Eye of the Storm (Posleen War)

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 [[ASIN:B0008JIJ2O Stripes]] reference later on makes up for it.

Now to find out when the sequel is due....

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.

Let me preface this with the fact that I have read all of the books in the series so far.

When I read this book I had visions of old 80s cartoons (Star Blazers), comic books, and heavily inspired by the Babylon 5 TV series.

I won't spoil much. I like how the loose threads got tied up from the Cally's war series and the Mike O'Neil series. However, there were many silly points in the book (for example a ship entity, channeling the Andromeda TV series), the Ebay like auction (even referring to Ebay itself...which is bizarre in a mil SciFi book), the whole concept of the masters who have masters (who presumedly have masters themselves)...The usual ANCIENT UNSTOPPABLE EVIL... It just goes on and on.

Also there were points where you could just skip and not miss anything. The very LONG section on the Ebay bidding, the very boring section on the training. The only truly exciting parts were the first 50 pages and the last 50 pages, and everything in between is just filler, boring, trite, ideas stolen from a mishmash of sources which makes no sense. Its comically entertaining in that regard. The first and last part save the book, and I still look forward to the next in the series. Hopefully John Ringo isn't channeling Robert Jordan with windy, complex plots and a zillion characters. Keep it simple, write what you know, and lose the pop culture references.

Very mixed impressions on this latest book in the saga of the Aldenata. The previous books in the series were riveting, full of action, subtle plot twists, conspiracies, and vivid characters. This one is... somewhat... kind of... but not quite as good.

Just when everyone thought they were free to move on, a new enemy arrives out of nowhere, even more powerful than the one just defeated. Several long evolving character plots built carefully over the entire series are casually resolved in the first few chapters. It is like Ringo got tired of maintaining a miriad of plot lines, bounced a palm off of their foreheads and proclaimed that they were healed. The characters are then relegated to minor charicatured bit parts. Even the foreshadowing of centuries delayed vengeance on the Darhel seems to have been put aside in the interest of plot advancement.

No need to even go into the cliffhanger style ending which has the new overwhelming enemy, whose sohon-style 2nd string masters are "battleships" compared to the Indowy mentats "destroyers", will be joined by the return of a previously defeated enemy under new management.

If one impossible to defeat enemy isn't enough, lets just bring in more, it will be at least twice as exciting?

Disappointing.

Recieved "Eye of The Storm" yesterday via mail -- and, started reading within an hour to just get started early -- not sure what to expect. Mil-Sci-Fi is not my usual thing nowadays. But, I recalled enjoying one or two such novels by John Ringo a while ago. Not to worry, the fast flow of the twisting-and-turning plot -- felt like shooting down a rushing mountain river switchback whitewater rapids -- in a bouncing canoe, barely avoiding some boulders. But, with plenty of dramatic wild scenery -- and many folks seen along the way were with detail okay to just understand them -- some better than others.

Also, there was a spot-on amount of well-done graphic combat scenes, quantum hyperspace physics and military strategy and tactics. For me, this is not true for some Mil-Sci-Fi -- with its bare-bones unfleshed out characters -- too fleshed out bloody action -- and dense overgrown brambles of hi-tech mil-tech jargon. And, for me, the best good surprises were well described aliens AND usage of "The Force". Will also have to reread at least the first few novels in this series -- to even better understand this fun novel.

[I did reread the first few novels in this series -- and liked them as before] +++

If you liked John Ringo when he first started writing, this is a book that will take you back. Repurposing equipment for combat in ways not intended by the maker; redesigning tactics and strategy to face a whole new threat. Vintage Ringo at his best. He goads your imagination into catching up.

Now for the bad news: the list of characters is immense. I hope he has a large redshirt pool!!! Reading the previous books in the series - while not a requirement - definitely make it easier to understand who/what/where. Also, be advised: John has very definite political views and makes them known on several occasions. If you disagree, don't read his books.

All that being said, I thoroughly enjoyed returning to the Aldenata universe and look forward to the next step in Galactic "Peace through superior firepower".

John Ringo's latest offering in The Legacy of Aldenata series has a title that implies that there will be fierce and decisive action. Eye of the Storm doesn't quite get there, however. Instead, we get buffeted by the outer bands, and a promise of real action in the next book.

A summary of the book: "Iron Mike" has survived another battle, where almost all around him are killed. The Posleen have been defeated, and will no longer kill and eat humans and other races. The Darhel, who control the humans, decide to do away with the military forces, as they are no longer needed and are a threat to the Darhel power. Mike is framed for war crimes. Then, when all seems darkest, another threat to the galaxy appears (how convenient!), and the Darhel need Mike and the military in order to survive. This time he can bargain from strength, and rub the Darhel noses in the mess they created, as he creates a force. This new threat, the Hedren, seem undefeatable. This, of course, means the opportunity to mix familiar military hardware, alien technology, and a bit of wizardry, to create a fighting force that just might save the day.

For those who want action, be aware that the first 20% of the book is battle and betrayal, and the final 20% is transport and battle. The middle 60% involves lots of logistics, negotiation, and weapons systems introductions. Lots of characters are developed, too. Some appear and then disappear for the rest of the book. Others show up in snippets. Clearly, many of the characters are going to be killed in the battles to come. Iron Mike is sure to survive, however. He always does.

I don't get it. I can see how people are drawn into reading this book- the first few pages include antimatter charges blowing up megatanks and carpet fusion bombing and lots of other frightfully over-the-top stuff. But even during these scenes, and especially between them, this book is frightfully off-kilter. To be fair, I haven't read any other books in this series, but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't help my reaction.

First up are the frequent forays into backstory. A latino soldier has just enough time to jump into a foxhole before his head would be blown off by megabombs, and he has just enough time in this moment of terror to reflect on his entire childhood and growing up in a tough neighborhood, to the tune of several pages. A wild character appears out of nowhere, and we got messes of exposition. This sort of thing happens regularly. I haven't read the other books in this series, but I don't see how much of this would fit in. If this is new information to the series, it's destroying the pacing. If it's recapping old information, it's destroying the pacing and needlessly retelling events in a very drawn-out way.

A lot of fans say that this is a book that's "authentic military Sci-Fi". Calling this book authentic military Sci-Fi is like calling fast-food authentic American cuisine. The action scenes are big and loud and above all dumb. Regarding the previous mention of a soldier jumping into a foxhole- that soldier survives an assault from enough explosives to crack a planet's surface wide open just because he's ducked behind a bit of dirt (but don't worry, the planetary-scale explosions do little more than melt the surface a bit, and the soldiers march right on over what should be a hole the size of a small moon but is here merely faintly eroded from the bit of wind). Meanwhile, his commanding officer pretty much stands and takes the full brunt of the explosion even though that same explosion is cracking megatanks with two-meter-thick armor all around him. Later, soldiers take raw anti-matter to their faceplates with only a minor complaint that the suits will need to go to the shop for a bit. And we're still in the first chapter or so! There's also cursing. Constant cursing. Soldiers curse, commanding officers curse, aliens have learned human language just to curse in it, and even computer programs seem to drop the f-bomb more frequently than most real-life soldiers I know.

...but then the book goes into massive political intrigue, expecting you to care deeply about characters who literally wade into antimatter explosions chapter-by-chapter. I'm really confused by exactly who this appeals to. On the one hand, action scenes so big and dumb that writers for Star Trek (or Star Wars, for that matter) would be left scratching their heads. Normally I'm all for big action, but then comes the other hand, full of intrapersonal conflict and political intrigue involving enough characters to put some historical novels to shame. Character A just took a supernova to the face and Character B has assassinated whole stadiums full of people, and they're learning that space lawyers are trying to keep Character A from claiming a space fortune worth a large percentage of the summed holdings of all the space lawyers combined- is the author sure he didn't intend to write a comedy?

If you're the sort of person who thought War And Peace could have been a decent book if it just had fusion bombs going off harmlessly in characters' faces, this is the book for you. Personally, it doesn't do much for me.

After the disaster that was, "Honor of the Clan" I decided I was through spending money on this series. I was still curious about it, interested in knowing how it progressed and what happened next but there was no way in Hades I was going to BUY the next book.

Then I found it in the Baen Free Library and decided to read a few pages.

A few pages turned into a several pages and then a few chapters. I almost made myself late to class. I ended up reading it in class. I thought about it all the way home. For the first 250-300 pages I was absolutely, completely, and totally hooked. But then the plot's progression came to a near total standstill and the next two hundred pages were full of details, details, and more details. Side plots, new characters, and one piece of ultimately irrelevant data after another. A lot of it was interesting. Ringo is nothing if not a good writer. But there was like two to three HUNDRED pages to slog through before the story started picking up again.

Then, just as things were really starting to get interesting again the book ends. Just like that. It ends. Obviously if I want to know what happens next I will have to read the next installment. I hope it too is included in the Free Library (or at least at my local library) because--again--there is no way in Hades I am paying for it.

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.