Eye of the Storm (Posleen War) [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

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....

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] +++

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.