KCR: Watch on the Rhine (war, scifi)

Watch of the Rhine is a novel of the "Posleenverse" (or Legacy of the Aldenata) series where the Posleen Horde invades Earth and wrecks it completely. This novel is about the European threater, where the Germans are forced to reactivate every last soldier and officer it has... including the few surviving members of the SS. The book is about their struggle to contain the Posleen, and failing that, to delay the Posleen so the civilians have a chance to escape. They have to do this while dealing with interior decent and as predicted a traitor in their midst. Also in their midst, a giant SHIVA tank built to kill Posleen "landers" with a motley crew trying to survive against tremendous odds.

As you can imagine, this is a controversial topic... SS is verboten in Germany... until the Posleen war left the Chancellor no choice at all. Most SS soldiers are honest Germans, but there were some truly evil people... but you need evil people to fight wars too... but can you fight a war of annihilation, and keep your humanity?

The book does make you think, about how much evil is there in war, and can you fight evil with more evil?

Rating: worth a read

KCR: Eye of the Storm (novel, scifi)

John Ringo has pretty much concluded his "Legacy of the Aldenata" (i.e. Posleen War) series, so it is time to take it to the next level.

The short of it... Lt. General Michael O'Neal had not much left to live for than to lead his beloved Corp of Armored Combat Suit infantry and kill Posleen. His only family has been long dead. His planet Earth mostly gutted by the Posleen invaders. Then his day got much much worse. The Terran fleet, under control of Darhel, wiped out his ACS corp on trumped up charges of "mutiny", and his staff was shot in front of him for 'attempting to resist'. It is clear that his fate was to suffer a bullet while "attempting to escape" from a kangaroo court with a preordained verdict.

Unfortunate for the Darhel, a new invader has appeared on the horizon... the Hadren Hegemony, wielding combat power and technology matching or exceeding the Terrans, plus Sohon abilities wielded by their psy-combat masters to bend time / space / matter to their will (on a limited scale), has invaded a planet near the capital of the Federation. Without the Terran combat troops, the Federation Capital, the Darhel homeworld, will surely fall.

So for Darhel leader Tir Dol Ron, his task is impossible. He have to somehow convince Lt. General Michael O'Neal, someone with the power to destroy the Darhel without touching any weapons,  to save the Darhel despite everything the Darhel did to him...

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The problem I have with this scenario is it doesn't make sense. There really is NO reason for Michael O'Neal to agree to save the Darhel. It is no surprise that the book hinges on he does, and he's out to rally the Terran troops stood down since the Posleen War to fight another battle on alien planets, this time with some better technology that is a logical advancement from the Posleen War.

We really need to see inside his head a little more to puzzle out his motivations, because it doesn't make sense, and that kinda ruined the book for me.

The various characters in previous books make an appearance... most of them... Panama (Old Yellow Eyes), Germany (March on the Rhine), and more are all here. And that's another problem: the book really has NO combat until the very end. And even then it's divided into two actions: half of it is on a ship-boarding raid, and the other half is the orbital invasion but we're left with a cliffhanger.

Combat is exciting, when there are some. It's O'Neal's motivation I don't get.

Rating: Try it

KCR: The Tuloriad (scifi, adventure, space)

Image via WikipediaThe Tuloriad by John Ringo and Tom Kratman is perhaps one of the weakest books in the "Posleen series", IMHO. In fact, I wonder why the book's written at all, as it doesn't really fit in any where except to provide filler material for the other books later as teasers of this plotline.

The premise was that Earth was 95% destroyed by the invading Posleen horde. However, the horde was finally destroyed (at the conclusion of "Hell's Faire"). Only a few remnants of Posleen remained on Earth. One band was "rescued" by a slightly insane Indowy, supposed allies of Earthlings, and sent on a journey to rediscover the roots of the Posleen, and a human cruiser was sent to chase after them. The humans and Posleen end up fighting a war over... religion... on the ground, in hand-to-hand combat, with the Posleen (who look like Reptilian centaurs) with swords fighting the Swiss Guard wielding pikes. (yes, that's on the cover).

The setup was really really contrived, and madness doesn't offer a convincing explanation of why the Indowy would do such a thing, or even why the humans would sent a ship after this rogue Posleen ship any way. The setup to the battle is fine, but what lead up to it is not.

If you can get past the absurdness of the premise, then the book is enjoyable as sort of adventure, albeit a very... contrived one.

I mainly got this book to complete the series. I would have skipped it if it wasn't just for the collection.

Rating: Skip it (unless you need to complete the collection)

The Tuloriad (The Legacy of the Aldenata)  (on Amazon)

and just to mention the series...

Hell's Faire (Posleen War Series #4)  (on Amazon)