East of the Sun and West of the Moon [Hardcover]

John Ringo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 25, 2006

When the council that controlled the world spanning computer Mother fell out in civil war, it plunged the world in an instant from high-tech utopia to medieval nightmare. Now Herzer Herrick and Megan Trevante have been assigned the mission to capture the spaceship that supplies the fuel for the whole world. Given that Herzer vaguely thinks orbital decay is something having to do with teeth it should be . . . interesting. With all the usual combat expected in a John Ringo novel, East of the Sun and West of the Moon sheds new light on the bizarre relationship between Herzer and Megan, the politics of the new born world and fascinating details of space technology. .

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The possible conclusion to the postholocaust series The Council War is a rouser in Ringo's best manner. The New Dynasty warlords are bringing in a shipload of fuel that could give them a vital edge; their opponents have planned to hijack it. Unfortunately, the first Team Icarus has been destroyed, and Herzer Herrick and Megan Travante have to improvise a new one. The sequences in which the new team trains show Ringo's military background, and since many of the new recruits are female survivors of New Dynasty harems, motivation isn't a problem. Sex may be a problem for some readers, but Ringo has the rare knack of showing it as tragic, comic, zany, and lustful all at the same time, depending on who's having it and when. The eventual conclusion of the book is one of those page-turning action scenes that are a Ringo specialty. The question remains, Is the bioengineering of the New Dynasty out as well as down? Probably not, since the book's orcs have started thinking for themselves. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

John Ringo had visited 23 countries and attended 14 schools by the time he graduated high school. This left him with a wonderful appreciation of the oneness of humanity and a permanent aversion to foreign food. A veteran of the 82nd Airborne, he brings first-hand knowledge of military operations to his fiction. His novels for Baen include the four novels in the New York Times best-selling Posleen Invasion series (A Hymn Before Battle, Gust Front, When the Devil Dances, and Hell's Faire), his far-future series, of which East of the Sun and West of the Moon is the latest (preceded by There Will be Dragons, Emerald Sea and Against the Tide), and four collaborations with New York Times best-selling author David Weber (March Upcountry, March to the Sea, March to the Stars and We Few).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Baen (April 25, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416520597
• ISBN-13: 978-1416520597
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,062,503 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm a professional author of... Well, I used to say "science fiction." Then came There Will Be Dragons, which is sf with a distinct fantasy twist. Then came Ghost which is techno-thriller crossed with porn. Then came Princess of Wands, a Christian soccer mom battling demons through the power of God. Who knows what's next? Children's books? (I've actually got that one mapped out. You see, there's this girl who is raised by dolphins... You think I'm joking, don't you?)
:-)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Small size disappointing, April 20, 2006

By 

Soar - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: East of the Sun and West of the Moon (Hardcover)

The book I mean. I absolutely love this series and was immensely looking forward to reading this book. When I got it, I was shocked at how thin (in pages) it was. This is usually not a hang-up with me. I almost never check the amount of pages a book has. Especially with one of my favorite authors. This book was 320 pages, his other books in this series were up over 420-540 pages.

So what about the story? While the concept for the storyline was very cool, the writing and plot development could have been flushed out a lot more. A lot. There is a lot of time spent trying to develop Megan and her harem posse. Amusing, but too much frill without the meat of a good story. This book boils down to one plot line, the good guys going to get the ship. So much opportunity for more. I love Ringo, but man, his editor screwed up here, he/she should have thumped Ringo on the head before publishing this book.

To be completely honest, this feels like something thrown together to meet a deadline. So, even though I enjoyed the book, it was just good. It could have been and should have been great, just like all the previous books in this series.

25 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Continuing Decay of Ring's Writing Quality, May 12, 2006

By 

Michael Griffiths (Santa Rosa, California United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: East of the Sun and West of the Moon (Hardcover)

Johm Ringo has an interesting habit. The first book in a series is excellent. Simply oustanding. The second is good. The third is mediocre. The fourth is horrible. This is seen in this series, and most strikingly "Legacy of the Aldenta" - A Hymn Before Battle being outstanding, and the series deteriorating from there. Hell's Faire was the fourth novel in that series.

Funnily enough, this is the fourth book in the series "The council Wars."

I cannot express my disappointment with Ringo's... odd behavior. We know, quite certainly, that he is a better writer than this. He is able to produce excellent military fiction - compelling characters, riveting combat, and epic worlds.

But the more he writes, the more it becomes clear that John Ringo prefers to write trivial trash than interesting fiction. This is one such example.

The plot is basic: Herzer, a character developed in previous books, is to lead an assault team onto a space ship and recover the fuel. We learned about the ship in previous books.

I don't know how Mr. Ringo manages to squeeze a book out of this.

The entire novel feels more as if Ringo was forced to churn out a novel in the series in short order, rather than taking the time to invent a credible plot with interesting twists.

I don't know if Ringo is unable or unwilling to craft comeplling novels. But either way, he certainly isn't doing it - and you certainly shouldn't waste your money.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars East of the Sun & West of the Moon, November 8, 2006

By 

G. Resnik (Greenville, SC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: East of the Sun and West of the Moon (Hardcover)

I completely disagree with most of the reviews that have been posted. I thought that the book flowed well giving the reader developement of the major characters and driving the plot forward. While I was disappointed that we still haven't heard what has happened with the elves and Bun-Bun, it is not unusual for authors to have characters like these that are not in every novel.

Some of the remarks previously written are not only insulting, but poorly written. John Ringo has not in any way "riden" on David Weber's shoulders; he was picked up by Jim Baen and while he has collaborated with Weber on specific books, he has also written with many other authors that were just as well as the collaborations with Weber.
Thermite does leave Iron as a by product but it would have also: 1 burned up all the oxygen in the area, 2 produced minute particulate, and 3 requires a more advanced industrial structure than has been described. Additionally, being an explosive, Mother would have prevented its use.
Simple dart guns may have worked as described but how do we know that they would have even affected the Orcs? Only if the darts were actually Flechettes (which again would strain the industrial structure described) would they exceed the speed of sound to any significant extent and even have the possibility of harming the Orcs. However this also brings in the added likelyhood of it puncturing the hull (due to size and speed). As they wanted to CAPTURE the ship, this is contrary to the already specified objective.

I am severely disappointed that due to a few misguided and ill-thoughtout reviews here on Amazon.com that John Ringo has decided to not write the next novel. I can only hope that he will reconsider and not let a few bad apples spoil this excellent series for the rest of us.