Customer Reviews

Claws That Catch (Looking Glass, Book 4)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I truly have enjoyed the series so far. That is, until I hit this book.

In the past two books (Vorpal Blade and Manxome Foe) the focus of the characters have shifted from Dr. William Weaver (Into the Looking Glass) to a character not even mentioned in the first book, with the new character Eric "Two Guns" Bergstresser taking over as the star. While this in itself wouldn't normally bother me, the fact that Dr. Weaver becomes a cardboard caricature of what made him so cool in book 1 really gets me down.

There were parts of it I really enjoyed, such as when the space spiders eat the Dreen and the taking of the Dreen "mother ship" by the space Marines. The action scenes, when they do occur, are marvelous and fast paced. The romance behind "Two Guns" and his new wife is superb, though she seems quite mature for a teenager fresh out of high school. Maybe that was just the impression I got...

However, my enjoyment of these scenes was dampened by the Tum Tum tree and the subsequent anime change. It was confusing and slowed the story down immensely, not to mention it was just plain odd. I understand the inspiration behind it, but I felt it was placed into the book to fill space until the action could start for real.

Also, the authors left out Tuffy and Mimi in this book, shifting instead the main "oddness" factor onto Miriam. The voice in her head, while interesting, really can't replace what Tuffy and Mimi as a duo brought to the series. Miriam was a known genius that was played up in earlier books, but Mimi and Fluffy brought a feeling of innocence and power that the character Miriam seems unable to duplicate. I hope that Tuffy and Mimi make a triumphant return later.

One major quibble: Poertena. He was, to me, annoying in the Empire of Man series Ringo coauthored with David Weber. To bring him into this universe, with the same accent, personality and everything, smacks of laziness and arrogance. It's as though the authors suggest that it doesn't matter what they do in the book or how lazy they can be, people will buy it nonetheless.

The problems in this book can and probably will affect the later sales of this series. I'm hoping that the series can go back from "anime" scifi to "hard" scifi that made it so promising initially.

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.

This is probably the shortest book in the series, and as hardcover's go, very short. Too little time spent on the primary characters, too much time spent on new characters. None of the engaging battles we're used to, just a couple that seemed more like poorly thought out fillers. The primary complaints with the first book: too much time on politics and trying to force-feed us math and physics. Both of those are back with a vengeance.

The books are now following a predictable plot line. Ship explores unknown space. Ship discovers a new [insert world/BDO/Race here]. Ship defends said discovery from Dreen. Just when all seems lost [BDO/new race from recently discovered world/another Ship] saves the day. Same plot in every book in the series. Yes, they are well written, but as the series continues it becomes more boilerplate, and the characters more one dimensional.

In case you don't know, BDO is SciFi speak for Big Dumb Object.

Unless the plots, character development and action improve - and improve quickly - this series is doomed. Doomed I say!

I've never read a boring book by John Ringo. Until this one. Even the action scenes were dull. I'm going to have to attribute this to the co-author Travis Taylor, as it didn't even read like a Ringo story.
Better luck next time John. Really.

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 frustrating time investigating the tree, the Vorpal Blade leaves a contingent on the artifact and travels to Runner's World to get some additional specialists from the Hexosehr. The XO is left in charge, so he decides that he can now play his guitar to relax his nerves. The crew complains about his volume and singing, but Weaver ignores them. They do find some fascinating and terrifying aspects of the artifact, but then a Dreen fleet arrives.

This tale puts Weaver and the away party in harm's way. So what else is new! Still, the Dreen fleet has sixty-one ships, including a very large brain-ship.

As with the previous stories, the casualty rate is high and the ship gets shot up. Yet an alien spider-like creature with a serious hunger for Dreen flesh provides some significant assistance. Enjoy!

Highly recommended for Ringo & Taylor fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of space opera, naval and marine combat, and some very interesting characters.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Cover to cover in one day. A very engrossing read, with non-stop action. Too bad the XO never did find his door.

Now for the bad news: You need to read the earlier books in the series to get up to speed. Most of the information is there, it just comes at you real fast.

The good news: the publisher has once again added a cd-rom to the book. This contains (unless I miss my guess) the earlier books in the series!! This is the kind of bargain that shouldn't be missed.

I haven't perused my cd because I already own most of Baen's backlist (everything by John and Doc).

I have read all four books in the Looking Glass series. I liked John Ringo's Ghost/Kildar series and decided to try this series. I have not been much of a sci-fi fan before, but I thoroughly enjoyed this series and wished there were more coming.

This was the first time I bought anything from this seller but the book came quickly and was in great condition. I love any book from John Ringo and this 3rd book of the series was just as good a read as anything from John Ringo, if you can get through the science!

Like some of the other reviewers here the shift in main character focus was a little off-putting but... taking it in flow... I have continued to enjoy the series. I always have a hard time with book reviews as I always want to talk about plot and end up having dozens of "spoiler alerts" so I will just end it with... still enjoyable if you like the series but it does shift gears on you.

I like this author and this is a book in a series that I like. I liked the story line.