Eye of the Storm (Posleen War)
by John Ringo
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Book Reviews of Eye of the Storm (Posleen War)
Book Review: Liked the book. Wish it had MORE action
Summary: 4 Stars
I liked this book a lot but it is really part of a larger series, and if you haven't read most of the books in that series, you really should do that, first.
The premise of Eye of the Storm is that a NEW invasion is imminent by beings who are much tougher, smarter, more ruthless and more dangerous than the Posleen. (The Posleen were the ULTIMATE 'Meat Grinder' army. Literally.)
The Confederation, and the alien races in it are fascinating to me, but for various reasons, NONE of them can really fight. Only the humans, BUT the completely human military has been systematically degraded and sabotaged by the Darhel, and early in the book, before the NEw threat becomes apparent, the Darhel destroy the last unit of functioning ACS (Armored Combat Suit) soldiers. Then, suddenly, they realize that powerful aliens are pushing VERY QUICKLY towards the Darhel core planets and there is NOTHING to stop them, no fleet, no soldiers.
Because the destruction of the entire Confederation, including Earth, would soon follow, certain important people on Earth agree to re-arm and fight the invading aliens. But THIS TIME it will be without being hamstrung by the Darhel, and much more on the human's own terms. Cool stuff! Unfortunately, they only have about 6 months. Not nearly enough time to reconstitute an army, a space navy, and prepare for full combat.
Almost all of the book deals with the above, with the steps leading up to the new crisis and the rebuilding and rearming of the military. There is some fighting, but not the amount of massive combat we have generally seen in the series, and most of that comes very late in the book. This is okay, because, FOR ONCE, other than the time pressures, things seem to be going RIGHT for the people from Earth.
By the end of the book, combat has been joined and the humans are trying to head off the impending attack on the Darhel home worlds.
The real name of the series is now called the 'Legend of the Aldenata Series' since it has been greatly expanded beyond the Posleen. In fact, there are even signs that at least SOME of the Posleen are going to come in on the side of the Humans in this and future wars. The Aldenata (that the series is named after) were the elder, master race who crippled the Darhel, modified the Posleen to inadvertently make them into a SUPER manace, and generally committed thoughtless mayhem upon the races of the galaxy, before they 'moved on.'
If you like Miltary SF, I don't think there is any better out there than some of the books in this series. I think "Gust Front," "A Hymn Before Battle" and others are quickly becoming some of the great classics of Military SF. Things aren't always good, things aren't always happy, very good people die (hey, it happens, okay?) but they are wonderful overall.
The entire series is good, but I especially recommend the following:
A Hymn Before Battle (Posleen)
Gust Front (Posleen)
When the Devil Dances (Posleen)
Hell's Faire (Posleen)
Watch on the Rhine (Posleen)
Yellow Eyes (Posleen)
The Tuloriad (Posleen)
Eye of the Storm (Expanded Series)
If you read all the above, in order, you will get most of the action.
If you want to add the following books, they are also worth reading, and all of them definitely affect what will happen in the OVERALL series, but most of the occurrences can be inferred, or picked up from 'back history' that will be given in 'The Eye of the Storm' which builds on the whole series. The books below mostly occur between "Yellow Eyes" and "The Tuloriad" but don't affect either of those books.
Those additional books are:
Cally's War (Expanded Series)
Sister Time (Expanded Series)
Honor of the Clan (Expanded Series)
Read them, too, but they are less in the 'grand military' tradition and more in the 'personal' military and 'espionage' format.
Book Review: Some good, some bad
Summary: 3 Stars
I decided to read Eye of the Storm as I had skipped the intervening couple of 'Legacy of the Aldenata' books (Cally's War, Sister Time, etc.) as I had heard they were not great. This looked like a return to form, and focused on Mike O'Neal, which hopefully meant it would be more 'fun' than some of the others.
The good news is there is a lot of fun stuff in this book. The bad news is there's a few ideas that are half-baked, and a lot of the book seems like set-up for the next book in the series.
The primary 'thing' of the book is that with the Posleen defeated (the alien invaders of the previous books) the Galactic Federation's leaders are very nervous about having a large, well-equipped human army roaming around. They take action to deal with this, and the remaining forces tend to be very 'compromised' in that they owe debts and/or are subject to blackmail by the 'Darhel' that run the Federation.
This idea falls apart when a hithero unknown alien race begins taking planets from the Federation. The Darhel are in a serious mess, and Mike O'Neil (hero of the early Legacy of the Aldenata novels) eventually has them over a barrel and can do pretty much whatever he wants to rebuild and rearm to fight this invasion.
One thing this book does well is that the new threat actually seems bit plausible. This is something other authors have had trouble with, as the first threat is usually developed as the 'worst thing ever' and the writer has to top itself. The Posleen, to me, feel like they're a malfunctioning part of the Federation, while the new threat is more 'equal' to the Federation with it's own individual species and such. The new enemy seems much better 'rounded' than the Posleen, and won't fall for the same old tricks and tactics.
There's some ideas that didn't quite work for me. There's an interesting idea that a self-aware upgraded naval cruiser is reformatted into a massive space ship. The idea works and is kind of neat, but the resulting cruiser is described in too much detail some ways and not enough in others that it left a weird mental image. Is the ship humanoid in shape, and we should expect it to make a Daedalus attack in the next book, or is it merely suggestive of human form, despite certain elements (the forward weapon mounts) being recognizable to everyone that sees them as resembling parts of human anatomy?
Also a great deal of the book seems focused on explaining the production and logistics concerns of the new military force being created, and that isn't really that interesting.
I'm honestly not sure how much interest I have in the follow up to this book. I'm hopeful that a sequel will focus on getting back to the 'ground level' view that worked in the earlier books instead of focusing on fleets and brigades.
Book Review: A new enemy, a new direction
Summary: 5 Stars
I was lucky enough to get my preordered copy of this book a couple of weeks early, meaning I could read it right after finishing the previous book, "Honor of the Clan."
For context, the prior books have fallen into three major groups: "Iron Mike" O'Neal's story as the leader of the war against the Posleen (written by Ringo alone), country-centered books set during that war that examine parts of it in depth (written with Tom Kratman), and books centered around his father and daughter about fifty years later (written with Julie Cochrane). Yes, there's one more book - "The Hero," written with Mike Williamson - but it doesn't really fit into continuity any longer. It's a good read, but think of it as taking place in a very alternate future. If you haven't read the Kratman and Cochrane books, you can probably follow along passably when events and characters from them are referenced...but you should really read them first and get the full picture.
"Eye of the Storm" is a major turning point in this series. It picks up very soon after "Honor of the Clan" and proceeds to tie everything together. Just when everybody thought the Posleen threat had been decisively conquered, there's a new enemy to deal with...one that changes all the rules. The Children of the Aldenata will all have to learn to work together under *human* leadership - for if they don't, they will surely be conquered.
These power realignments are particularly satisfying to watch. The Darhel may have to knuckle under, but they don't like it one little bit. The Indowy will have to completely reconsider their methods and their ethics. The Himmit will have to start divulging some of their secrets. And somehow, the decimated humans are going to have to field another army. Just when you thought it was safe to retire....
Yes, there's a lot of coarse language and other mature situations in this book. That's the nature of this being the latest entry in an authentic military SF series. Soldiers act like soldiers, killing their enemies, making rude comments, and swearing when things go badly. If that's not for you, save yourself some time and just don't bother with the series. On the other hand, if you think that sounds neat and entertaining, I heartily recommend it.
One warning to the reader, though: Chapter 6 is The Chapter That Never Ends. It's about 150 pages that could have easily been split up into smaller bites. I'll forgive that, though, as (a) the book is good enough that you'll want to read it in one sitting anyway, and (b) the Stripes reference later on makes up for it.
Now to find out when the sequel is due....
Book Review: Getting the band back together
Summary: 4 Stars
At long last, John Ringo comes back to writing the Legacy of the Aldenata. Admittedly, Julie Cochrane did a good job with the Bane Shidhe books, but I missed Mr. Ringo's voice.
Years after the Posleen War effectively ended, the Federation military, led by Mike O'Neal, is spending its time hunting down Posleen to ensure they will never again threaten the Federation. However, the Darhel are holding the purse strings tightly, not replacing the SHEVA guns when they're destroyed and only deploying destroyers and frigates instead of dreadnoughts. But Fleet Strike marches from world to world, ridding each planet of its Posleen, until they run across a world with humans lifted from Earth eons ago to serve the Darhel.
In order to hide the secret, the Mobile Infantry is destroyed and Mike O'Neal imprisoned, only to find a new menace arising in the form of the Hedren Tyranny, a sort of tentacled counter-Federation. Now the Federation, lacking its primary military strike force, must reorganize and face this new foe under O'Neal and his compatriots.
This novel basically ties together every other novel from the expanded Aldenata universe, from Julie Cochran's Bane Shidhe novels to Tom Kratman's books on the SS, Panama, and the Posleen, as the Federation readies itself to fight a desperate struggle. The SS survivors are recruited to form an expeditionary force, while the ships from Yellow Eyes are reconfigured into starships to fight the Hedren, and the Bane Shidhe police the Darhel malingering over the war effort. Even past characters from the main branch books appear.
In general, I rather enjoyed this novel. As I mentioned earlier, it's definitely a "getting the band back together" sort of book, and Mr. Ringo is quite adept at writing about getting ready for war. There are several rather good fight scenes as well.
However, this isn't perfect. There are lingering plot threads that are left unanswered or just plain abandoned; while possibly realistic (time enough to care about alien humans after the Hedren are beaten back), it's annoying. Also note that the plot of the Tuloriad seems to have continuity issues with this novel. Also, as others have mentioned, it ends with a giant cliffhanger, which is really irritating, as I was in the mood for a "murthering great battle." On the whole, though, this is a great military sci-fi novel, and I heartily recommend it.
Book Review: The Posleen Wars Expand to Galactic Scale - Great SF
Summary: 5 Stars
Inter-stellar wars have been a staple of SF since the Lensman series almost 75 years ago. However John Ringo goes for a psychologically realistic military SF plus masterfully complicated universe building. In this part of the series he emphasizes political intrigue worthy of Renaissance Italy in Machiavelli's time. All this is in service of a story that preserves a human dimension.
It is hard to imagine how anyone can maintain his sanity after decades of combat action. By the time of the events in this book Mike O'Neal has seen action not only on a couple of worlds before the successful defense of Earth, but then a decades-long campaign to destroy the Posleen on any conquered planets in our part of the galaxy. But then maybe I'm too optimistic and Mike only looks totally sane.
In the eight books prior to Eye of the Storm the war has become as complicated as three-dimensional chess. The entire O'Neal Clan of Mike, his father and his two daughters fight two separate wars. Mike's is the "conventional" war of cleaning out Posleen strongholds as he commands an entire corps of individually armored soldiers ("armored combat suits"). The rest of Clan O'Neal fights a shadow war against the Darhel. All the while Mike thinks his family failed to survive the battle for Earth.
It's difficult to discuss the plot of this book without getting into spoilers. The books' start is in media res with one more planetary battle for Mike followed by Darhelian betrayal on a horrific scale. Saving Mike so he can lead the human forces is only the start of it all. This book is really about the invasion of our galaxy by a force which is more powerful and vicious than the Darhel or the Posleen. It's only poetic justice that the Darhel lose one of their planets in the process.
John Ringo's skill as a novelist now appears effortless as he interweaves expository detail without disrupting the breakneck pace of the action. Reading his book is like a white-water ride on one of those rivers in North Georgia. You're just swept up in the action. If you're a completist, go back to the start of the series but this book stands on its own. It's a pivot point for a new direction in an epic tale that still has years to go before it's finished.