Runo Knows...Cally's War
I'd actually delayed a bit doing this one, as I had to write to John Ringo, the "big name" co-author of the book, for a bit of clarification on the ending. I've read the book twice, and I'm still not exactly what happened with one of the main characters. Of course, the first time I read the book I had completely forgotten who he was until near the end, when they flat out come and say who he is.
While not necessarily a direct sequel to the Legacy of Aldenata series of four - A Hymn Before Battle, Gust Front, When the Devil Dances, and Hell's Faire - it falls into more of the indirect sequels of the books, such as Watch on the Rhine and The Hero, though with more of the central characters than either of those books.
While I consider the initial series to be some of Ringo's best work, the three non-sequential books simply aren't as good. Whether this is his fault - and I'll consider some of those possibilities in a moment - or the work of Julie Cochrane, his co-author, is hard to tell.
First, let's look at some things that I feel fairly confident at laying at Ringo's feet, given other works of his.
Basically re-reading the book reminded me of how I felt about it after reading it the first time - trash sci-fi. I hate to say that, honestly I do, and I like trash sci-fi in many respects, but it's like how I am with bad action movies - there needs to be a sense of fun to them, and there really isn't that in this one.
It may be because it's more of the dramatic irony/spy thriller type novel (oh, they're both spies and don't know it!) and I simply don't care for those as much. It may be the occasional bit that reminds me of a lot of the throwaway junk in the Michael A. Stackpole "Dark Conspiracy" trilogy that used to be the epitome of my favorite "trash sci-fi" and I have a harder and harder time re-reading as it becomes further divorced from the pop culture references used in it (I'd need a whole 'nother article to go into those with Stackpole, but the "Honda-Davidson" motorcycle mentioned in Cally's War was the biggest thing bringing that on to me, but I won't even go there right now).
It may even be that there's really not any action in the book at all! She kills two guys fairly rapidly right at the beginning. There's some off-screen fights, such as Tommy Sunday versus someone else, or Cally versus some other guys (as I get vague to avoid spoilers). There's a bit here and there, very little - a couple of shots - and for something coming out of the Posleen-infested universe of this series, it's a bit frustrating.
And I won't even get into the fact that I was embarrassed to be seen with the cover that's on the book. And while the black leather cat suit is accurate for at least two parts of the book, I'm fairly confident she never carried a rifle that big in the book.
But anyways.
The basics of the book are pretty straight forward. Cally O'Neal has been a Bane Sidhe operative since the Posleen war, along with her grandfather. She's an assassin, and it's taking its toll on her (cue angst and stomach pains). Grandpappy O'Neal wants her to take a vacation, but her idea of one is killing one of the people who helped betray the team that saved her back in When the Devil Dances (or was it Gust Front?). So she goes into one last mission, not knowing that her nemesis is actually one of her father's former soldiers by the name of Stewart.
And there's my confusion part, too, which I'd get into...
General Stewart arranges transport away from Titan on a Tong-controlled spacecraft. He then tells one of his fellow officers that he had done so, and it's destroyed in transit. It's obvious that Cally and the rest of Team Hector didn't know that was coming by their reaction, though the Bane Sidhe do "kill" people publicly so they can go undercover. Thus, is the person who comes to Cally actually Stewart (the "How do you think I comb my hair?" comment), but if so, why does she take "stored" biomaterial in order to get pregnant, and not just do it the old-fashioned way, like the other women involved with the group do?
Ringo hasn't actually responded to me yet, but don't worry - I'll mention it if he does. Not that I honestly expect any of you out there to actually read this book...
The next Ringo book on my list will probably be his joint project with Linda Evans for the Bolo universe novel of The Road to Damascus, another one I was underwhelmed with. Past that, I've been planning on re-reading Watch on the Rhine and The Hero, neither of which I've re-read (like Cally's War and The Road to Damascus) since I first got them, though I may want to simply re-read the original four books first in order to a) remind myself of the Ringo parts I really, really like and b) set the stage in my head for the appropriate timeline of both of those books in the Legacy series. That'd also probably inspire me to pre-order Yellow Eyes (co-written with Tom Kratman like Watch on the Rhine and set in the Gust Front timeline much like that book).
(OKAY weird LJ bug there! Every time I tried to underline "Gust Front" it attached it to "Watch on the Rhine"! That was frustrating...I had to cut and paste it instead...)
While not necessarily a direct sequel to the Legacy of Aldenata series of four - A Hymn Before Battle, Gust Front, When the Devil Dances, and Hell's Faire - it falls into more of the indirect sequels of the books, such as Watch on the Rhine and The Hero, though with more of the central characters than either of those books.
While I consider the initial series to be some of Ringo's best work, the three non-sequential books simply aren't as good. Whether this is his fault - and I'll consider some of those possibilities in a moment - or the work of Julie Cochrane, his co-author, is hard to tell.
First, let's look at some things that I feel fairly confident at laying at Ringo's feet, given other works of his.
- The near-worship of Evanescence. Sigh. I commented on that in We Few, it happens in the initial four books towards the end of them (if I remember correctly - I may be wrong on those, and should re-read them at some point), and it happens in at least one of the snippets I've read of his other books I haven't gotten yet (Princess of Wands if I remember correctly). Someone buy the guy a RealDoll of Amy Lee so he can fuck her brains out and get it done with! (I say somewhat kiddingly, because I do dig Evanescence a lot myself, and do think Amy Lee is quite the hottie.)
- Bondage and domination themes in increasingly explicit sex. Just, uh, look at Ghost if you want to see where he's going with that. From what I understand the B&D parts are toned down in the other Paladin of Shadows books, which perhaps bodes well for my desire to read them.
- Sluggy Freelance references (mini-lops with switchblades). Not quite as bad as the last two Legacy books, or the Council Wars books, but still.
Basically re-reading the book reminded me of how I felt about it after reading it the first time - trash sci-fi. I hate to say that, honestly I do, and I like trash sci-fi in many respects, but it's like how I am with bad action movies - there needs to be a sense of fun to them, and there really isn't that in this one.
It may be because it's more of the dramatic irony/spy thriller type novel (oh, they're both spies and don't know it!) and I simply don't care for those as much. It may be the occasional bit that reminds me of a lot of the throwaway junk in the Michael A. Stackpole "Dark Conspiracy" trilogy that used to be the epitome of my favorite "trash sci-fi" and I have a harder and harder time re-reading as it becomes further divorced from the pop culture references used in it (I'd need a whole 'nother article to go into those with Stackpole, but the "Honda-Davidson" motorcycle mentioned in Cally's War was the biggest thing bringing that on to me, but I won't even go there right now).
It may even be that there's really not any action in the book at all! She kills two guys fairly rapidly right at the beginning. There's some off-screen fights, such as Tommy Sunday versus someone else, or Cally versus some other guys (as I get vague to avoid spoilers). There's a bit here and there, very little - a couple of shots - and for something coming out of the Posleen-infested universe of this series, it's a bit frustrating.
And I won't even get into the fact that I was embarrassed to be seen with the cover that's on the book. And while the black leather cat suit is accurate for at least two parts of the book, I'm fairly confident she never carried a rifle that big in the book.
But anyways.
The basics of the book are pretty straight forward. Cally O'Neal has been a Bane Sidhe operative since the Posleen war, along with her grandfather. She's an assassin, and it's taking its toll on her (cue angst and stomach pains). Grandpappy O'Neal wants her to take a vacation, but her idea of one is killing one of the people who helped betray the team that saved her back in When the Devil Dances (or was it Gust Front?). So she goes into one last mission, not knowing that her nemesis is actually one of her father's former soldiers by the name of Stewart.
And there's my confusion part, too, which I'd get into...
General Stewart arranges transport away from Titan on a Tong-controlled spacecraft. He then tells one of his fellow officers that he had done so, and it's destroyed in transit. It's obvious that Cally and the rest of Team Hector didn't know that was coming by their reaction, though the Bane Sidhe do "kill" people publicly so they can go undercover. Thus, is the person who comes to Cally actually Stewart (the "How do you think I comb my hair?" comment), but if so, why does she take "stored" biomaterial in order to get pregnant, and not just do it the old-fashioned way, like the other women involved with the group do?
Ringo hasn't actually responded to me yet, but don't worry - I'll mention it if he does. Not that I honestly expect any of you out there to actually read this book...
The next Ringo book on my list will probably be his joint project with Linda Evans for the Bolo universe novel of The Road to Damascus, another one I was underwhelmed with. Past that, I've been planning on re-reading Watch on the Rhine and The Hero, neither of which I've re-read (like Cally's War and The Road to Damascus) since I first got them, though I may want to simply re-read the original four books first in order to a) remind myself of the Ringo parts I really, really like and b) set the stage in my head for the appropriate timeline of both of those books in the Legacy series. That'd also probably inspire me to pre-order Yellow Eyes (co-written with Tom Kratman like Watch on the Rhine and set in the Gust Front timeline much like that book).
(OKAY weird LJ bug there! Every time I tried to underline "Gust Front" it attached it to "Watch on the Rhine"! That was frustrating...I had to cut and paste it instead...)