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pjonsson's review against another edition
4.0
This book is a big improvement over the previous two books. Sure there still the faulty science with the Higgs Boson and they are still roaming around the stars in a converted submarine but things are changing…for the better.
The book blurb actually only tells the beginning of the story in this book. It continues the saga of the humans (or at least the US part of them) and their alien allies as they continue to try to understand their mystical warp drive and survive against the Dreen.
Without spoiling the plot (too much) they, of course, runs into the Dreen again as well as some new aliens at the same time. The new aliens, surprise surprise, are in a fight with the Dreen and we all know how the proverb goes, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”, so after some initial communications problem the humans got themselves a new ally. John made an interesting twist to this encounter by inventing aliens that didn’t use “normal” vision to perceive the reality around them. How do you explain things, like language, when you cannot even draw a picture?
Naturally there are plenty of dry humor, marine stuff and action, both on the ground, in space and on board spaceships (including on a Dreen one). As usual John Ringo is very good at writing this stuff. The space battles are not at the level of David Weber when he’s at his best but they are still good.
I wasn’t too keen on the “MacGyver stunts” they pulled when cobbling together repairs on their stardrive. That part was just plain ridiculous but, thankfully, short. However, then there’s the best of it all. With the help of their new allies they finally get a real spaceship, The Vorpal Blade II, instead of that cobbled together “submarine in space” kludge.
After reading this one I’m quite looking forward to read the next one.
The book blurb actually only tells the beginning of the story in this book. It continues the saga of the humans (or at least the US part of them) and their alien allies as they continue to try to understand their mystical warp drive and survive against the Dreen.
Without spoiling the plot (too much) they, of course, runs into the Dreen again as well as some new aliens at the same time. The new aliens, surprise surprise, are in a fight with the Dreen and we all know how the proverb goes, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”, so after some initial communications problem the humans got themselves a new ally. John made an interesting twist to this encounter by inventing aliens that didn’t use “normal” vision to perceive the reality around them. How do you explain things, like language, when you cannot even draw a picture?
Naturally there are plenty of dry humor, marine stuff and action, both on the ground, in space and on board spaceships (including on a Dreen one). As usual John Ringo is very good at writing this stuff. The space battles are not at the level of David Weber when he’s at his best but they are still good.
I wasn’t too keen on the “MacGyver stunts” they pulled when cobbling together repairs on their stardrive. That part was just plain ridiculous but, thankfully, short. However, then there’s the best of it all. With the help of their new allies they finally get a real spaceship, The Vorpal Blade II, instead of that cobbled together “submarine in space” kludge.
After reading this one I’m quite looking forward to read the next one.
booksandghosts's review
1.0
Fewer caricatures than past books, but still there. Also epilogue has some very weird anti-french rhetoric out of nowhere.
katt5673's review against another edition
Everything in space: A+++, love the science, love the space, manages to be pretty hard sci fi with actually interesting characters
Everything on earth: be prepared to be hit by a brick labeled "2008 era War on Terror proto Tea Party American exceptionalism" that has not aged particularly well in 2020 (and was fairly insufferable at the time. We're being invaded by aliens and the president still has the time to make a crack about cheese eating surrender monkeys and hit on the pretty linguist? You were doing so well, Ringo)
Also, Moon's high heels continues to be a deeply stupid plot point that doesn't make sense in terms of women or submarines and adds absolute fucking nothing to the book
Everything on earth: be prepared to be hit by a brick labeled "2008 era War on Terror proto Tea Party American exceptionalism" that has not aged particularly well in 2020 (and was fairly insufferable at the time. We're being invaded by aliens and the president still has the time to make a crack about cheese eating surrender monkeys and hit on the pretty linguist? You were doing so well, Ringo)
Also, Moon's high heels continues to be a deeply stupid plot point that doesn't make sense in terms of women or submarines and adds absolute fucking nothing to the book
leons1701's review
3.0
More Ringo/Taylor silliness. The ridiculous overcompetence of the main characters is on full display, there's utterly gratuitous France bashing (always fun), the ship gets ripped to shreds and lots of stuff blows up real good. I can't really figure out why I like this series so much, by GR star system it probably should a two (just ok) but I'm almost tempted to rate it a four. I guess it helps that as absurd as the characters are, I still like them.
Oh, and the Hexosehr? Worst alien race ever. No way I'm buying a star faring civilization that couldn't possibly be aware of the existence of stars. Sonar as the only means of ranged perception is possible in an intelligent race, but not an advanced civilization. It's just too limited.
Oh, and the Hexosehr? Worst alien race ever. No way I'm buying a star faring civilization that couldn't possibly be aware of the existence of stars. Sonar as the only means of ranged perception is possible in an intelligent race, but not an advanced civilization. It's just too limited.
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