. Charles Moutin, thought to be killed, in fact has escaped to the enemies, with all his knowledge about consciousness transfer. It is urgent to discover what he knew, why he defected and how he is helping the enemy.

A copy of his consciousness exists in his lab. So in desperation, they decided to grow a clone into which they attempt to transfer the consciousness pattern. The clone has all the enhancements of a Special Forces soldier. But the consciousness doesn’t appear to “take”. He is like any other new born Special Forces clone with only a BrainPal to instruct him as his own consciousness develops. He is given the name Jared Dirac and turned over for training as part of the Ghost Brigades.

But there are some who are not so sure that he is just another Special Forces clone. So he is put under Sagan’s command and watch until the fateful day when on a desperate mission to kidnap the heir to the Eneshan throne, he loses a comrade he loves and witnesses a gruesome killing, and Moutin’s memories begin to emerge.

Meanwhile Special Forces crews have vanished with their ships on seven occasions in Obin space. It is suspected that Moutin has something to do with this as a prelude to war. So Jared/Moutin becomes an increasingly important part of the equation. But who, in the end, will he help? Will he have a choice, and if so, how will he choose?

Once again, Scalzi explores the brave new world of cloning, robotic and nanobotic enhancement, and consciousness transfer. The most interesting question to arise surrounds Jared and his fellow special forces: what are the ethics of breeding a race of soldiers trained from the moment they were conscious to be soldiers, and never given a choice?  There are also larger issues of the justification of war on an interplanetary scale that parallels the wars of colonial expansion in our own history.

My one criticism of the plot was that I thought I saw from the get go what the nature of Boutin’s treachery would be, and I was right–but everyone in the story was clueless. Too many bread crumbs and not enough mis-direction it seemed.

That aside, Scalzi combines a riveting plot, the potential of a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde character in Jared Dirac that actually turns out quite differently, and an exploration of the implications of science going on in research labs around the world. Scalzi helps us explore a world that may not be the best of possible worlds.

 

Review: Old Man’s War

/ rtrube54 / 1 Comment

old mans war“Growing old isn’t for sissies.” Usually this is the complaint of those who simultaneously battle the bureaucracy that doles out benefits to elders and struggle with a body that served well for decades until reflexes slow, joints ache, teeth crack, and a myriad of other things start going wrong. Meanwhile there are other losses–meaningful work, and sometimes those nearest to one that you’ve shared a life with.

Imagine signing up to be in the infantry at age 75. If enlistment came with the promise of a rejuvenated body and you are facing the battles and losses I’ve described, you might just enlist–even if you’ve no clue what lies ahead. This is the premise of John Scalzi’s first science fiction novel and the first of a four part series based on this premise.

John Perry and his wife Kathy both agreed to sign on at age 65. Only Kathy didn’t make it. At 75, the enlistment age in the Colonial Defense Force, John is inducted, which means leaving Earth never to return. He will fight to defend colonists from Earth on distant planets. And so begins a journey of discovering a cosmos he could never imagine, and that what you can’t imagine could kill you before you knew what hit you.

But the first surprise is a strange and delightful one. Enlistees are not repaired and rejuvenated versions of their former selves, but in fact transferred into new green versions of themselves in the prime of life cloned from their genetic material with significant biological and robotic enhancements including an onboard computer wired into their brains, aptly named BrainPal. Of course these people quickly discover that they are sexual athletes with incredible endurance who are incapable of getting pregnant.

Things get serious quickly enough with a drill sergeant that fits all the stereotypes. Recruits are told that most of them will be dead in two years. Survival depends on recognizing what can kill you before it does, including in one instance an intelligent and malevolent slime. Somehow Perry manages to lead a squadron and gain Ruiz’ reluctant admiration, a recurring pattern as he exercises quick, out of the box thinking in devising a novel firing solution in a battle against the Consu and even manages to be the lone survivor (barely) at Coral when the Rraey succeed at destroying a whole force by being able to pinpoint where ships will appear when they come out of skip drive.

As he loses friends and survives by killing many others he encounters the war weariness and questions faced by every infantryman. But in his near death experience on Coral, he encounters something else when rescued by Special Forces, the mysterious “Ghost Brigades” who fight separately from the rest of the Colonial Defense Force. One of the rescuers has the reconstituted body of his wife Kathy. The intersection of these two lives will determine the outcome of the war with the Rraey, who have become their most dangerous enemy.

In a first novel, John Scalzi manages to combine the exploration of perennial themes such as the Faustian bargains we make to extend our lives, the justifications of war and the toll fighting takes on even the victors. Scalzi portrays the human race’s perpetual propensity to colonize, to take from others, and justify this as defense. He weds this to an imaginative exploration of the implications of biotechnological developments already foreshadowed in university labs. In a plot that literally jumps to parallel universes, Scalzi holds up a mirror that makes us take a look at our own “brave new world.”