It's similar in style and tone to the first one, but from a different part of the fictional universe. The first book was from the space colonies version of the Marines. This is more about the secret ops division. This group of soldiers are more genetically bred for the part and one main character has been bred to be a clone of a suspected traitor to the human race. You know, to find out what the hell he was thinking and try to figure out a way to stop him. No pressure living that life!
It's good, and shows Scalzi's growth as a novelist. He's still writing to entertain but this is more cohesive than episodic and the characters have a shade more depth to them. And it's not only Heinlein he's riffing on here, but a dash of Philip K. Dick as well what with all the mind games.
Since it was more from the division of intelligence officers that Marines, I'm not expecting good old Dad to take to it as well, but it's definitely entertaining and it'll be great to get his comments on the book when he finishes it. Plus, it was fun doing the whole "digital gift" thing and buying it for his Kindle with the click of a button. (Although why Amazon has gotten on this whole "gifting" bandwagon id beyond me. What the heck is wrong with the word "GIVING" people! Nothing is wrong with it that's what! Let's go with "giving" rather than "gifting" shall we? I'm just sayin'.)
