Von Neumann's War

I rate this as five stars with a caveat: It is strongly slanted towards the Geek-American demographic. Still, they manage to cram quite a bit of science in without the annoying "As you know, Bob..." dialog which too many other stories suffer from. Some have complained about the alien tech seeming to violate the laws of physics as we currently understand them, and generally being incomprehensible to us. I don't see this as a flaw. Someone much more clever than I once described the unlikeliness of "Area 51" tech being leaked out a bit at a time to taking a cheap $5 digital watch of today to the top watchmaker of 1900, and asking him to duplicate it. Same deal here. Of course the technology of the probes is baffling. It's orders of magnitude more advanced than what we've got. So long as it's consistent in how it violates them, it doesn't verge off into working by "FM". (****ing Magic)

Von Neumann's War (2006) is a standalone SF novel. It takes place in an alternate timeline where Mars probes have failed on a regular basis due to an alien invasion of the planet. Mars has also been losing albedo and turning gray. In this novel, Roger Reynolds is a believer in off-the-shelf design. For his high school's science fair, Roger designed and constructed a sounding rocket made out of old parts and ordinary materials. He went on to win a first in category at the International Science and Engineering Fair, receiving a scholarship and a job at NASA for his efforts. Later, he joins a defense contractor firm and works on classified projects. The National Security Council discusses the changes in Mars and decides to send a reconnaissance satellite to check it out. Fortunately, Roger and his friends have prepared a plan for a flyby mission to Mars. He presents this plan to the Director of Advanced Science and Technology at the National Reconnaissance Office shortly after the NSC meeting and the Director passes this information on to the President. Traci is a waitress and a graduate student in astrophysics at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. She confirms the Mars albedo change. She gradually learns more about the general background on the problem while on the job at Hooters. Captain Shane Gries, AUS, was a company commander in Iraq, with Thomas Cady as his First Sergeant. After his combat tour, he was assigned to the Pentagon to evaluate new technology. Naturally, most of the ideas were premature, irrelevant or worthless, but some had definite possibilities. Megiddo is a renegade scientist and totally paranoid. He is hiding from the government because he knows too much. One of his hobbies is calling in to Ret Ball, The Truth Nationwide Show. Although he has a few bats in his belfry, he is also able to see the obvious and come to a more or less correct conclusion. In this story, Roger's company is given a huge contract to administer the Neighborhood Watch project. The project mission is to develop, launch and monitor a recon probe to Mars. They start out by inviting everybody that might be useful to a big meeting in Huntsville. Roger hires Traci into Neighborhood Watch. She might have become a security risk, but she also makes a valuable employee. Besides, she already knows the background and needs little briefing on her duties. Major Gries also joins Neighborhood Watch. His background is ideal for the job of evaluating and countering the alien capabilities. Of course, he gets Cady assigned as his assistant. This story includes the recon flyby of Mars and more. The interplay of characters -- from rocket scientists to teenage girls -- is very interesting in itself. The way that ideas emerge from very divergent sources is much closer to reality than the current corporate approach. Although the book jacket doesn't say anything about mechanicals, the name of the novel obviously refers to Von Neumann devices.

Approximately two years ago NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Russian Space Agency began to lose contact with probes that had been sent to the planet Mars. A little over one year ago, scientists at the Space Telescope Science Institute and NASA discover that the color of Mars was changing from red to gray. In a period of less than two years, Mars has been hyper-industrialized. It has been completely developed into a planet-covering grid of giant city-like structures. Recent studies of other planets in our solar system suggest that the outer planets, or their moons, have undergone the same transformations. It did not take long for the real situation to become clear; automated robots (somewhat resembling Starlings) from outside our solar system are transforming entire worlds to meet their goals. Governments of our world are too late to figure out a way to keep the robots from landing on Earth. When the menace touches down, chaos reigns supreme. Weapons are useless since they seem to eat, or tear apart, metal. Armageddon may actually be near. ***** Much of this book is set in Alabama, around Huntsville. The story has a variety of characters that kept me thoroughly entertained while a complex plot kept me riveted. Traci, a Hooters' waitress and an astrophysics grad working on her master's, is spunky! There are two thirteen-year-old girls that are so smart they can be scary. As for the military, First Sergeant Thomas "Top" Cady is one bad dude! Whatever Captain Shane Gries wanted done, Top is the one who found a way to do it, while killing off as many enemies as possible. It is not hard to see which parts were written by which author. When it came to the high-tech science stuff, rocket scientist Travis S. Taylor put pen to paper. When it came to making it the plot and story line work and smoothing out any wrinkles (so that the normal people, such as myself could understand what was going on,) brilliant John Ringo's pen is at work. Together, Ringo and Taylor are a force to be reckoned with. Excellent story that I highly recommend! ***** Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

Great beach book for dad. A ton of twist and turns, which always find my heart and keep me warm. In this book along with the research coming through I also enjoyed the tongue in cheek humor that came through. If this is your first Ringo book, it might not win you over 100%, as Battle Hym would, it will introduce you to the usual rollercoaster ride a Ringo book will take one on.

Hi, This review refers to the Earc (electronic advanced reader's copy) of the book which is available to the general public at Baen's Webscription page (www.baen.com, www.webscription.net) VNW is a mix of the gadgetry/characterization of Warp Speed with a bit of Into the Looking Glass events like, and a bit of Posleen like invasion though by genocidal machines rather than genocidal aliens. How does it work? Personally I find the presumed response of the government/people in all the above mentioned books far too cheery, sunny and optimistically presented, but accepting the premise of the book, it worked very well. The book is fast paced so I finished it into one reading late into night, the conclusion while indecisive and crying out for sequels is satisfying enough and not a cliffhanger. The gagdetry is absolutely great, but this is true for all of Dr. Taylor's books and of Mr. Ringo's books also. I hope VNW and the presumed sequels will be a breakout for Dr. Taylor since I think he can get into Ringo/Weber SF author class. Overall VNW is highly recomended by me and I am looking to get the print hardcover edition also, as soon as released. Liviu