Claws That Catch [With CDROM]

This book was in the spirit of the "Looking Glass" series was action backed until the end. But talk about leaving you in suspence. To many "what if's" and questions at the end. To make you want to shout, better be another book to follow. Now there is too much more I want to know. The Christmas Tree needs to be explained amoung other things. Great Book ! John Ringo, don't stop now.

This is a book of great fun and excitement. Even though the character shift between leads is interesting it is used to drive the plot and action. I thought it was a lot of fun. What a great read. The science is super as well. It furthers the use of great alternative language that can truly confuse your friends and neighbors that have not read the book. Read On!

It's up to humans to take the lead and devise a weapon capable of checking the Dreen from the galaxy - and after a couple of cruises the ship Blade is on a mission to investigate rumors of a powerful civilization that may have been the creators of the technology that drives humanity's only space ship. Their search for technology leads to a dangerous alien infestation and involves Captain William Weaver in a dangerous situation in this fast-paced science fiction thriller, perfect for any science fiction collection.

This one got five stars, which should tell you how I felt about this latest entry in the Looking Glass Saga. Once again the A.S.S. Vorpal Blade(II) goes forth to find out "What's out there? Thataway," and runs headlong into more trouble than you'ld want to see in one lifetime. As with the last book, Manxome Foe (Looking Glass, Book 3) the first two-thirds or so of the book deal with daily living, people, preparations for lift-off, and the people problems of getting a crew working as a team. This is followed by the sort of space and small-unit battle that the authors handle superbly. All of it was very well-written and thoroughly engrossing to the point where I hated having to interrupt my reading with little things like eating, work, dinner with my wife, websurfing. And I'm very glad, as I write this, that I finished it in time NOT to lose anything as unimportant as sleep. The title of this review, however, is how I'll be thinking of this story for a long time. Remember the problem of shaking down a crew of people, most of them strangers to each other, into a smoothly functioning team? THAT is truly, for me, what this book was about. The really important battle in this book was creating that team, getting the screwups to learn better, INCLUDING the captain, and turning them into a family. I won't give you any spoilers here. Each and every one of those scenes is engrossing, and taught me powerful lessons about how to function at my job and do the people parts WELL. And, as the last parts of the book make pellucidly clear, if the people problems hadn't been worked on BEFORE the "murthering great battle" at the end, NOBODY would have made it out of this one alive. FYI, the CD that comes with the book has: All of the books in the Looking Glass series(Into the Looking Glass, Vorpal Blade, Manxome Foe, Claws That Catch) All of the books in the Council Wars series(There Will Be Dragons, Emerald Sea, Against the Tide, East of the Sun, West of the Moon) All of the books in the Paladin of Shadows series(Ghost, Kildar, Choosers of the Slain, Unto the Breach, A Deeper Blue) All of the books in the Empire of Man series (co-authored with David Weber) Almost all of the books in the Aldenata Series (Honor of the Clan isn't out yet, darnit!) All of Doc Travis' books for Baen, both solo and co-authored with John Ringo. The Last Centurion The Road to Damascus (The Bolo Series) Getting that with this book is rather like being told "You liked this gold coin, eh, boy? Well, here's a sack of 'em. Go have fun." It just doesn't get better than a package like this.

Claws That Catch (2008) is the fourth SF novel in the William Weaver series, following Manxome Foe. In the previous volume, the Vorpal Blade was damaged so severely that it was replaced. The casualty rate was not as bad as the first voyage, but the losses were still heavy. Most of the survivors were decorated and promoted. Two-Gun was sent to OCS by presidential order. In this novel, Brooke Pierson marries Eric Bergstresser. He wears officer dress blues for the first time. He also has an enlisted dress uniform in his closet that has never been worn. Rapid promotion can be expensive. Two-Gun discovers at almost the last minute that there will be a few special guests at the wedding. Of course, his former skipper -- Admiral Blankemeier -- is coming. The President was persuaded not to attend due to the publicity factor, but the Chief of Astronautic Operations and the Commandant of the Marine Corps are coming instead, along with assorted staff officers. The reception is going to be brass heavy. After a short yet enthusiastic honeymoon, Lieutenant Bergstresser reports for duty and is handed a heavy load of auxiliary duties. The paperwork is going to seriously cut into his married life. Being an officer in the Space Marines is more work and less fun than being a junior sergeant. The Vorpal Blade II is being readied for a new mission when the news hits the fan. The White House and Pentagon were preparing to announce the existence of a space navy in the very near future, but the Russians, Chinese and the media caught onto the information a bit sooner than expected. Various survivors of the second voyage -- including Two-Gun -- quickly become international news celebrities. Top Powell is a hit on the talk circuit. In this story, the new Vorpal Blade is checking out an intelligence item received from their new allies. The Hexosehr had discovered an alien artifact of unknown origin in a retrograde orbit around a gas giant. They had tried to destroy it to keep its technology out of Dreen hands, but their best efforts failed to dent the skin. The Hexosehr finally deorbitted the artifact into the gas giant atmosphere. The voyage out is flawed with minor problems. Captain Weaver is the new executive officer and is trying to break in the new commander. Unfortunately, Captain Prael is a former submariner and has problems adjusting to the Space Navy. He does accept the space tape, but refuses to let Miriam Moon provide assistance to engineering. So the linguist and technological genius is bored and depressed until the requests start trickling in despite the skipper's orders. When the Vorpal Blade reaches its destination, the crew cannot find any other signs of the alien civilization in space and only some buried ruins on the surface of a terrestrial type planet. So the ship visits a blue giant in the vicinity. This sun has definite signs of alien civilization, including something huge that looks like a glass christmas tree. After a