Eye of the Storm: Legacy of the Aldenata (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

The other reviewer is right.
I've read all the Posleen books - and that's the only way any of this makes sense.
But if you do know the world then this is a wonderful - well, re-boot is probably fair.
Having made Mike O'Neal a kind of Superman, with few worlds left to conquer, and the O'Neal Clan all but unassailable
(yes there is still a galaxy of Darhel left, but who's betting on them, I mean, really?) the foreword of this books suggests that Ringo needed to find a new direction.
And he certainly did.
So, what he has done with this book is, in effect, all foreplay.
He's tied multiple strands of the Posleen war together (where's bun bun? huh?) and thrown them right into the middle of multiple new threats. It's a new game with new rules and a ship that, well, has killa boobs in every sense. What fun.
Wonderful set up, gotta know what happens next, perfect prologue for the unfolding story.
Only problem is, just as he gets to the good stuff he hit save and send and wandered off.
It's a great book, I read it in a day and a half and as a result painfully neglected my own writing and almost missed a deadline (what was that wooshing sound?)
But it was worth it.
The question is, when is the next one out?
Come on Ringo, I'll hold ya coat, get typing buddy.
Fans of the Posleen war, buy this book.
The rest of y'all, buy all the other book THEN buy this book.
have day
dC

In "Storm" we see a return of Mike O'Neil, this time with the backing of Clan O'Neil, the Federation and the SS rather then his ACS of The Black O'Neil who are removed from the picture quite early in the story.

In the book Mr. Ringo ties up a number of storylines from his various Posleen War books [Watch on the Rhine, the Cally's War cycle, Yellow Eyes, Tuloriad].

The book deal with the events preceding the Federation's war with a new enemy. In this regards it is quite akin to the plot of "A Hymn Before Battle", but rather this time Mike must clean up the mess that is the Fleet and Fleet strike. However we see a return of many old characters from various earlier books Paul Kilzer from "Hell's Fare", Col Cutprice from "Gustfront" among others.

However this book does lack a certain something, but I suspect this comes from the fact the story is changing from the Posleen war to a new story arc for his universe. I still liked the mayhem the Ringo brings to the page so well...

There is a very important warning - this book will make little sense to someone not already conversant with the other books of the series, including those Mr. Ringo co-authors, so I can't recommend it for anyone who has not read the previous books of the series.

I picked this military science fiction offering off the shelves as I kept tripping over John Ringo's name on various forums and thought it was about time I gave one of his books a go.

Whoever wrote it - a blurb should give a quick taste of what the book has to offer, whereas a synopsis is a condensed version of the story, complete with spoilers. Please don't get the two confused! If I'd read the jacket cover info this time around I probably wouldn't have stuck with this book. The omniscient viewpoint isn't my favourite style and it was taking me a while to bond with any of the characters - until the event mentioned in the second sentence of the blurb occurred on page 70, which was a total shock and finally hooked me. Which means the hapless souls who'd read the blurting blurb had to wade through 69 pages waiting for this particular shoe to drop... C'mon, Baen - such inept cover info isn't playing fair with your readers or writers!

Despite being the twelfth book in the series, I didn't find myself floundering or particularly adrift - Ringo does a very slick job of filling in any necessary information without losing pace - although I suspect that I would have enjoyed Eye of the Storm a great deal more if I'd had the good sense to start at the beginning of this series. It is a tale of alien treachery and planetary warfare in a universe where soldiers are rejuvenated to enable them to continue fighting into old age to keep humankind from being wiped out. Complete with plenty of action and a large cast of characters.

Ringo mostly keeps the plot swinging along at a good clip. He is clearly knowledgeable about military protocols and although his characterisation isn't particularly detailed or deep, it is certainly fit for purpose, aided by realistic dialogue with regular dollops of humour. Despite plenty of action, Ringo doesn't go in for the gritted bleakness of the likes of Richard Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs series and while there is a smattering of curse words throughout the book, the f-word isn't a universal adjective.

I very much enjoyed Ringo's military hardware and the descriptions of the training regime as human troops struggle to prepare against a lethal enemy while the clock is ticking. The notion that the troops are only as good as their ability to use the latest hardware with speed and efficiency is entirely plausible. However, there were places where the pace does dip - too much time is devoted to the points system and auction allocating places to the influx of volunteers. My imagination also faltered over the bizarre image of a sentient space ship in the shape of a naked woman which I found unbelievable and distracting. Overall, though, this is an entertaining read which I expect Ringo fans will thoroughly enjoy and I will probably get hold of the sequel to find out what happens next.
7/10