Honor Of The Clan [Mass Market Paperback]

This is the tenth book by publication order, and ninth or tenth in chronological sequence, in the Posleen invasion/Legacy of Aldenata series. Within the series it's also third in a trilogy of novels featuring spy and assassin Cally O'Neal.

The series began when the Galactic Federation contacted earth with awful news and a terrible choice. An aggressive species called the Posleen, to whom all other creatures are merely food, is rampaging through the galaxy, and Earth is in their path. If humans will act as mercenaries against them, the Galactic Federation will provide weapons and technical help. Accepting the deal will make humans cannon fodder. Refusing would leave humans as Posleen fodder.

The series is called "Legacy of Aldenata" because the galactic situation results from disastrous meddling in the genes of most intelligent species by a now-vanished race called the Aldenata. The Aldenata tried to programme everyone as vegetarian pacifists, unable to kill. The only intelligent species in the galaxy who escaped this restriction and can therefore fight wars are Posleen and humans - which is why the galactics need human mercenaries.

But the Aldenata's meddling has not made every race into nice people. In particular, galactic politics and economics are dominated by a powerful race called the Darhel. The ruthless and evil leaders of the Darhel see humans as a threat to their position. They plan to use humans and Posleen to virtually annihilate each other: they intend to give humanity just enough support to enable us to eventually defeat the Posleen, but the Darhel also plan to sabotage the human war effort if it gets too successful and deliberately ensure that several billion humans get killed and eaten by Posleen.

Although Darhel cannot kill anyone themselves without going permanently catatonic, they can and do hire human assassins to eliminate anyone who openly opposes them, might make human victory over the Posleen too easy, or finds out too much about their plans.

Those humans who have worked out what the Darhel are up to have a quandary: on the one hand, we do need galactic help, however half-hearted, to avoid ending up as lunch for the Posleen: but on the other hand, the Darhel cannot be trusted. So some humans join an underground resistance to Darhel machinations, which has members from almost every other intelligent species and is called the Bane Sidhe.

Books in this series fall into two groups, some which focus on the fight against the Posleen, others on the Bane Sidhe. The O'Neal family are found on both sides of the divide. General Michael O'Neal (Junior) is one of the most successful soldiers in the fight against the Posleen. He believes that his father and daughter were killed by the Posleen many years ago. In this he is wrong.

Michael O'Neal senior faked his own death when he joined the Bane Sidhe, of which he is now head of the main human clan, and went so deeply underground that even his own son does not know he is still alive. Cally O'Neal went underground at the same time as her grandfather and is now the Bane Sidhe's principal field agent and chief assassin.

At the start of this book, which follows on from "Sister Time" Cally has just wrecked a major Darhel corporation, and in the process persuaded an elite unit in earth's armed forces to defect en masse to the Bane Sidhe. The Darhel are not pleased about this, and show their displeasure by employing some of the worst scum on earth to murder members of the families of soldiers in the unit which defected. The result is an escalation of violence.

Pretending that the people opposing them are dangerous terrorists, the Darhel use their influence in the Galactic Federation to recall the foremost veteran of the war against the Posleen, Mike O'Neal, and ask him to deal with the Bane Sidhe - not realising that he is going into battle against his own father and daughter.

Great battle scenes and some interesting if overly baroque plotting in this book. Also some deeply ironic humour, especially just before the battle, when Mike O'Neal and his comrades make a number of jokes about similarities between the battle they are about to go into, and the one at the start of "Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope," not realising that the parallels are even closer than they appreciate.

Like most John Ringo books it is not one for the squeamish (a lot of people get killed), prudish (there's a fair bit of sex), or politically-correct.

To explain how this book fits into the sequence of the eleven published or planned books in the Posleen/Legacy of Aldenata Universe:

The series began with three stories in four volumes following the war against the Posleen, comprising:

1) A Hymn Before Battle (Posleen War)
2) Gust Front
3) When the Devil Dances
4) Hell's Faire (Posleen War)

(The first two of these are stand-alone novels, but "When the Devil Dances" and "Hell's Faire" are one story in two volumes.)

Two more books set at the time of the Posleen invasion, with the main action in Germany and Panama respectively, are

5) Watch on the Rhine
6) Yellow Eyes (Posleen War).

The most recently published book (as at January 2011) begins at about the time of the final defeat of the Posleen invasion of earth and is therefore chronologically seventh in thie series: this is

7) The Tuloriad (Posleen War).

In the immediate aftermath of the defeat of the Posleen invasion, a group of Posleen who appear to be willing to turn aside from the path of warfare are allowed to escape and seek a new home with some assistance from the most unlikely combination of quarters: certain factions within the Bane Sidhe, the alien Himmit species, and, wait for it, the Vatican!

This off-the-wall but entertaining book revolves around firstly whether the Posleen can learn to see other sentients as friends rather than food, and secondly whether their souls can be saved. Given some of the other things he has written, John Ringo would probably have been considered one of the least likely Science Fiction authors to write a book with a significant religious element, and I didn't think it was going to work, but it does.

"The Tuloriad" is also to some extent a sequel to "Yellow Eyes" in which a heavy cruiser became sentient: her sister ship, who has also become sentient, is one of the major characters in this story.

And then we come to the Cally O'Neal trilogy, set about twenty years after the Posleen invsation, in which this book, "Honor of the Clan", is the third installment:

8) Cally's War
9) Sister Time (The Posleen War)
10) Honor of the Clan

Then a new story arc begins with

11) Eye Of The Storm (Posleen War)

which at first appears to be a continuation of the Cally O'Neal trilogy but then turns 180 degrees and introduces a completely new enemy.

Finally, the chronologically last book in the sequence, set many centuries later, is

12) Hero.

a book which reverses the viewpoint. Humans have eventually taken a terrible vengeance on the Darhel, who are now a downtrodden minority, and the hero of "Hero" is a Darhel.

Provided that you are not squeamish or the least bit prudish, I can recommend "Honor of the Clan" and indeed the whole series.

Another part of the Cally and O'Neal story , in this book the war takes a more sinsiter turn as Mike O'Neal is forced to fight against his own family unknowingly.
As this is part of a continued story its best to read this in sequence but it can still be an interesting read and engossing even as first read into the posleen war/Cally O'Neal story as frequnet mentions and explanations of the past are mentioned.
Only negative i find with these storys are although in depth i still prefer to see more of the outcome and development at a faster pace.

Have loved the series since the very first book. Action filled but intelligent with characters you just want to see more of. I highly recommend the entire series.