The Hero

I read all of John Ringo's 'Posleen War' books, and loved every one of them. THIS book was a big disappointment to me. The trouble is, it is marketed as `Military Fiction' and it takes place in a military environment, but it is definitely a CHARACTER STUDY, not Military Fiction as most people would define it. Set in the same general universe as the `Posleen' series, but at some unspecified future date, it is about an alien `The Hero' who works with a Human Combat Team. They are sent on a Recon mission. Lots of strife, tough environment, but no significant combat. Then, VERY late in the book, we get some combat action, mostly between "The Hero" and a renegade human. Mano a Mano on a wild, dangerous alien planet. Big deal. You can guess the rest. I give it 2 stars, because it was technically well written, and Ringo certainly seems to understand military characteristics, but I REALLY think I am being generous. I don't think it will appeal very much to the `target audience.' It didn't satisfy ME. If I am going to read military fiction, I want strife and battles and bravery and cowardice in a larger context, and I want it to mean something. This book just seemed like they were exploring character relationships for future books in the series. If that sounds like your cup of tea, then go for it. Personally, I felt cheated.

Mad Mike Williamson followed a terrific first novel (Freehold) with a collaboration with John Ringo that is only so-so. It suffers from the old Hawaiian disease lakaeditin and should be about 100 pages shorter. There was a terrific opportunity to delve further into the psychology and physiology of the Darhel, hereditary enemies (maybe) of humanity, aka the Elves, and it was a little disappointing to see how superficially Williamson and Ringo treated it. Overall, the book was good, just not up to Williamson or Ringo's previous best.

I'm a big fan of military SF books and movies, and this book was a little disappointing. This was because the plot was thin, and I got a sense of "I've read this book before..." feel from the book,but mostly the book was not very interesting. For example, (without giving too much away), one of the characters betrays the rest of the team for reasons there were...well, not original. Out of all the reasons the authors could have used for a book that was set in the future, the character's motivation was not original. I really wanted to like this book, but I couldn't.
On a positive note, I thought the military culture written in the book was well written. When references were made about their troop movements, or their weapons, it kind of reminded me of the "Starship Troopers" movie.

If you've read Ringo's other books about the legacy of the Aldenata, you probably know why this book should be more than OK. I'll tell you why I thought it was lacking. First of all, the characters were never people I could care about - well - maybe Ferret. I would have liked to know Tirdal's motivation regarding the artifact before the very frickin' end, and a good bit more information about the Darhel in general. The intro took way too long. There were also the story holes that never got filled in. Why didn't Tirdal ever need the enzymes from the camp? What the heck are the Bane Sidhe? Why are they special? Why were the local carnivores only dangerous at just the right moments of the story? The real problem comes back to the fact that none of the major characters ever became real people to me.

I liked Williamson's first book Freehold and I liked Ringo's previous novels so I thought I was sure to like this but I was wrong. Its just too slow, too tedious, with the whole thing feeling like Williamson and Ringo just wanted to write something together so they slapped this story together and published it.

Plus whats up with all of Ringo's books staying in hardcover for so long? This books been out for over a year now and its still not out in paperback. Its not worth spending 17 or even 11 dollars for it.

This book is a great thriller: the blend of authors has certainly worked together, not against, the story.
In a universe long after the Posleen war, a group of commandoes takes in a Darhel - a member of the hated race who knowingly betrayed humanity.
The plot moves on to a race between a human and a Darhel - and it's both a toss up who the read would prefer to win and who really will. It's not a clear-cut choice either way - and isn't decided until the very end.
Overall, a very enjoyable read with some moral and ethical aspects tied in to make it interesting.
Strongly reccomended.

The Hero is set in John Ringo's Aldenada universe, but well after the initial series.
In The Hero, we see the universe after the Posleen invasion is stopped. Things are awry. The distant human systems have split from Earth's hegemony, with a wide philosophic gulf between them. Another alien invasion is in progress.
The Darhel have survived -- just barely. This is the story of a special ops team with a Darhel soldier. The Darhel race cannot kill and survive. This one can. A soldier who has secrets within secrets.
The story goes from tightly paced action to doldrums -- just what happens in the field. The tension level is high throughout. There are giant bugs -- real ones, not the stuff of a badly made SF movie -- who are impervious to most weapons, inhabiting a planet that is both dull and deadly. The team's mission is critical. One is a traitor. One is a hero. One wants to survive. Only one can.
The ending is surprising -- until the last few pages the reader doesn't know how it will come out.
If you like military SF or cliff-hangers, you'll like this.

The Hero is an gritty, edgey tale of a futuristic reconnassence mission run afoul of reality. Based in a far-flung future spun off of Ringo's near-contemporary Legacy of the Aldenata series, The Hero is a more focused, character driven tale that takes a much harder look at a single event.
Williamson does an excellent job of placing the reader into the combination of stress, tedium, and discomfort that dog any specialist team. The fact that this team is over a thousand years into the future does not alter the basics of a recon trooper's life: the muck, the thorns, the bugs...BIG BUGS!
Where the book really shines, of course, is when things go awry. A spectacular betrayal leads to a tense three way standoff with the various parties bantering back and forth as they pursue each other across an alien landscape. The development of the alien protagonist is most revealing during these sequences, as is the variation that exists within humanity from those who steel themselves to do the right thing to those whose opportunistically seek their own rewards. The pursuit leads to the most nail-biting moments of the book.
Williamson's style is smooth and easy to read. Advanced tech is present, but does not really dominate. The characters and the story are what drive this tale. Although leavened with the kind of language common among military teams everywhere, it avoids overwhelming the less hard core reader by not depending on buzzword shock value. Instead, the reader is taken along on the hunt and immersed in a world where death or success both hinge on the next move...

If you have any familiarity with John Ringo's "Legacy of the Aldeenta" series, then the Bane Sidhe is familiar territory.
1,000 years after the Posleen invasion of Earth (see A Hymn Before Battle by John Ringo), the Bane Sidhe is the opposite of what the Darhel, manipulators of human beings for so long, are and represent. Slowly building to a climactic ending, the cat and mouse chase near the end of the book is one of the most well-written scenes in recent memory. Ringo and Williamson know how to work together harmoniously.
Watch for the sequels if Baen Books Publishing picks up the option for the final two books, which both authors have expressed a desire to write.

OK, Ringo and Williamson rock. Move into the future of the Posleen invasions: humanity is scattered after fighting off the Posleen and then fighting to get out from under the figurative thumbs of the Darhel. A small group of human special forces go on a mission with an empathic Darhel and discover a rare, functional Aldenata artifact. In the course of returning to their transport with the artifact, the group is betrayed from within - and not by the Darhel. Read on to discover who is truly "The Hero."