Runo Knows...Against the Tide
I read the 547 pages of Against the Tide in one day. That might tell you a few things:
1. I'm a fast reader.
2. I perhaps read when I shouldn't be reading.
3. It's an engaging enough book to keep me sucked in for that length of time.
4. Ringo writes a fast read.
And those things are all true.
Against the Tide is the sequel to Emerald Sea and part three of the Council Wars series. As such, you really need to have read the first two books, plus the supplemental short story at the end of Emerald Sea (the close to soft-core porn "Megan's Tale") to understand where all the characters are coming from.
And at the risk of being spoiler-ish, don't read the list of key-holders at the end if you can't remember people's names.
Anyways, the book is fairly straightforward. The UFS navy - building up in the previous book - has just been handed a resounding defeat, and it's up to Talbot to save it and stop a possible invasion of Norau. As is pretty much standard with Ringo, you know the good guys are going to win and the bad guys get killed in a violent and vindicative manner - it's just a question of how. Still, it kept me turning the pages to see what happens next.
There's good and bad. Yes, it's a fun, somewhat light story. There's no Bun-bun in this one, which I was glad for. Instead, Ringo's enthusiasm has gone more into sex (as seen throughout this series, really, as well as in some of his other books, such as the fairly execrable Cally's War). That's kind of the thing you have to get used to with Ringo's books, at least, in my opinion - he has the enthusiasm for certain things, and they start to permeate all his work. At first it was Sluggy Freelance. His references to it were what got me into the Posleen war stories (and his adage about rednecks and antimatter are what sold me on it), but they started going over the top in When the Devil Dances. Later, with Princess of Wands and Cally's War you started seeing his enjoyment of the band Evanescence - which I have nothing against, either, I do own one of their CDs that's in heavy rotation in my car, but having disparate characters in disparate books ruminate on Amy Lee and the meaning of the lyrics can grate a bit. Nowadays, it seems like he's gotten more into the "I love sex" and specifically sub/dom relationships, and hey, that's great for him - but it's not what I'm buying his books for, I'm buying for fun military action. He does seem to try hard to treat rape with the proper respect such a horrible crime requires, but it starts to get a bit, I don't know, perhaps weird when one of the first things the "fall in love at first sight" couple talks about is which one is a dom and their experience with subs and other doms.
Man I'm going on a sex related tangent here - but you can kind of get the drift for his later books. I'm still enjoying them overall, but seriously, if I wanted to get into the BDSM scene I'd get a book about that - not a book about military sci-fi/fantasy.
Bast does return in this book and for whatever reason, I find her less annoying than in the past. Still, I wonder how she's supposed to be portrayed - on one page, she'll be talking like Yoda or something, and on the next, talking like a southern sailor.
In general, though, the book lives up to typical Ringo, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. There are "bad" good guys - they are, for the most part, incompetent or corrupt military or political bureaucrats. You've seen that in almost all of his books. The bad guys are convincingly evil and to a point a bit bumbling. The good guys are strong jawed and heroic and win the day. (Oops - did I say that?)
It looks like from what I've read that the next book is the last one at least this decade - in Ringo's terms, sales have "tanked". It's a bit disappointing. I might harp on the what I consider stereotypical Ringo-isms (the enthusiasms, the "nerd grows up big and strong and badass" in Herzer, the "bad" good guys mentioned before) but the books are still fun, and I'd love to see how they overall end up.
But I don't have all his books yet. I don't have the Kildar series (though I have been warned there's much more sex in those), Princess of Wands, Into the Looking Glass (which I have been looking forward to quite a bit), Von Neumann's War, or We Few (I think that he and Weber make a great combo, and I've been meaning to get this one). Then again, I like books in paperbook, not hardback - easier to carry around - so it might be a few months.
1. I'm a fast reader.
2. I perhaps read when I shouldn't be reading.
3. It's an engaging enough book to keep me sucked in for that length of time.
4. Ringo writes a fast read.
And those things are all true.
Against the Tide is the sequel to Emerald Sea and part three of the Council Wars series. As such, you really need to have read the first two books, plus the supplemental short story at the end of Emerald Sea (the close to soft-core porn "Megan's Tale") to understand where all the characters are coming from.
And at the risk of being spoiler-ish, don't read the list of key-holders at the end if you can't remember people's names.
Anyways, the book is fairly straightforward. The UFS navy - building up in the previous book - has just been handed a resounding defeat, and it's up to Talbot to save it and stop a possible invasion of Norau. As is pretty much standard with Ringo, you know the good guys are going to win and the bad guys get killed in a violent and vindicative manner - it's just a question of how. Still, it kept me turning the pages to see what happens next.
There's good and bad. Yes, it's a fun, somewhat light story. There's no Bun-bun in this one, which I was glad for. Instead, Ringo's enthusiasm has gone more into sex (as seen throughout this series, really, as well as in some of his other books, such as the fairly execrable Cally's War). That's kind of the thing you have to get used to with Ringo's books, at least, in my opinion - he has the enthusiasm for certain things, and they start to permeate all his work. At first it was Sluggy Freelance. His references to it were what got me into the Posleen war stories (and his adage about rednecks and antimatter are what sold me on it), but they started going over the top in When the Devil Dances. Later, with Princess of Wands and Cally's War you started seeing his enjoyment of the band Evanescence - which I have nothing against, either, I do own one of their CDs that's in heavy rotation in my car, but having disparate characters in disparate books ruminate on Amy Lee and the meaning of the lyrics can grate a bit. Nowadays, it seems like he's gotten more into the "I love sex" and specifically sub/dom relationships, and hey, that's great for him - but it's not what I'm buying his books for, I'm buying for fun military action. He does seem to try hard to treat rape with the proper respect such a horrible crime requires, but it starts to get a bit, I don't know, perhaps weird when one of the first things the "fall in love at first sight" couple talks about is which one is a dom and their experience with subs and other doms.
Man I'm going on a sex related tangent here - but you can kind of get the drift for his later books. I'm still enjoying them overall, but seriously, if I wanted to get into the BDSM scene I'd get a book about that - not a book about military sci-fi/fantasy.
Bast does return in this book and for whatever reason, I find her less annoying than in the past. Still, I wonder how she's supposed to be portrayed - on one page, she'll be talking like Yoda or something, and on the next, talking like a southern sailor.
In general, though, the book lives up to typical Ringo, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. There are "bad" good guys - they are, for the most part, incompetent or corrupt military or political bureaucrats. You've seen that in almost all of his books. The bad guys are convincingly evil and to a point a bit bumbling. The good guys are strong jawed and heroic and win the day. (Oops - did I say that?)
It looks like from what I've read that the next book is the last one at least this decade - in Ringo's terms, sales have "tanked". It's a bit disappointing. I might harp on the what I consider stereotypical Ringo-isms (the enthusiasms, the "nerd grows up big and strong and badass" in Herzer, the "bad" good guys mentioned before) but the books are still fun, and I'd love to see how they overall end up.
But I don't have all his books yet. I don't have the Kildar series (though I have been warned there's much more sex in those), Princess of Wands, Into the Looking Glass (which I have been looking forward to quite a bit), Von Neumann's War, or We Few (I think that he and Weber make a great combo, and I've been meaning to get this one). Then again, I like books in paperbook, not hardback - easier to carry around - so it might be a few months.