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kathydavie's review against another edition
5.0
Eleventh in the Posleen War (aka Legacy of the Aldenata), a military science fiction series. Ringo creates a very believable cast of characters and is very obviously not on the side of the brass. His military experience comes through with his treatment of the actions and the characters.
Jesus...you almost don't want to read this one. Huge, HUGE betrayal of Mike O'Neal and his men with trumped-up charges for O'Neal by his friends no less...???!!! Fortunately, Michelle, Cassie, and their crews are standing by.
The Himmit reveal a new level of strength when they force the Darhel to accept O'Neal as their master...hooboy, if you have been wanting to see the Darhel get their comeuppance...this is it! Unfortunately, it doesn't make O'Neal's job any easier. He's got a lot on his plate in this one what with needing to weed out the corrupt idiots from the Fleet and finding decent officers to replace them---luckily for Callie, Stewart is one of 'em. The German SS unit is also folded back into Earth's military as part of the defense of Gratool. And the rebellious DAG unit gets a comeback and has their record tidied up. I love watching the Darhel come to heel under O'Neal...
Naturally, the reason for this 180 is the introduction of a new big, badder---the Hedren. A race who makes the Posleen look like a cakewalk. The Hedren use Sohon but, unlike the Indowy and the Tcchpth, the Hedren use it for war. So Michelle and the Indowy need a captive to explore.
Jesus...you almost don't want to read this one. Huge, HUGE betrayal of Mike O'Neal and his men with trumped-up charges for O'Neal by his friends no less...???!!! Fortunately, Michelle, Cassie, and their crews are standing by.
The Himmit reveal a new level of strength when they force the Darhel to accept O'Neal as their master...hooboy, if you have been wanting to see the Darhel get their comeuppance...this is it! Unfortunately, it doesn't make O'Neal's job any easier. He's got a lot on his plate in this one what with needing to weed out the corrupt idiots from the Fleet and finding decent officers to replace them---luckily for Callie, Stewart is one of 'em. The German SS unit is also folded back into Earth's military as part of the defense of Gratool. And the rebellious DAG unit gets a comeback and has their record tidied up. I love watching the Darhel come to heel under O'Neal...
Naturally, the reason for this 180 is the introduction of a new big, badder---the Hedren. A race who makes the Posleen look like a cakewalk. The Hedren use Sohon but, unlike the Indowy and the Tcchpth, the Hedren use it for war. So Michelle and the Indowy need a captive to explore.
adamrshields's review against another edition
3.0
This was the first real book under the restart of the series. Like many of these books, it feels like a chapter of something. Not a great ending, just another chapter in a longer series.
A longer review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/eye-of-the-storm-by-john-ringo/
A longer review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/eye-of-the-storm-by-john-ringo/
pjonsson's review against another edition
4.0
This is the latest book in John Ringo’s Legacy of The Aldenata series and it is also the first of the Hedren War sub-series within that overall series. When I read the first book in the Aldenata series I was not really very impressed. I really disliked the Darhel plotting and scheming in order to try and stay in power, at the cost of many human lives, despite the fact that the humans was pretty much the only thing that could save their sorry behinds from the Posleen. Therefore I was somewhat worried when this book pretty much started in the same way.
Luckily, after about a third of the book everything gets on a better track again. Actually, not only does it get on a better track but those bloody Darhel find themselves in a situation where they are seriously fucked by their own treacherous scheming and guess who have to save the day. This time it is the humans, more specifically O’Neal whom the Darhel tried to screw big time at the beginning of the book, that are calling the shots. I really liked the book from then on. O’Neil gets to tell the Darhel to fuck off or suck it up in so many ways from that point in the story.
I have actually not read any of the books in between the end of the Posleen War series and this new series. I never picked any of these up because I felt, from the descriptions, that they were all merely side stories that didn’t really advance the main story arc in any way. This book makes quite a few references to the Cally’s War sub-series within the Aldenata series though so I am wondering whether I should actually have read at least those first anyway. Not that it is a big issue reading this book without having read the Cally’s books but I get the impression that they may not have been as much side stories as I thought. I might actually pick them up now.
Anyway, back to Eye of The Storm. As I said I quite liked it from the one third point and onwards. Most of the book is about O’Neil & Co scrambling to rebuild the fighting forces that the Darhel destroyed by their treacherous behaviour and prepare to fight the new threat on the horizon. In the process O’Neil does his best to ensure that the Darhel stranglehold is broken…forever. There are really not that much fighting going on until the end of the book but it is still fun reading.
The two things that I wasn’t too thrilled about was the Sohon part which felt a bit too much as magic to me and also this idea of putting together the military units by some fancy bidding system like you were buying your troops on eBay. Not very plausible I have to say.
On the whole, when adding up the plusses and minuses, this was a very enjoyable read. It did end in a huge cliff-hanger though but then it was pretty clear that this was the first book in a new series so that was not very surprising.
Luckily, after about a third of the book everything gets on a better track again. Actually, not only does it get on a better track but those bloody Darhel find themselves in a situation where they are seriously fucked by their own treacherous scheming and guess who have to save the day. This time it is the humans, more specifically O’Neal whom the Darhel tried to screw big time at the beginning of the book, that are calling the shots. I really liked the book from then on. O’Neil gets to tell the Darhel to fuck off or suck it up in so many ways from that point in the story.
I have actually not read any of the books in between the end of the Posleen War series and this new series. I never picked any of these up because I felt, from the descriptions, that they were all merely side stories that didn’t really advance the main story arc in any way. This book makes quite a few references to the Cally’s War sub-series within the Aldenata series though so I am wondering whether I should actually have read at least those first anyway. Not that it is a big issue reading this book without having read the Cally’s books but I get the impression that they may not have been as much side stories as I thought. I might actually pick them up now.
Anyway, back to Eye of The Storm. As I said I quite liked it from the one third point and onwards. Most of the book is about O’Neil & Co scrambling to rebuild the fighting forces that the Darhel destroyed by their treacherous behaviour and prepare to fight the new threat on the horizon. In the process O’Neil does his best to ensure that the Darhel stranglehold is broken…forever. There are really not that much fighting going on until the end of the book but it is still fun reading.
The two things that I wasn’t too thrilled about was the Sohon part which felt a bit too much as magic to me and also this idea of putting together the military units by some fancy bidding system like you were buying your troops on eBay. Not very plausible I have to say.
On the whole, when adding up the plusses and minuses, this was a very enjoyable read. It did end in a huge cliff-hanger though but then it was pretty clear that this was the first book in a new series so that was not very surprising.
traveller1's review
3.0
Another in Ringo's multi-faceted accounts of war, and one not half bad as a piece of entertainment. One thing you will learn from reading the military SF of US conservatives is that the universe is filled with alien monsters whose only apparent ambition is to travel to the Earth and conquer it. (Back in the 1930s the evil aliens not only wanted to conquer the Earth, but then have sex with helpless Earth females. Ringo's aliens don't want to do that, so there has been a change since the previous century.)
The story: thanks to the valiant efforts of the (USA) Starship Troopers — whoops, I mean the ACS (armoured something something) led by the redoutable Lieutenant General Michael O'Neal, the previous crop of alien invaders has been defeated and destroyed (more or less), but now, the duplicitous boss aliens who employed the human troops to destroy the other bad aliens has betrayed the human troops by killing them all, just in case the humans prove to be a threat to the boss aliens, and start to demand their monstrously large backpay.
Yet, just at this moment with the ACS destroyed, ANOTHER bunch of new aliens, even worse than the previous bunch of bad aliens encounters humanity (there must be a q out there in space), and guess what—no "take me to your leader" crap. These new aliens spend their entire life conquering and ruling others, exterminating all that are not useful to themselves. Wow.
That is pretty much the story, told in more detail and a sprinkling or more of humour.
I did enjoy the novel, it had just enough tongue in cheek self-referential humour to alleviate the tiresome 'might is right' to be found in Ringo (he must live in a scary place). Looking forward to the sequel --- sequel sequel sequel sequel sequel sequel ...
The story: thanks to the valiant efforts of the (USA) Starship Troopers — whoops, I mean the ACS (armoured something something) led by the redoutable Lieutenant General Michael O'Neal, the previous crop of alien invaders has been defeated and destroyed (more or less), but now, the duplicitous boss aliens who employed the human troops to destroy the other bad aliens has betrayed the human troops by killing them all, just in case the humans prove to be a threat to the boss aliens, and start to demand their monstrously large backpay.
Yet, just at this moment with the ACS destroyed, ANOTHER bunch of new aliens, even worse than the previous bunch of bad aliens encounters humanity (there must be a q out there in space), and guess what—no "take me to your leader" crap. These new aliens spend their entire life conquering and ruling others, exterminating all that are not useful to themselves. Wow.
That is pretty much the story, told in more detail and a sprinkling or more of humour.
I did enjoy the novel, it had just enough tongue in cheek self-referential humour to alleviate the tiresome 'might is right' to be found in Ringo (he must live in a scary place). Looking forward to the sequel --- sequel sequel sequel sequel sequel sequel ...
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