Book of the Week: The Ghost Brigades, by John Scalzi
Old Man's War was an excellent homage to Heinlein's Starship Troopers, and this follow-up does not disappoint. Both novels are set in a universe in which the human race is duking it out for real estate with hundreds of often hostile alien species, using a military that includes soldiers cloned from the DNA of dead people. I particularly like the fact that the action in what's an essentially plot-driven novel depends on character development - specifically, whether the personality of a traitor to the human race can be re-created in a clone of his body.

Scalzi's prose is so deft, like that of Lois McMaster Bujold, that the writing rarely gets in the way of the story; all that's required is that you strap yourself in to enjoy the ride.