66 of 77 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Too Short, May 5, 2005
That was my impression when I finished this novel. Other than that, perfect.
It starts with a bang, about 60 kilotons, and goes on from there, as a physics experiment gone wrong ends up opening multiple "gates" to other worlds. Some of them connect to hostile aliens, and earth is fighting for its life against invaders with superior technology, physical and biological.
Meanwhile, there's a little girl that lived when she should have died; an alien something that looks like a stuffed toy, communicates telepathicaly, and can taser those who mess with it; "the Charge of the Redneck Brigade;" a more or less friendly alien species; talking cats; Cthulhu; and a phycisist in the middle of everything because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time -- or was it the right place?
Lots of fun, and the start of a new Ringo series. Fans of military SF can't go wrong with this one. And if you're not a fan of military SF, try it anyway for the characters, humor and ideas.
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33 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
High Energy Physics, Alien Invasion and...Theology?, July 26, 2005
John Ringo pulls off a major juggling act in this one. The take a story of military invasion by particularly nasty aliens and embellishes it with high energy physics and straight forward infantry combat. Just to keep things unpredictable, he throws in some theology with a personal appearance by none other than God. That's a pretty ambitious undertaking. What's amazing is that he manages to pull it off in a credible manner.
This is certainly not Ringo's best work but it is readable and entertaining. That's why I buy the book. It was worth the price.
The story begins with a physics experiment gone wrong. The result is a portal opened up to another world. It's a particularly nasty world and the inhabitants there are delighted at the prospect of another place to conquer. The fight against the aliens is led by, surprise - a physicist, with the help of a Navy SEAL. Along the way, they manage to enlist the help of another race threatened by the same obnoxious aliens. So too do they get a helping hand from God. I'm not kidding. In the context of this story, it worked but it would surprise a lot of the profs from my seminary.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pure mindless fun!, June 4, 2008
I will state up-front that you will have to suspend your disbelief to read this book. I decided to go ahead and read this book even after I was very disappointed in another Ringo book, Von Neumann's War. While I had thought that book unbelievable, it was also a bad read (boring) and didn't have as much of Ringo's trademark military sci-fi battle scenes, so it was hard to not notice. I started reading Into the Looking Glass a bit uncertain what I'd find (but unlike the other book, Ringo wrote this book entirely on his own, consulting Taylor for the science), and I found this book very entertaining and kept me riveted to the page. Definitely an entertaining alien invasion read!
The main character of the story is a physicist named William Weaver who is called in by the U.S. government to look into the gates, how they formed, what are they, and how to control them. I got the feeling Ringo based this character off the real scientist that Ringo consulted, Travis Taylor (if you read the author blurb on the back of Von Neumann's War you'll understand why I think this.heh).
From the very beginning, this book is loaded with action and fighting from the military against the aliens that have come through the gate from another planet in the universe (or another universe entirely!). I was able to put away thoughts of "This couldn't happen", despite the fact there were some pretty unbelievable scenes in this book. For example, the way the military and scientists just get in Hazmat-type suits to go exploring the planets on the far side of the gates (hello?! Hazmat suits? Like that is adequate protection from a foreign planet?)
Anyways, the initial gate formed on the campus of a university in Florida and at first the U.S. government believes it is a nuclear attack, but when people are sent on the ground to test radiation levels, they realize it was no nuclear weapon that was detonated. It is learned that the center of the explosion was a experimental physics lab and that this was the cause of the explosion. Eventually, gates start popping up everywhere in the U.S., connecting to different planets and universes, and then spreads to the rest of the world as well. Soon, there are hordes of aliens coming through the gates.
Oh, about the aliens, Ringo has a few scenes that show the perspective of the hostile aliens bent on colonizing Earth. They are a collective mind and "grow" their foot soldiers and army. Not much background info on these aliens, where they come from (although you do get an explanation about why they attack other worlds). I thought the descriptions of the aliens in battle brought to mind the bug aliens in Starship Troopers, (there was one flying alien described as shooting lightning from its rear end and a few other aliens that had the same type of "weapon" shooting from other areas of their anatomy).
What I really liked about this book was the action. Wow, it kept me reading and turning the pages. One of my favorite scenes is when Weaver and the SEAL team he's with are trapped in a house near another gate that opened up. They need back-up badly, so they send out a distress call on the radio asking for help from anyone. A few locals at the bait, tackle, and ammunition shop hear the call and the owner of the shop goes to the "back room" and starts loading all the weapons he has stored back there (many that aren't supposed to be for sale to people) into pick-up trucks. Soon they have a little army heading over to where Weaver and the SEALs are holed up and come to save the day. It left me rolling with laughter, it struck me as hilarious.
Of course, the small annoyance I did have was (like in Von Neumann's War) everything comes together too easily. All the smooth coordination of the various arms of the government to face this disaster, without questions or panic or fear. You also don't get a detailed picture of what occurs outside the main cast of characters (Weaver, a NAVY Seal named Miller, and the head honchos like the secretary of defense, President, etc).
Although, there are a few scenes of the media reporting on the events happening elsewhere and so you get a little of the larger picture. Plus, Ringo did mention what happened in the MIddle East (in particular Iran) when gates started popping into existence over there and I couldn't help but roll my eyes about what some of the characters say about that. Just to warn those not of a conservative bent, it is quite clear where the author lies politically speaking.LOL.
One really interesting event that occurred (that I wish Ringo had wrote more about) was what happened in Boca Raton when a gate showed up there. People died or became insane from an alien presence there (different from the hostile aliens everyone is fighting) and he kept it mysterious, hinting at what could have happened, but since no one could approach the area without going insane you don't learn what happened at that gate and why people went insane.
This is the first book in a series (I think there are 2 other books published already), and I recommend reading it for the pure mindless fun! No deep or serious thinking required. =)
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