Customer Reviews

Emerald Sea (Council Wars)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Emerald Sea has something Ringo's work has been missing for some time -- sheer whimsy. It's FUN.

The prequel to this wonderful book, There Will Be Dragons, read a bit like a Ren-Faire recreationist's dream of saving the world when technology fails (and TWBD will become known as the prequel, I am sure -- while a fine book, it never even aspired to the wonder of Emerald Sea).

In contrast, reading Emerald Sea is a complete immersion in the sense of wonder to which all speculative fiction aspires, and which so few manage to achieve.

This book is more focused than There Will Be Dragons, and the focus works. The main character is definitely Herzer Herrick, who has come into his own as a mature warrior between the two books. Herzer has completely left behind his "poor little abused rich kid" origins, and become an interesting, thoughtful, warrior with tremendous depth. While favorites from the earlier book are present, particularly Duke Edmund, the book moves to a new part of the world -- above and underneath the waters off the Florida coast.

Add in some classic-feeling-but-original elements like a wood-built dragon-carrying aircraft carrier and a really nasty set of underwater monster-villains, and you've got a blazingly original fantasy-with-scientific-underpinnings. Then you've got tons of innovative little low-powered future-tech nifty-bits like the quantum-surveillance gadgets. And did I mention the really cool underwater monsters?

I won't go more into plot or neat things, because I don't want to dilute readers' enjoyment. Trust me, they're there.

Yet the book doesn't take itself too seriously. You need only read the Prologue to realize that Emerald Sea won't match your preconceptions. It's going to lead your mind down unexpected and delightful twisted paths.

This book is a HUGE and welcome departure for Ringo. While there's plenty of Ringo's trademark conflict and mayhem, Emerald Sea has depth of character, surprisingly original ideas, and a sense of unadulterated sheer whimsy which will surprise and delight Ringo's earlier fans, and should give him a whole new set.

I had a hard time getting into "THERE WILL BE DRAGONS" at first because it seemed so far fetched. Once I did, it was well worth the effort. I had no such problems with EMERALD SEA and it was just as enjoyable. Some of the science is so far out that it seems the realm of magic. When coupled to entities like dragons, elves and the like, this just reinforces the perception but it all makes sense as presented by John Ringo. The disbelief is suspended and we are left with a good story. That is how this is supposed to work and it does.

John Ringo is known for his military SciFi and this series seems on the surface to be a stretch for him. It is not, though. He handles the disposition of his mer-folk troops as you would expect him to handle the disposition of whatever infantry he might have available and then adapts it a bit for the "wetter environment". It is interesting stuff but gets really fun when he begins to do things like re-invent carrier doctrine and procedures and adapt it for dragons instead of aircraft. It's a hoot.

The story is a continuation of his first. Duke Edmund and his aide, Herzer, are dispatched to the Caribbean to try and set up an alliance with the sea peoples in their war against the bad guys. The sea people are a bit reluctant to form any alliance but tend to be swayed by such outdated concepts as honor, integrity and the willingness of the other guys to do the right thing even after they have been turned down. It's nice to read about a situation where concepts like that are taken seriously.

John Ringo adds one more story to this book with the information that it will be important in stories yet to come. It is included as an independent novella and involves the daughter of one of the characters of EMERALD SEA. She has been captured by the head bad guy and put to work in his own personal harem. This story is much more sexual than is Ringo's normal wont but it is part of the story. At its end, we are left wondering what the young lady has up her sleeve (if she were allowed to wear any sleeves) and what chaos she has in store for the forces of evil.

This was a two for the price of one investment and either is worth the price of admission.

The jacket cover describes EMERALD SEA as a `fast paced sequel' to THERE WILL BE DRAGONS. Now normally book jackets are good only for displaying nice looking pictures of scantly clad women and keeping coffee stains off the book cover, but not so in this case. Dang if they didn't get it right this time. This book is either so fast paced or so damn engrossing that it took me less than a day to finish it, and no it's not some tiny volume with really big print!

All the major characters are back from THERE WILL BE DRAGONS with a few more thrown in for good measure. You too can thrill to the exploits of Lt. Herzer Herrick the Blood Lords Blood Lord. Wonder what is going on with Rachel (Ms. Asexual) Talbot and of course Bast (definitely NOT Ms. Asexual) the Amazon Wood Elf. And last but not least...

LOVE that bunny! Hey any being whose prime directive is to kill telemarketers can't be all bad, even if he is a bloodthirsty, traitorous, drunk!

Good sequel, nice buildup for a follow up volume. We will have to wait and see what number three brings. Unfortunately third volumes and their successors haven't been Mr. Ringo's strong suit, but while there's life there's hope. At least you can enjoy this one.

As a note there is a short story appended to at least the hardbound copy. Just to forewarn you I didn't like this one at all! The author tells you about it in the book but let me tell you it is depressing and has a really poor ending. It was so poorly done, especially the ending that you have to wonder why it was there in the first place. In fact I disliked it to the extent it almost tainted the entire book for me, but that is for you to decide for yourself.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND EMERALD SEA.

Emerald Sea (2004) is the second SF novel in the Council War series, following There Will Be Dragons. In the previous volume, Lieutenant Herzer Herrick of the Blood Lords spent a year and half defending that town from Tarson, a New Destiny stronghold. Harzburg hadn't liked the way he did the job, but Herzer conquered Tarson despite their objections. One conflict, one Blood Lord, was the practical reality of that time.

In this novel, Herzer returns from Harzburg with orders to report to the Academy as soon as possible. First he drops by his farm and gets a homecooked meal. At the Academy, he learns that Duke Edmund of Overjoy wants him.

Edmund needs Herzer for his diplomatic mission to the Mer in the Southern Isles. The Duke is also taking his wife Daneh Ghorbani and their daughter Rachael, both medics, with them on the mission. They are flying to Newfell on dragons and then taking the newly built dragon-carrier Bonhomme Richard to the Isles.

The dragons include Joanna Gramlich, a true dragon, and Chauncey, Yazov, Donal, Shep and Nebka, wyverns. Joanna is as intelligent as a human being and can talk; she is working under contract for the United Free States. The wyverns, however, are only about as intelligent as horses, but with some enhanced learning abilities.

These dragons are tended and ridden by Jerry, Vickie and Koo, who are also working on contract for the UFS; two other dragon-riders backed out after trying to land on the dragon-carrier. While a certain amount of money is included in these contracts, the major part is provision of adequate foodstuffs for the voracious dragons.

Meanwhile, Joel Travante is charged by Queen Sheida with guarding the Southern Isles mission from spies. Joel is a former Special Inspector of the Council, investigating the small, but bothersome, amount of crime occurring before the Fall. Joel flies on a wyvern to Washan and takes a stagecoach to Newfell. There he joins the Navy and is assigned to the Bonhomme Richard as a steward.

The New Destiny is not standing idle during this mission. Chansa assigns responsibility for defeating the mission to Brother Conner, a protege of the Demon. Brother Conner then recruits Brother Martin and assigns him six warships, a pod of Changed orcas, and a school of ixchitl (modified manta rays).

In this story, the dragon-carrier sails south to Flora. There they encounter a dugout canoe bearing Bast the Elf and Bun-bun the AI cyborg rabbit. Bast is very welcome, especially by Edmund, her former lover, and Herzer, her current lover. But Bun-bun is an uncertain guest, since he tends to spread chaos everywhere he goes. In a subsequent meeting with a New Destiny ship, Bun-bun demonstrates his talents to the dismay of the Orcs and crew.

Following directions from the Flora natives, the Bonhomme Richard follows the Mer further south to the Bermuda Banks. There they meet Bruce the Black, the Mer leader. However, Bruce wants nothing to do with the UFS or New Destiny, but rather intends to keep restoring the reefs to their preindustrial condition. Many of the Mer don't agree with Bruce, but he is their elected boss.

Joel is appalled by the ineptness of UFS counterintelligence. Obviously the UFS lacks security education, but the Naval counterintelligence officer that he meets on the stagecoach ride to Newfell is a rank amateur. Joel is going to have an interesting meeting with Queen Sheida when he gets back from the mission. If nothing else, the UFS is going to have to institute a national security program along the lines of "Loose Lips Sink Ships" and something even more intensive in the armed forces.

This book also contains a novelette, In a Time of Darkness, featuring Meagan Samantha Travante, Joel's daughter. Meagan had been in Ropasa at the time of the Fall and has been surviving as best she can ever since. Then Paul Bowman had discovered her washing clothes by a streamside and coopted her into his harem.

The author has a great deal of fun inventing the dragon-carrier. As he says in the Afterword, decades of progress is compressed into a few weeks. One wonders, however, how much knowledge was lost in the Fall. At least, the name of the carrier survived to continue Naval traditions.

Highly recommended for Ringo fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of naval aviation, counterintelligence and sea battles. The novelette is also an enjoyable tale of harem politics and higher intrigue.

-Arthur W. Jordin

John Ringo is one of the best in the world writing science fiction, from the Legacy of Aldenata series to the Council wars (which this is #2 in the series). If you want a good (make that GREAT) read, then get this book and the one before it... or anything else with Ringo's name on it. Ringo is mentioned in the same sentence as David Weber, Lois Mcmaster Bujold, Eric Flint, etc. I know I am forgetting others.

The person that gave this 1 star is a pultroon.

As usual John Ringo wrote a great book, this is a must read

The story of the conflict and characters introduced in There Will Be Dragons is continued in Emerald Sea.

The people you love, hate and love to hate are all back - along with new characters in interesting situations.

As with the first book in the series, there is a solid plot and excellent characterisation. Villians that are human and heroes that are as well. Look for the author to poke gentle fun at himself and the previous volume.

Buy the book, heck buy two of them and an extra There Will Be Dragons so you can loan them out. Its a new twist on Science Fiction/Fantasy bluring the lines of both.

Anything that the very prolific writer puts on paper (or digital ink) is a pleasure to read again and again. You can really lose yourself in these books.

In this sequel to "There Will Be Dragons" Herzer gets to go off to the caribbean and play with mermaids and fly on dragons. Great fun for him and a slower moving, but still quite entertaining read for us.

The character development is not quite as well done as in "Dragons"; the mer-people all blur together, for instance, and few of the new people we meet on ship really become individuals. But it's a good story and Weber gets to include a lot of underwater scenes. Making some of his diving trips tax-deductible, no doubt.

The Novella/Short story at the end about Megan's experiences in Paul's Harem is just a bit too much and really not necessary. All the information we need about her is included in the next book in the series "Against the Tide." It causes flashback to several gratuitous borderline-pedophilic scenes in "Dragons" (preteen girl homunculus in the woods, naked 12 year old girl in the public bath) and gives me to wonder, just a bit, what's in the author's head sometimes.

This is the first series by John Ringo that I have read. I read it on the recommendation of a co-worker who also recommended Glen Cook (Garrett Files and Black Company) and Jim Butcher (Dresden Files). If you like either of those authors, I highly recommend this series by John Ringo. It is a great story with amazing combat and tactical details as well as an accurate depiction of the consequences (emotionally and politically) of war. The characters are heroic and loveable and the battles are epic.