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The Hero (Posleen War Series #5) |
Author: John Ringo
Published: 2004-06-01 |
List price: $24.00
Our price: $5.32
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As of: January 07th, 2009 08:03:25 PM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Ho-Hum - Not "Ringo-esque" AT ALL
John Ringo has a Rep for mind blowing Action stories. I own Most of them. But this....kinda was a major let-down. Great build up, great charater development then Bam instantly boring. Dragged out to an unsatisfactory ending. The "Hero" was not a character that is easy to identify with or like, the Villan was almost Melodramatic. I was waiting for him to "Twirl his mustache" in an Evil manner.
Sorry Folks, NOT a keeper.
 Simple and disappointing.
This stand-alone novel set in the Ringo's original universe was a major disappointment. The Posleen War 'trilogy' (starting with A Hymn Before Battle) had such an enormous scope, with all of the universe getting involved and the Earth being transformed forever, that I couldn't help expecting more from THE HERO. Instead of an epic struggle that further develops the Legacy of the Aldenata series, this book presents an isolated incident without any obvious impact on the rest of the universe. A few scraps of information contributing to the series as a whole were appreciated, but they were few and far between and only provided limited information. This is a short and simple story that I wouldn't recommend even to fans of the previous books.
Taking place over 1,000 years after the end of the Posleen War, THE HERO begins by introducing some fairly interesting characters that make up a special operations team about to head out on a dangerous-sounding mission. A new enemy has been identified (sadly called the Blobs) and the team is to do some preliminary reconnaissance on a fringe world. Seems like a decent set up, but half way through the story Ringo and Williamson throw you a major curve ball and change the entire plot in a single page. From that point on you're left with a pretty nasty three-way fight for survival on a strange planet between three of the original team. Interesting looks into the psyches of a lunatic and a Darhel (the most mysterious of the aliens populating this universe) are interspersed with fairly tense but predictable action sequences. That is all you get through the end of the book.
Entertaining, but not a good fit into the previously excellent series. I hope that the other coauthored books in the series will please me more, or else I won't be continuing with the series.
Not recommended.
more like 3 and a half stars really...
I bought this one a few months ago, thinking I'd get back into Ringo's excellent Posleen war series. Little did I realize the Posleen play no major part in the novel. I have to agree with some of the other revieweres, it does start out very slow, and seems to have a lot of useless exposition on the local wildlife and infiltration. I kept thinking it was going into another version of "Cally's War" which seemed to have a lot of useless exposition with no real basis in the plot.
Then it gets interesting. I have to admit, while I was reading the second half, multiple lightbulbs kept going off in my head, like Oh, THAT'S why the author thought that creature needed to be described. And the stalking/counterstalking/divided loyalties really is first rate. It's a lot more of a 'thinking' book rather than a 'blow the hell out of everything in sight book' and I think it works well. Here's hoping there's more in the series because they've brought up a bunch of issues I'd be interested in hearing more about. Like, what are the Blobs? And is the reason the brief throwaway dialogue at the start about the humans getting their butts kicked is because their ships are designed to fight Posleen? And how the hell did a Darhel end up in the Bane Sidhe?
At the very least, there's a pretty strong suggestion that the whole 'plot to make humans selfless like the Indowy' isn't...quite..over yet....and may still be working, just not the way that was intended...
Overall a pretty good, but not completely great novel. I actually am looking forward to the next one, just hoping it expands a bit more
 An Interesting New Twist in the Posleen Universe
I have greatly enjoyed the Posleen stories created by John Ringo and his collaborators. By and large, these take place in the not too distant future. This book is different. It takes place about a thousand years in the future and the Posleen are barely mentioned. They have mostly been suppressed and a new threat faces humanity.
When a reconnaissance team is sent to investigate a potential threat, there is a new member of the team. The new member is a Darhel, a member of the race who first got humanity involved fighting the Posleen. In doing so, they tried to enslave humanity. Humans did not like that and have long memories and there are deep prejudices.
The Darhel pulls his weight and the team gets its information and plans to pull out. In doing so, they find an ancient artifact from the civilization who helped to create both the Posleen and the Darhel. It is an artifact of immense value...so much so, that a human member of the team tries to kill the rest in order to secure a huge financial windfall.
The traitor is not completely successful and one of the survivors is the Darhel. Thus begins a long chase in which the "good guy" is presumed guilty and the real rat is out to get him. The Darhel is further handicapped by the genetic engineering his race endured which makes it extremely difficult to take any life, especially sentient life.
This is an exciting read with unexpected twists. It's a good job.
 Baen ripoff
Baen Books is using John Ringo's succes in his other books to sell off crappy stories by other authors.
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