Customer Reviews

The Hero (Posleen Wars Series #6)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I read all of John Ringo's 'Posleen War' books, and loved every one of them. THIS book was a big disappointment to me. The trouble is, it is marketed as `Military Fiction' and it takes place in a military environment, but it is definitely a CHARACTER STUDY, not Military Fiction as most people would define it. Set in the same general universe as the `Posleen' series, but at some unspecified future date, it is about an alien `The Hero' who works with a Human Combat Team. They are sent on a Recon mission. Lots of strife, tough environment, but no significant combat. Then, VERY late in the book, we get some combat action, mostly between "The Hero" and a renegade human. Mano a Mano on a wild, dangerous alien planet. Big deal. You can guess the rest. I give it 2 stars, because it was technically well written, and Ringo certainly seems to understand military characteristics, but I REALLY think I am being generous. I don't think it will appeal very much to the `target audience.' It didn't satisfy ME. If I am going to read military fiction, I want strife and battles and bravery and cowardice in a larger context, and I want it to mean something. This book just seemed like they were exploring character relationships for future books in the series. If that sounds like your cup of tea, then go for it. Personally, I felt cheated.

Mad Mike Williamson followed a terrific first novel (Freehold) with a collaboration with John Ringo that is only so-so. It suffers from the old Hawaiian disease lakaeditin and should be about 100 pages shorter. There was a terrific opportunity to delve further into the psychology and physiology of the Darhel, hereditary enemies (maybe) of humanity, aka the Elves, and it was a little disappointing to see how superficially Williamson and Ringo treated it. Overall, the book was good, just not up to Williamson or Ringo's previous best.

The Hero (2004) is a singleton SF novel in the Legacy of the Aldenata universe. It takes place about a millennium after the Posleen War. In the aftermath of the war, Terrans had rebelled against their Darhel masters and ran amuck on many planets. Yet there were still some Darhel survivors in the Solarian Systems Alliance and the Fringe Worlds.

In this novel, a Deep Reconnaissance Team is tasked with the recon of a suspected Blob forward base. A flyby probe has picked up some indications of a facility on the planet, but the data is scant and vague. Several other teams have vanished recently, so extra care will be taken in the planetary insertion and movement to the area of the possible base.

The DRT gains a new trooper, a Darhel named Tirdal San Rintai. He is a sensat -- a trained psionic -- with the ability to sense the Blobs within a fairly short range. Based on Intel analyses, a sensat may well be needed to successfully complete the mission. Tirdal also has a secondary skill of medic.

The DRT unit is commanded by a captain, nicknamed Bell Toll. The senior NCO is Shiva. The Darhel is third in the command hierarchy, followed by the sniper Dagger. The rest of the team includes the weapons specialist Gun Doll, the sensor specialist Gorilla, and the grunts Ferret and Thor.

In this story, the insertion is rough, but successful, and the movement is tedious, yet uneventful. The suspected base, however, turns out to be something else entirely and the team quickly moves toward their pickup point. On the way, the DRT unit uncovers an Aldenata object of great significance and value. The sniper decides to take the object for himself and only Tirdal and Ferret survive his attempt. Tirdal takes the object with him as while leaving the area, Dagger follows him, and the wounded Ferret follows both of them.

Tirdal is a city boy and knows nothing about moving through the countryside without leaving a trail. Dagger can easily follow his signs and Ferret has no difficulties following both of them. Moreover, unknown to Tirdal, the object has been tagged with an irremovable tracer and Dagger has the tracking device.

Ferret initially believes Dagger and the Darhel to be working together and Dagger encourages his misunderstanding. Also, Tirdal recognizes the nature of the object and cannot trust Ferret with the information. So Ferret is put in the position of having to trust Tirdal despite the lack of essential information. Nonetheless, Ferret comes to distrust Dagger more that the Darhel.

Both Terrans believe Tirdal to be incapable of killing. They are not aware, however, that this inability was genetically imposed on the Darhel by the Aldenata. Still, Tirdal is a Bane Sidhe Darhel and has been thoroughly trained in controlling this imposed limitation; under the right conditions and at great risk to himself, Tirdal can kill.

This genetic modification produces some interesting quirks in Darhel psychology. Killing causes a rush of endorphin equivalents that produce euphoria leading to a state of immobile bliss. Since they are totally unable to defend themselves in this condition, the Darhels have been struggling to delete these genes.

Although the Darhels were originally carnivores, the genmods have resulted in behavior more akin to that of herbivores. Darhels have to use other people to do their killing. Moreover, Darhels try to prevent others from learning their vulnerabilities and from duplicating their weapons. Thus, Darhel behavior patterns have become manipulative and secretive, leading to the Terran anger that has killed off so many of them. Of course, this is evolution in action, with only the most susceptible being killed, so the Terrans are really helping the Darhels to eliminate these genes.

While this books has plenty of action, it is really a novel about Darhel xenopsychology. Anyone not interested in character studies of aliens should avoid this book. But, to those who wondered about Darhel motivations, this book is a must read. The hints about the Aldenata are also fascinating.

The novel also provides some insights into the psychology of soldiers. Dagger displays many of the characteristics found in successful snipers. He also shows some of the traits found in many frontline troops. Nonetheless, Dagger is an abnormal rogue -- with the symptoms of a full fledged Amoral Personality -- and should not be considered as typical of either snipers or combat troopers.

Highly recommended for Ringo & Williamson fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of close combat, covert reconnaissance and alien psychology.

-Arthur W. Jordin

After a busted mission, the mostly human Deep Reconnaissance Team stumbles across an ancient artifact--working technology from the vanished Aldenata aliens. The Captain plans on returning it to base, getting the bonus and commendations that come from such an important find--but a billion credits worth of alien technology is enough to tempt a saint and the DRT is definitely not made up of saints. When one member frags the others, the three survivors must battle it out for survival and for a chance at the billion credit prize. Unfortunately, none can trust either of the others and the stage is set for a brutal three-way battle to stay alive in a dangerous and enemy-occupied planet.

THE HERO starts painfully slowly, with history lectures, anti-environmental statements, and a military mission that wasn't really going anywhere. But in the second half, once the artifact is discovered and the true conflict begins, the pace picks up, characters have a chance to become fully defined, and the real story takes place.

Authors John Ringo and Michael Z. Williamson know their military and write convincingly of both military tactics and of the friction between front-line soldiers and the officers in the rear. The Bane Sidhe Elf (Darhel alien) adds interest with his combination of extreme physical skills and his inability to kill. The sociopathic human killer with a the superior sniper rifle, an eagerness to kill, and an unstoppable greed seems to have all of the advantages in the three-way struggle.

Although I wish that Ringo and Williamson had condensed the first hundred pages, the second half of the book definitely makes it worth reading. Ferret, the wounded soldier who must track down and kill both the elf and the killer makes a fascinating character and Tirdal the Elf, with his difficulties in causing violence definitely gives the story a twist.

I like Ringo's work in the "March To..." series and I liked Williamson's "Freehold", so when I saw they had combined in a new book, I put that on my to-buy list. I waited until the paperback came out, bought it, and happily sat down to read it. Unfortunately, the book didn't live up to my own mental hype.

This book is apparently a continuation of a series involving something known as the Posleen War. Not having read any books involving that before, I went into this book cold, and I am coming out the same way. There is only a cursory description of the variously cultural entities that are at odds with one another, and no real emotional reason given as to why one is supposed to be better than the other. The bad guys seem to to be something called the Blobs, but since that gave me the mental image of a moving scoop of green Jello, I found it hard to work up an interest in them, or to care about them one way or the other.

The basic plot is a group of commandos land on a planet to recon a suspected enemy base, which they do without incident or much dramatic tension. On the way back, they find an alien artifact from an extinct, highly-advanced civilization, that would be worth "billions". This artifact is basically a Hitchcockian "maguffin" - something everyone is pursuing but that really doesn't have any significance to the story. We never really learn in detail what exactly the thing is, what is does, how it works, etc., and in the end it is immaterial. Greed arises, compatriots are killed, and three are left to try to rendezvous with the escape craft, one of whom has the artifact.

Pick any WWII movie and you can place the three remaining stereotyped characters: the psychopathic sniper, the determined outsider, and the loyal "kid". The story centers mainly around Dagger (the sniper) and Tirdal (the alien Darhel) and their mental battle with each other as Dagger pursues Tirdal a la "The Most Dangerous Game", with the character Ferret pursuing them both, trying to figure out what's going on and who to side with. Ferret was actually the most sympathetic character out of the three. Dagger was just a textbook psycho and bully, while Tirdal, who is the hero, is never really emotionally accessible. I knew that I was supposed to care about him but I could only manage a lukewarm interest. Basically this book consists of a geographical tour of whatever planet it is they are on and their hostile encounters with the local fauna, which are giant bugs. Everyone takes potshots at each other, with various wounds accumulating. The one you expect to die first does, the bad guy fails, the hero wins. Tah-dah.

The book left me dissatisfied. It would have worked much better as either a short story or a novella. The novel format was just too long because the action, once the group was narrowed down to just the three characters, was simply repetitive. Except for a few quirks, there was really very little development of Tirdal in the context of why being a Darhel among humans was so culturally odd. I wanted better explanations of the players and the situations. I kept wondering what the point of the whole story was, and I never quite got an answer to that one.

This is the first book that John Ringo has written or co-written that kept me reading all night, unable to put it aside for sleep. Normally I'm used to slowly getting through them - the plots and his writing make up for the usually-tepid characters and mediocre ideas. Perhaps it's his co-author; if there's justice in this world Williamson will be getting a Hugo next year for Freehold.

I'm surprised to believe that there are reviewers who say Williamson was at fault here, and suggest that they consider reading the insides of his book and not just the back-cover blurb before commenting in future on him. It might help avoid mistakes - I'm a professional editor (copy-editor for a metropolitan newspaper), and I didn't catch one homonym error in Hero. Or more than two or three punctuation errors/typoes, which is about normal for a book of that length.

A fine book, if you like action and technology without tedious expositions about how all the stuff works. Nice extrapolations of how the Posleen universe will be a few hundred years after the horsies show up on Earth. As another reviewer said, AWESOME one-liners. Good ecology, another echo of Freehold. Realistic characters. Ringo hasn't been shot at. I'm pretty sure Williamson has. You can tell in the writing. You didn't like the Posleen books, you might like this - it's different. You did like them... not a lot of similarities, but this one's better.

If you've read Ringo's other books about the legacy of the Aldenata, you probably know why this book should be more than OK. I'll tell you why I thought it was lacking. First of all, the characters were never people I could care about - well - maybe Ferret. I would have liked to know Tirdal's motivation regarding the artifact before the very frickin' end, and a good bit more information about the Darhel in general. The intro took way too long. There were also the story holes that never got filled in. Why didn't Tirdal ever need the enzymes from the camp? What the heck are the Bane Sidhe? Why are they special? Why were the local carnivores only dangerous at just the right moments of the story? The real problem comes back to the fact that none of the major characters ever became real people to me.

The Hero is an gritty, edgey tale of a futuristic reconnassence mission run afoul of reality. Based in a far-flung future spun off of Ringo's near-contemporary Legacy of the Aldenata series, The Hero is a more focused, character driven tale that takes a much harder look at a single event.

Williamson does an excellent job of placing the reader into the combination of stress, tedium, and discomfort that dog any specialist team. The fact that this team is over a thousand years into the future does not alter the basics of a recon trooper's life: the muck, the thorns, the bugs...BIG BUGS!

Where the book really shines, of course, is when things go awry. A spectacular betrayal leads to a tense three way standoff with the various parties bantering back and forth as they pursue each other across an alien landscape. The development of the alien protagonist is most revealing during these sequences, as is the variation that exists within humanity from those who steel themselves to do the right thing to those whose opportunistically seek their own rewards. The pursuit leads to the most nail-biting moments of the book.

Williamson's style is smooth and easy to read. Advanced tech is present, but does not really dominate. The characters and the story are what drive this tale. Although leavened with the kind of language common among military teams everywhere, it avoids overwhelming the less hard core reader by not depending on buzzword shock value. Instead, the reader is taken along on the hunt and immersed in a world where death or success both hinge on the next move...

After writing the series on the Posleen war, which got progressively better as each book came out, Ringo (via Michael Williamson) has taken a turn for the worse. Cally's War, with Julie Cochrane, was basically a sci-fi romance, OK if you like that sort of thing but not my cup of tea. This book, however, takes an *very* interesting premise (a Darhel joins a spec ops team of humans sent out to recon a base established by a new enemy) and throws away all the opportunities for further development of Ringo's "Legacy of the Aldenata" universe in favor of a drawn out--even tedious--sniper hunt. The reasons for one team member's betrayal are entirely mundane. We never learn anything of note about the new enemy, the Blobs, or about the artifact that sparks the betrayal--it is used as a prop to set up the story, nothing more--and the few hints we get into the background of the Darhel are a poor reward for all the pages we have to slog through to learn them. In fact, numerous events occur before the beginning of this book, such as the human war on the Darhel, and the creation/appearance of "tame" Posleen, that would have been much more interesting material for a story than what Ringo and Williamson present here.

For those of you who are Posleen war fans, I'd suggest you save your money for the other books that Ringo promises are forthcoming. In the end, this book just smacks too much of the "It'll make me money to license my universe, so why not?" malaise that has infected too much of science fiction over the last 10-15 years or so.

The Hero by John Ringo and MichaelZ Williamson (c-2004) is an interesting tale of a combat sniper. Now I've never been a sniper, but I had them under my operational control in Viet Nam, so I know a little bit about their role. In my opinion Ringo and Williamson have nailed it. Not necessarily the mind set, but the operational role. Most combat is unimaginably boring, interspersed intermittently with abject terror Unfortunately you can't always tell when those interruptions are going to occur, it might be when the guy standing next to you falls over with a bullet in his brain. Contrary to what Hollywood portrays it ain't all action. For an excellent summary of the book see my brother's review below (Arthur W. Jordin). Suffice it to say that if you enjoy the Posleen War Universe you need to read this book. I'd suggest you start with A Hymn Before Battle and read all in between. I suspect we have not seen the end of Tirdal. At, least I hope not.

-Gunner ( February 14, 2007 )