SFRevu Review of The Ghost Brigades
Posted on February 6, 2006 Posted by John Scalzi 11 Comments
SFRevu got a look at The Ghost Brigades and the reviewer seems pleased, calling it “An outstanding new work from an emergent author,” which is nice, aside from the fact that now I feel I should be fighting my way out of a cocoon or something. The other paragraph the Tor publicity department will no doubt be tickled with:
Scalzi has lost none of his flair for spare, evocative prose: the opening scene—in which a raid on a planetary installation turns out to be somewhat different than expected—is brilliant, and the scene that closes the first part of the book—another raid, this time on one of the enemy’s home planets—is both gripping and poignant. But this book—like the first—is more than a fine war novel: it is also a meditation on why we fight, the nature of loyalty, the meaning of consciousness, and the moral significance of free will.
This just in: I have flair!
I’m pleased that the reviews for TGB have been pretty good, but what I’m even more pleased about is that so far the reviews have the book within spitting distance of Old Man’s War in terms of quality — either a little above or a little below depending on reviewer tastes but either way pretty close to the mark. Being able to deliver consistently is pretty useful in a career sense (as long as one is consistently good, mind you — consistently delivering crap, yeah, you want to avoid that if possible). This is good news for me because TGB is different from OMW in several non-trivial ways, so I’m happy to see these early readers have been able to roll with those changes and still get a positive experience in the end.
Congrats on the good review. I keep meaning to order your book and then find myself so busy I can only just remember my own name.
Congrats on the good review. I’m really looking forward to picking this one up.
K
Who knew that reviewing worked? I haven’t even read OMW yet (it’s in the mail), but I already feel like picking up TGB (damn these acronyms!).
Should we now call you Mr. Emergent Author?
Only if you see me coming out of something. Or just plain coming out. Won’t the wife be surprised!
This just in: I have flair!
It’s interesting what motivates. I had a big-time editor say I had a “deft touch” over something or another that I wrote in one of my books. Can’t remember at all what is that I did, but I do remember the praise.
Nonono, emergent means that you are very scientifically and validly emerging out of a system of parts. To use it in a sentence: the mind is an emergent property of the brain.
So no cocooons for you, my good man. You are like one of those energy beings on Star Trek. Enjoy it while you can – soon Kirk will come and wreck everything. For god’s sake, whatever you do don’t try to take over the Enterprise to prevent this, nor steal Spock’s brain. It will only make matters worse.
Your view of the future, and now, appears to be true. Your belief in religion, however, scares me a little. But, you are smart and will get IT in the end. What ever IT is. Thus, I will keep reading your books and know that someone out there also thinks like I do.
On a side note, since you were pimping “Peeps” earlier you might enjoy this.
http://www.unshelved.com/
John, if you’re going to have flair, you have to make sure that you have at least 17 pieces of flair. But you should wear as many pieces of flair as you feel comfortable with. 17 is a minimum, but we want you to want to wear more flair.
One day I shall have suspenders made entirely of flair. And there will be much rejoicing.