Yellow Eyes (8) (Posleen War)

This military SF page-turner is a little like what you might get if you combine Anne McCaffrey's "The Ship who sang" series and C.S. Forester's book "Death to the French" in the context of the invasion of Earth by a hostile race called the Posleen. Although this was one of the more recently written novels in John Ringo's Posleen invasion universe, also known as the "Legacy of the Aldenata" series, it is one of the earlier books by chronological sequence. It tells the story of the defence of the Panama Canal region by Panamanian and US forces, including a heavy cruiser which becomes sentient, against the Posleen invasion.

The series began around the turn of the Millennium, when the galactic federation contacted Earth with some awful news and a terrible choice. An aggressive species called the Posleen, to whom all other creatures are merely food, is rampaging through the galaxy, and Earth is in their path. If humans will act as mercenaries against them, the galactic federation will provide weapons and technical assistance. Accepting the deal means humans will be cannon fodder. Refusing would mean that when they arrive we will be Posleen fodder.

The series is sometimes called "Legacy of Aldenata" because the galactic situation is the result of meddling in the genes of most intelligent species by a now-vanished race called the Aldenata. The Aldenata turned most of the peoples of the galaxy into vegetarians, unable to kill. The only species in the galaxy who apparently escaped this meddling and can therefore fight wars are Posleen and humans - which is why the galactic federation want us as mercenaries.

But the Aldenata's meddling has not made every race into nice people. In particular, galactic politics and economics are dominated by a powerful race called the Darhel. The principal Darhel character in this book openly states that the Aldenata's forcible genetic conversion of his people from warrior carnivores to vegetarian pacifists has compelled them to live a lie and made them hate what they have become.

The ruthless and evil leaders of the Darhel see humans as a threat to their position. Their plan is to use humans and Posleen to virtually annihilate each other: they intend to give humanity just enough support to enable us to eventually defeat the Posleen, but the Darhel also set out to sabotage the human war effort and reduce it to the minimum level required for the costliest, most narrow victory possible. They aim to deliberately ensure that several billion humans get killed and eaten by Posleen in the process. Although the Darhel cannot kill anyone themselves without going permanently catatonic, they can and do hire human assassins to eliminate anyone who openly opposes them, might make the human resistance to the Posleen too successful, or finds out too much about their plans.

At the start of the book, shortly before the invasion, the US has realised that the consequences for their ability to feed their people if the Posleen get control of the Panama canal will be dire, so they despatch what forces they can spare to help the Panamanians defend themselves and the canal. But the heroes and heroines of the book, American and Panamanian (and one or two galactics) have no idea of the lengths to which their supposed Darhel allies, working with corrupt elements of the Panamanian government, the United Nations, and the American State Department, will go to sabotage the human war effort.

Fortunately many of the Panamanian people, and the US soldiers and sailors fighting with them, have much more courage and resourcefulness than the Darhel and their treacherous co-conspirators realise. And the biggest obstacle to a Posleen victory in Panama is something which no rational person would have expected. One of three old battlewagons allocated to support the Panamanians, the heavy cruiser USS Des Moines, really does have a mind of her own ...

This novel fits into the sequence of eleven published or planned books in the Posleen/legacy of Aldenata Universe as follows:

The series began with three stories in four volumes following the war against the Posleen invasion, particularly from a US perspective. The four books of that quartet are:

1) [[ASIN:0671318411 A Hymn Before Battle (Posleen War Series #1)]]
2) Gust Front
3) When the Devil Dances
4) Hell's Faire

(The first two of these books are stand-alone novels, but "When the Devil Dances" and "Hell's Faire," are essentially one story in two volumes.)

This is the second of two books by John Ringo and Tom Kratman set at the same time as "Gust Front" but in other theatres of war, which are

5) Watch on the Rhine (Germany), and
6) Yellow Eyes (Panama).

There is a very weird book which amounts to a sequel to "Yellow Eyes" called

7) [[ASIN:1439133042 The Tuloriad (The Legacy of the Aldenata)]]

This is set just after the Posleen war, and describes the journey of a group of Posleen survivors who have made peace with humans, and of - wait for it - an attempt to spread the christian religion to these less hostile Posleen. One of the major characters in "The Tuloriad" is the U.S.S. Des Moines' sister ship, which has also become sentient.

Then there is the Cally O'Neal trilogy, set a couple of decades after the Posleen invasion of Earth. This describes the resistance to the Darhel, let by a covert organisation called the Bane Sidhe, particularly from the viewpoint of the spy and assassin Cally O'Neal. These books are

8) Cally's War
9) Sister Time
10) Honor of the Clan

This is followed by a book which at first appears likely to round off the Cally O'Neal / Bane Sidhe story, but goes in a different direction and starts off a new sub-series:

11) Eye of the Storm

(and presumably sequels forthcoming)

Finally, the chronologically last book in the sequence, set many centuries later, is

12) Hero.

a book which reverses the viewpoint. About a thousand years after the events of the first eleven books in the series, humans have finally taken a terrible vengeance on the Darhel. "Hero" is set some centuries after the uprising and pogrom against the Darhel, and members of that species have become a despised minority which is trying to slowly earn back a position of being accepted and trusted by the other races of the galaxy. "Hero" actually has a Darhel in the title role.

Provided that you are not squeamish or the least bit prudish, I can recommend "Yellow Eyes" and indeed the whole series.

I want my Posleen Wars books concerned with killing flesh eating monsters. Not rants against liberals. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but when it takes up a good chunk of the plot it really gets tiresome.

This compilation by Ringo and Kratman shows how an already excellent story line can be made even better. It's possible! The Posties target Central and South America. Will they do better than Norte Americana? The authors interweave a diverse amount of plotlines that all come together to make another page turner. If you've read The watch on the Rhine already, this is another excellent compilation. If not, what are you waiting for, read this and get to the European front. The Posties suffer the most. The authors almost make you sympathetic for the Posties, but the humans suffer just as much. Read how the Darhel work in the background to hamper the humans. Read about the trials and tribulations of all the characters, from the jungles to the mountains, and to the sea. It's a late night page turner or better yet, make it a weekend, lock the doors, hang the 'do not disturb' sign read-a-thon. ONE of the best.

Of all the books in this series, this is my favorite. You'll see some of the best characters of the series begin here.

Honestly though, what got me was the setting and the people. They feel so damned real! I've never been to Panama, but I lived in the Philippines for a few years. The Philippines are a lot more Latin than they are Asian, and with the shared history of both Spanish and American influence the similarities between the Panama in the book and the Philippines that I know just clicked for me. Damned good book, I bought it 2 months ago and I've already read it twice.

Great action and some dark humor to boot. If you like military science fiction this book is up your alley. It also can be read as a stand alone book from the larger series it is part of. My younger nephews also liked it.

I think this is one of the best, if not the best, entries in the Posleen-verse series of books. Ringo and Kratman get a little mystical on us with the idea of the ship's "spirit" merging with her combat AI system, but other than that, a fine tight story, lots of fightin' and lots of... um, well. The political maneuvering rings pretty true to anyone familiar with the sad history of Central America, without dragging the story down, and we meet some very sympathetic murderous cannibal aliens. If you like this kind of thing, it is exactly the kind of thing you will like.

First, I'm biased. I'm active-duty infantry (101st Airborne), a two-tour Iraq vet, politically am every bit as right-wing as John and Tom, and I occasionally correspond with both.

That being said, this was even better than "Watch on the Rhine", and I LOVED WOTR. Chronologically it happens during, as there is a hint when the Waffen-SS are listening to the Panamanian choir on the radio.

There are parts of this novel that made me laugh. There are parts that made me cry. In terms of human emotion, it's the deepest of the series across a broader spectrum. We rarely get in the heads of any other character in the Posleen Universe as deeply as we do this time, well, except for Mike O'Neal who I really think is John's alter ego. Speaking as one, there are few college-educated sergeants who think we can't handle a battalion command in combat without too much crossover training.

The sad footnote is that the USS Des Moines, ex-CA134, was scrapped in Texas after the book was published, efforts to save her as a museum ship having failed. That is just one more reason to think wistfully of a world where the big-gun warships sail again, and the space aliens have something that would make my back and knees work again.

I stopped reading the Posleen War series some time ago but returned to it in order to read Kratman's "Watch on the Rhine" and "Yellow Eyes." I always enjoy Kratman's clear writing, obvious expertise and passionate hatred of transnational progressives.

In "Yellow Eyes," Kratman and Ringo delivered their political/moral message flawlessly without sacrificing entertainment value. In this way, "Yellow Eyes" reminded me of some of Michael Z. Williamson's work that is both highly political and excellent fiction.

Regarding the plot, I especially enjoyed the story of the USS Des Moines which struck me as rather unique and clever. I also found the addendum to be particularly well-written and informative for readers unfamiliar with transnational progressives.

Yellow Eyes is a grat tale in the Posleen war series. The Co-Authors experience with Panama plays out well in the story. The 'Crazy Aid" concept also gives a new dimension to the series. THis book can also stand alone if the reader can draw conclusions from previous novels.

What can I say ... I LOVED THIS BOOK! I couldn't put it down and spent most of a night sitting up and reading it, alternately laughing and cursing out the Darhel (and occasionally the Aldenata). It was wonderful to experience the Posleen themselves to a greater extent, to get more of a feeling of what they are all about - Guanamarioch was a wonderful character and one you couldn't help but relate to (but oh, that caiman attack ... *shudders*). I also enjoyed the interplay with the battleships USS Des Moines and Salem - that was an inspiration on behalf of whomever came up with that idea.

I could go on and on, really, but I'm sure many reviewers much more eloquent than I have summed up the basic plot, so I'll just add this - if you haven't already started on the Legacy of the Aldenata series, you better get going, just so you can get to this book! You won't want to miss out on what everyone is raving about, will you??