The Hero

The Hero by John Ringo and MichaelZ Williamson (c-2004) is an interesting tale of a combat sniper. Now I've never been a sniper, but I had them under my operational control in Viet Nam, so I know a little bit about their role. In my opinion Ringo and Williamson have nailed it. Not necessarily the mind set, but the operational role. Most combat is unimaginably boring, interspersed intermittently with abject terror Unfortunately you can't always tell when those interruptions are going to occur, it might be when the guy standing next to you falls over with a bullet in his brain. Contrary to what Hollywood portrays it ain't all action. For an excellent summary of the book see my brother's review below (Arthur W. Jordin). Suffice it to say that if you enjoy the Posleen War Universe you need to read this book. I'd suggest you start with A Hymn Before Battle and read all in between. I suspect we have not seen the end of Tirdal. At, least I hope not. -Gunner ( February 14, 2007 )

The Hero (2004) is a singleton SF novel in the Legacy of the Aldenata universe. It takes place about a millennium after the Posleen War. In the aftermath of the war, Terrans had rebelled against their Darhel masters and ran amuck on many planets. Yet there were still some Darhel survivors in the Solarian Systems Alliance and the Fringe Worlds. In this novel, a Deep Reconnaissance Team is tasked with the recon of a suspected Blob forward base. A flyby probe has picked up some indications of a facility on the planet, but the data is scant and vague. Several other teams have vanished recently, so extra care will be taken in the planetary insertion and movement to the area of the possible base. The DRT gains a new trooper, a Darhel named Tirdal San Rintai. He is a sensat -- a trained psionic -- with the ability to sense the Blobs within a fairly short range. Based on Intel analyses, a sensat may well be needed to successfully complete the mission. Tirdal also has a secondary skill of medic. The DRT unit is commanded by a captain, nicknamed Bell Toll. The senior NCO is Shiva. The Darhel is third in the command hierarchy, followed by the sniper Dagger. The rest of the team includes the weapons specialist Gun Doll, the sensor specialist Gorilla, and the grunts Ferret and Thor. In this story, the insertion is rough, but successful, and the movement is tedious, yet uneventful. The suspected base, however, turns out to be something else entirely and the team quickly moves toward their pickup point. On the way, the DRT unit uncovers an Aldenata object of great significance and value. The sniper decides to take the object for himself and only Tirdal and Ferret survive his attempt. Tirdal takes the object with him as while leaving the area, Dagger follows him, and the wounded Ferret follows both of them. Tirdal is a city boy and knows nothing about moving through the countryside without leaving a trail. Dagger can easily follow his signs and Ferret has no difficulties following both of them. Moreover, unknown to Tirdal, the object has been tagged with an irremovable tracer and Dagger has the tracking device. Ferret initially believes Dagger and the Darhel to be working together and Dagger encourages his misunderstanding. Also, Tirdal recognizes the nature of the object and cannot trust Ferret with the information. So Ferret is put in the position of having to trust Tirdal despite the lack of essential information. Nonetheless, Ferret comes to distrust Dagger more that the Darhel. Both Terrans believe Tirdal to be incapable of killing. They are not aware, however, that this inability was genetically imposed on the Darhel by the Aldenata. Still, Tirdal is a Bane Sidhe Darhel and has been thoroughly trained in controlling this imposed limitation; under the right conditions and at great risk to himself, Tirdal can kill. This genetic modification produces some interesting quirks in Darhel psychology. Killing causes a rush of endor

The Hero is set in John Ringo's Aldenada universe, but well after the initial series.In The Hero, we see the universe after the Posleen invasion is stopped. Things are awry. The distant human systems have split from Earth's hegemony, with a wide philosophic gulf between them. Another alien invasion is in progress.The Darhel have survived -- just barely. This is the story of a special ops team with a Darhel soldier. The Darhel race cannot kill and survive. This one can. A soldier who has secrets within secrets.The story goes from tightly paced action to doldrums -- just what happens in the field. The tension level is high throughout. There are giant bugs -- real ones, not the stuff of a badly made SF movie -- who are impervious to most weapons, inhabiting a planet that is both dull and deadly. The team's mission is critical. One is a traitor. One is a hero. One wants to survive. Only one can.The ending is surprising -- until the last few pages the reader doesn't know how it will come out.If you like military SF or cliff-hangers, you'll like this.

The Hero is an gritty, edgey tale of a futuristic reconnassence mission run afoul of reality. Based in a far-flung future spun off of Ringo's near-contemporary Legacy of the Aldenata series, The Hero is a more focused, character driven tale that takes a much harder look at a single event.Williamson does an excellent job of placing the reader into the combination of stress, tedium, and discomfort that dog any specialist team. The fact that this team is over a thousand years into the future does not alter the basics of a recon trooper's life: the muck, the thorns, the bugs...BIG BUGS!Where the book really shines, of course, is when things go awry. A spectacular betrayal leads to a tense three way standoff with the various parties bantering back and forth as they pursue each other across an alien landscape. The development of the alien protagonist is most revealing during these sequences, as is the variation that exists within humanity from those who steel themselves to do the right thing to those whose opportunistically seek their own rewards. The pursuit leads to the most nail-biting moments of the book.Williamson's style is smooth and easy to read. Advanced tech is present, but does not really dominate. The characters and the story are what drive this tale. Although leavened with the kind of language common among military teams everywhere, it avoids overwhelming the less hard core reader by not depending on buzzword shock value. Instead, the reader is taken along on the hunt and immersed in a world where death or success both hinge on the next move...

This is the first book that John Ringo has written or co-written that kept me reading all night, unable to put it aside for sleep. Normally I'm used to slowly getting through them - the plots and his writing make up for the usually-tepid characters and mediocre ideas. Perhaps it's his co-author; if there's justice in this world Williamson will be getting a Hugo next year for Freehold.I'm surprised to believe that there are reviewers who say Williamson was at fault here, and suggest that they consider reading the insides of his book and not just the back-cover blurb before commenting in future on him. It might help avoid mistakes - I'm a professional editor (copy-editor for a metropolitan newspaper), and I didn't catch one homonym error in Hero. Or more than two or three punctuation errors/typoes, which is about normal for a book of that length.A fine book, if you like action and technology without tedious expositions about how all the stuff works. Nice extrapolations of how the Posleen universe will be a few hundred years after the horsies show up on Earth. As another reviewer said, AWESOME one-liners. Good ecology, another echo of Freehold. Realistic characters. Ringo hasn't been shot at. I'm pretty sure Williamson has. You can tell in the writing. You didn't like the Posleen books, you might like this - it's different. You did like them... not a lot of similarities, but this one's better.