East of the Sun, West of the Moon

Anything that the very prolific writer puts on paper (or digital ink) is a pleasure to read again and again. You can really lose yourself in these books.

East of the Sun, West of the Moon (2006) is the fourth SF novel of the Council War series, following Against the Tide. In the previous volume, Blood Lords pulled down the portals in the New Destiny forward base before Orc reinforcements arrived. Brother Conner was attacked by Azure, the house lion, and Rachael performed a little surgery. Herzer Herrick was attacked by a Changed Elf, but was rescued by Bast. In this novel, Sub-leader Grath commands his Orcs to raise up the portal, but they cannot lift the heavy thing higher than knee level. Private Tur-uck tries another approach, slipping under the doorway and rising up into the Orc assembly area. He then reports the situation to a Lesser Master. When Lord Chansa appears, Tur-uck provides a more complete report to the True Lord. Unfortunately, the enemy has already overrun the forward base, but Lord Chansa appreciates Tur-uck's information and initiative. He immediately promotes the Orc to sub-leader. Later, the United Free States loses the entire Icarus mission team to New Destiny infiltrators. Herzer is designated as the commander of new Icarus assault team and then learns that Megan Travante is coming along. Herzer has a very bad feeling about the mission. Evan Mayle was an engineering consultant for the Icarus mission, but wasn't in the overran training facility. Luckily, he is well aware of the basic plan for the mission and conveys this information to Herzer. However, the technical details died with the original team. Now Herzer has to select replacements for these specialists from the few people whose records are available to them. For security reasons, they can't exactly place advertisements in the papers. Herzer gets June Lasker from Raven's Mill as personnel director for the new team. Except for a few UFS documents, the records that June brings with her are the primary source for selecting the new team. Naturally, some candidates are well known to Herzer, although he usually has not been aware of their pre-war talents. Herzer and June select a number of pilots, engineers and warriors for the team, including Courtney Boehlke. Since Courtney is an old friend, the wife of another old friend and staying in Washan on business, Herzer invites her to his home to ask her to join the mission. But after ND assassins attack the house and kill Ashley, Herzer transfers all further operations to the Icarus training facility. In this story, Herzer and Megan decide on a division of authority, with Herzer in charge of the operation itself and Megan responsible for strategic decisions. Herzer works the team until they are exhausted, then ends the training with a blowout party, leaving time for rest and recuperation. They dress out in the new spacesuits, load up their equipment and head for the Icarus shuttle landing sites. The Icarus mission is aimed at hijacking as much as possible of the reactor fuel being brought to Earth by the Icarus, a supertanker from the planet Jupiter.

John Ringo writes interesting books. Not, I think you would say fitting the mold of great literature. But who wants to read the classics all the time. Ringo writes good escapist literature. When you're sitting on a plane, or sitting around the house on a rainy day, Ringo is a good author to spend a little time reading. This book is one of those. There is a rather thin plot, i.e. an automated space ship is returning to Earth with fuel for Earth's power plants. It's the job of our heros to go take over the ship for our power plants before the bad guys take it over for their power plants. Of course you know who wins. The essense of the book is its characters. Megan is a former slave girl that has a lot of sexual hangups from her time as a 'pleasure slave.' She is also one of the thirteen 'key holders' that can talk to Mother, the computer that spans the world. Her boy friend, a hot shot soldier of course, is getting a little anxious to sleep with Megan. Ringo writes sexual scenes that bring a bit of crazy humor to the story. All in all, a good read, especially if you've read the first novels in this series.

Often books in the middle of a series drag on and don't advance our knowledge of the central characters. John Ringo spares us that with this fast, fun read. The book description gives a reasonable overview of the plot, so I won't reiterate here. However, it calls the relationship between Herzer and Megan bizarre. NOT It would be highly unusual for a vicitm of rape and abuse like Megan to easily enter another intimate relationship. It can take years and lots of therapy for rape victims to reestablish physical relationships. Ringo's description of Herzer's patience and support helps make Herzer a more well rounded character. His self-discipline when faced with temptation speaks for his comittment to Megan. I am a civilian, so I take a lot of Ringo's military planning and battles as given, but I saw some clever use of physics in the battle scenes. There is also much humor in the book. I really enjoyed the interaction between three of the "bad guys" at the end. The book does a good job of enhancing our knowledge of Megan and Herzer. It left me with several questions about which I want to know the answer. I hope Ringo changes his mind about writing the next installment. I think most fans of the series will enjoy this one.

John Ringo has produced yet another excellent book in the Council Wars series. All of the familiar characters are here, both the good and the bad. The only difference is that Man has returned to space. The supply ship is returning to Earth with fuel for the power plants. Both sides want to get their power plants refueled and deny the other side fuel. Herzor's job is to get a picked crew of technicians and warriors to the ship, fight off the other side and get the fuel. This sounds simple, but how do you build spacesuits without technology? How do you train to fight in those spacesuits? How do you defeat Orcs and other nasty types in zero-g conditions? Military SF at its best. Highly recommended.